36 inches.

Formulas:
H=4.5
T=H + .5B
B = T+ H

So, B=T + 4.5
Substituting for B in Eq2:
T=4.5 + .5(T+4.5)
.5T = 6.75
T = 13.5

B=T+H
B=13.5+4.5=18

Total length = H + B + T = 4.5 + 13.5 + 18
= 36 INCHES

If I can assume that the worst player will lose all there matches, the next best player will only beat the worst player and so up to the beast player who will beat everyone then:
Give each player a letter from A-H.
Then following matches should be played.
GH, EF, CD, AB, GF, EG, CE, AC, GD, ED, CG, AE, GB, EB, CB, AG.
This is sixteen and from the results you should be able to rank the players. I am trying to work out the worst scenario to see if you get it right but it this solution works by playing every player agaist every other one, and from what the results are from either side you can work out who is better.
Will prove this when I get the time but this should work.

Edited to add:
Another teaser.
If it takes 10 men, ten hours to dig a hole.
How many men would it take to dig half a hole, in half the time.

Not so much a puzzle, more a bit of lateral thinking.

One I offered Mike and Jaime some time back and the second they fired back at me.


A Father and son went rock climbing and a terrible accident occured.
Both Father and Son fell off the rock face and the Father died on the way to hospital.
The Son survived but with terrible injuries.
As the Son was being pushed into the operating theatre the surgeon looked at him and said...........
"I cannot operate on him...he is my son".

How can this be???


A mother had seven children and half were boys...............

How can this be???

Regards...Alan

The doctor is the boys mum, this plays on the idea that everyone assumes by default that a doctor is a man.

As for

this is weird. Has she had seven children but she adopted one boy or has one of her children died. Or does her husband count as a boy because he is so childish. It's not to do with rounding numbers or birth defects is it.
I'm at a loss.

YUP....spot on the other is a little more devious but still plays on assumptions.

Regards........Alan

Okay I THINK I've got this one, but I could be wrong?!?!?!

Here goes...


Records:

1. D 5-0 (beats all played, doesn't play G, H)
2. F 3-1 (beats H, A, C only loss to D)
3. H 1-1 (beats A loses to F)
4. A 2-3 (beats C, E loses to D, F, H)
5. C 2-3 (loses to D, F, A beats E, B )
6. E 2-3 (loses to C, A, D beats B, G)
7. B 1-3 (loses to C, E, D beats G)
8. G 0-2 (loses to E, B )


G loses to B, E (2 matches)
B loses to E, C (2 matches)
E loses to C, A (2 matches)
C loses to D, F, A (3 matches)
A loses to D, F, H (3 matches)
H loses to F (1 matches)
F loses to D (1 match)
D beats B, E (2 matches)

MATCH-UPS:

G vs. B
G vs. E
B vs. E
B vs. C
E vs. C
E vs. A
C vs. D
C vs. F
C vs. A
A vs. D
A vs. F
A vs. H
H vs. F
F vs. D
B vs. D
E vs. D

*Player on right is always winner above*


Haven't taken out the time to actually make out some sort of schedule for the matches yet, but this system WOULD rank them properly in 16 matches (just don't feel like sorting through all of the order/schedule stuff).

The "Father" who died was the grandfather of the "Son". He was "a" father, but not the Son's father.

Therefore the Son's Father was free to be the surgeon at the hospital.


Counting the mother, there are 8 individuals identified. 4 are boys.

OR the mother had 3 boys and 3 girls. At that point, half were boys. Then she had another child (boy or girl, it doesn't matter) so that half WERE boys (at one point).

If this is the answer well done Amlord, I would never of thought of that.


That is a devious answer if it's correct.

One more:
Three fat men have to go out but they only have one umbrella. All of them must arrive at there destination dry. They all leave under the same little umbrella and amazingly arrive completely bone dry. How did they do it?

Why, sitting on each other's shoulders (or something of that nature), of course

Perhaps it wasn't raining.

That's the answer Mrs Pigpen, well done. I didn't say it was raining.

Kmsouthern - when I read your post I burst out laughing, it was so funny, you try and imagine, three very large men standing on each others shoulders walking along under one little umbrella trying to keep themselves dry when it's not raining, without laughing. By the way, did I get the British Logic puzzle right. I am writing one of my own but I haven't quite finished it yet. I'll post it for you tomorrow.

Can I post another or am I taking this thread over posting to many puzzles.

Here's some translations though:

connectconnectconnectconnect

(Well known game)

stand me
do you

Work Folder
Day monday tuesday wednesday ......
.......All.........All........All

Connect Four

Do you under stand me
Do you understand me?

Working on that last one...

HAHAHAHAHAHA! That's probably the correct answer, though mine would work as well with some strong and eventually sore men depending upon how far away their destination was! Good one!

Zeb (mind if I call you that?),

Yep you got it right...I could have sworn I posted that already, but I see that I did not - OOPS!

Logic puzzles are the BEST!!!!!!! I have solved thousands and thousands of them since I was first introduced to them in 7th grade in my "gifted" classes. In my freshman year of high school I started out ahead of my class in Algebra 1-2 (but wasn't ready for 3-4) so my teacher had me two puzzles or so a day until I was back in line with the class....I think I did about 100 just in her class, not to mention all the ones I asked for her to give me aside from the assigned problems - they were SO FUN!


EDITED TO SAY I ddin't realize I had the last post on the thread! My bad for double posting it wasn't intentional!

I don't think anyone has addressed this problem.

If I am reading this question correctly, it's easier than it seems. If any number of men dig a full hole in a certain amount of time, then the same number of men will complete half the job in half the time. Therefore, the answer is still ten men. (Unless I am missing something.)

Here's a riddle I made up:

I know a tiny little man
Who marches straight ahead.
When he reaches the end of the land
He'll be a woman instead!

(What familiar object is this "man"?)

Ha ha, it worked. That's what your supposed to say, It is made really easy to try and hint that this is not the answer. Have another go, it is not a maths problem. There is a technicality that your supposed to pick up on which puts (forgive the pun) a hole in the problem.

The probem/technicality is that there is no such thing as "half" a hole. It's either a hole or it isn't that's the correct answer right? I was too busy working on that stinkin' tennis match problem to think about the others and didn't even notice this one.

All in a day's work.

CP

Has anyone come back on this one? If not, I might suggest that Alan didn't asy that only half were boys. All seven children could be male and one could say that half were boys - so is the other half.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::

Here are a couple more...

A man arrived at a hotel on Friday. He spent exactly six nights there - and left on Friday. How?

This is an old favorite of mine. What sequence of numbers would come in the next row?
1
11
21
1211
111221
312211
13112221

That is it - all the children are boys.

Well he spent the *night* on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. If he arrived at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, by the time he would have checked in, it would be Saturday morning (not night) and of course he left Friday morning so that leaves six nights

Here's one:

There is a word in the English language that every time you remove a letter from it, it still remains an English word?

What is the original word, and what are the other words (8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 letter) that can be made from it?

Not quite. You'd either have to count Saturday twice (for the Friday *night* and Saturday night proper) or - if he didn't go to bed until after midnight each night - he'd be stuck on the Thursday...

(Actually, I'm just compounding the assumption for you )

Here is one, but it uses plurals (and I don't imagine the one you're looking for uses plurals):

8 - stations
7 - station
6 - taints
5 - satin (or saint or stain)
4 - tins (or tans)
3 - tin (or tan)
2 - in (or an)
1 - i (or a)

I'm still thinking about one without using any plurals....that might take a while

The Hotel is on a street named Friday? Just a guess, I'm not very good at these.

He didn't have to spend six consecutive nights there. He might have arrived on a Friday, stayed 3 days, spent one night away, and came back for another 3. Right?

Actually Jaime is closest to the version I heard - and I'd best not belabor it. The man's horse was named Friday. Any takers on the number sequence? It's very trickt, but pretty clever (once you know what it is.)

Oliver: In your word, do all the letters remain in their original sequence or are they anagrammatized?

The man visited the hotel for a 6 night stay back in the 80s when he won it on Wheel of Fortune.

Recently while cruising the countryside with his porcelain dalmatian, the man decided to stop by the hotel and grab a bite to eat in their restaurant. He showed up at noon on Friday, and left after a couple of hours.

I'm no good at these either, so I cheat!

Mike

Actually, most of those "Friday" solutions work on some level - though Mrs. P's is probably the best alternative (however, if I had phrased it "he spent exactly six consecutive nights there, she woulda been screwed ). I must admit I kinda like Mike's porcelain dalmatian, though. According to David Mamet, btw, the dalmatian is associated with firemen because the first firehouse was established on the border of Dalmatia and Sardinia in 642AD. The choice of mascot was either the dalmatian or the or the sardine.


More trivia than puzzle, really, but does anyone know the only word in the English language (excluding its variants) which has three consecutive sets of double letters?

Bookkeeper!!!!

(We *just* discussed this one at work, yesterday; how weird )

Spooky...

A Mother had seven children and half were boys...............how could this be?

They were all boys.
OK..so half of them makes 3 1/2...Soooo???

Regards Alan

I have one. got it from star trek voyeger-

a man crashes on a desert island, with nothing but a calander. he is found a month later, and yet he has not starved. how?

my favorite logic puzzle is best if told and not typed but:
a airplane takes off from JFK airport going to vancouver. halfway there it crashes, but exactly on the US-canada border. on which side of the border do you bury the survivors?

I should just stop reading this thread.

The simple answer is "he ate".

But, how are we to believe this guy crashed on an island with nothing but a calendar? Was he riding in his calendar?

If he was not riding in his calendar, did he not have whatever he crashed with him as well?

Or did he just fall from the sky?

Sorry, I'm no fun. I'll stop now.

Mike

Just so it doesn't get left behind Vicotira has given us one:

I can't think what it is.

Mike - 'he did eat' but what did he eat, and if I may explain, what actually happened was the plane crashed into the sea and the guy in a fit of panic before his plane sank grabbed the first thing to hand and swam for his life, found himself marooned on a desert island and then realised it was a calendar in his hand, but it saved his life.
(see below)
And I think you are very fun (or funny), you add a totally different perspective to everything, one that nobody else would think of. Hmmm


This is a very ellagent little sequence wertz, where did you get it.

The next number in the sequence is:
1113213211

I won't say how I got it because I think it is such a beautiful little puzzle that everyone else should solve it for themselves, you understand don't you wertz .
I'm right though aren't I.

You all have eight hours to solve the riddle of the sequence and then I'll add the answer on edit.


He ate the dates on the calendar, this is a really cheeky puzzle.

And as for survivors, well, you don't generally bury them, but hey, they shouldn't have survived the crash, so bury them anyway.

And one more teaser:

I was born on exactly the same day as my sister, and from the same mother, but we are not twins. Why not?

fiftieth edit to add another translation:
ouch money - this might be a bit cryptic but that's just the way with puzzles.

Well it's clear I didn't do it right the first time, so here's one that works *if* you accept the eight-letter word as an English word (I've seen it in reference to metals and cars before a few times so...).

9 - Replanted
8 - Replated
7 - Related
6 - Relate
5 - Elate
4 - Late
3 - Ate
2 - At
1 - A

No anagramming this time...all letters were simply removed and a new word was formed

Yeah baby!

Well done, km - I don't know if that is Oliver's solution, but it's definitely a solution! Did you arrive at that by working up from A and I (as I had been doing)?


You are right, Zeb! I don't remember where I first came across that, but it's been a favorite for years. I know another one that's kinda similar (my second favorite), but as it uses symbols, I'm not sure how to post it here.

I'll leave it for another day or so in case anyone wants to add the next number (following yours).

>In your word, do all the letters remain in their original sequence or are they anagrammatized?

No anagrams, but you can add/remove letters from anywhere you like within the word.



Well done, kmsouthern. It wasn't the one I was thinking of, but it works!

Any other ideas (there are probably quite a few)? How about words with more than 9 letters?

Wertz,

I actually started in the middle with some words for which I thought I could find words either up or down in numbers...I was using relate, again/grain (that one was pretty unsuccessful though I spent a lot of time trying to think of 6 letter words with again or grain in them!!!!), nation, and a few others. I figured it was probably a word ending in either 'ing' or 'tion' since there are SO many possibilities, but then something made me think of relate - oh yeah, when I thought about relation - and then it just worked! YAY!

I do recall that there is also one with the last word being 'I', but I cannot remember it (I think it was only an eight letter starting word though?)...I knew it about 7 years ago and I think it was a 'tion' or 'ing' word.

btw, I cheated and found the solution to your number puzzle yesterday so I didn't want to spoil it. VERY cool though! I'd seen a similar one as well, many years ago, but bever that specific one!

EDITED because I just thought of another nine letter word!

1 - Startling
2 - Starting
3 - Staring
4 - String
5 - Sting
6 - Sing
7 - Sin
8 - In
9 - I

A hint on my riddle:

"He" is a soldier.


On the sister puzzle:

Solution One: You were born on the same day but in different years. (I don't think you meant this.)

Solution Two: You were actually born on the same day and in the same year; but you are not twins, but two of a set of triplets (or quadruplets, etc.)

This one is kinda easy:

You throw away the outside, and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside, and throw away the inside.

Is it meat/fish?

You throw away the skin (outside) and cook the meat (inside).

Then you eat the meat (outside) and throw away the bones (inside).

Er...A frozen corndog? You throw away the wrapper, cook the dog, then throw away the stick.

Well done kmsouthern (again!)



That was the one I was thinking of, but there are probably even more.

All great guesses but not the one I am looking for!

Corn on the cob?

ooo! Good one, Cyan

VERY good one!!

Cyan got it! You shuck the outside and cook the inside, then eat the corn and throw away the cob!

Zeb

The number sequence

Could the next number in the sequence be........31131211131221?

It came to me as I was reading the numbers out to my wife

A quick and easy one..........
What is the longest word you can make from the top rpw of keys on a typewriter?.
You can use letters more than once.
QWERTYUIOP

Regards ....Alan