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Dave

S.Yorks.England

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04 Dec 21

In a poll of mindset solvers,exactly two - sevenths said they liked question 1 best:an exact number of fifths(more than none)said they liked question 2 best;700 said they liked question 3 best.How many were polled

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04 Dec 21

@venda

2p/7 + xp/5 + 700 = p

x and p are integers

solve for p:
  10p + 7xp + 24500 = 35p
  7xp + 24500 = 25p
  25p - 7xp = 24500
  (25 - 7x)p = 24500
  p = 24500 / (25 - 7x)

prime factors of 24500:
  2*2*5*5*5*7*7 = 24500

if x = 1, the denominator is 18; 18 is not a factor of 24500
if x = 2, the denominator is 11; also not a factor
if x = 3, the denominator is 4; this IS a factor
if x >= 4, the denominator is negative, leading to negative people polled

x = 3, p = 6125

Dave

S.Yorks.England

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04 Dec 21

@bigdogg said
@venda

2p/7 + xp/5 + 700 = p

x and p are integers

solve for p:
  10p + 7xp + 24500 = 35p
  7xp + 24500 = 25p
  25p - 7xp = 24500
  (25 - 7x)p = 24500
  p = 24500 / (25 - 7x)

prime factors of 24500:
  2*2*5*5*5*7*7 = 24500

if x = 1, the denominator is 18; 18 is not a factor of 24500
if x = 2, the denominator is 11; also not a factor
if x = 3, the denomin ...[text shortened]... factor
if x >= 4, the denominator is negative, leading to negative people polled

x = 3, p = 6125
Excellent big dogg.
Correct

Dave

S.Yorks.England

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19 Dec 21

Must be a first!
No mention of 700 in this weeks puzzle:-
The three kings bought gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh, but forgot to agree who would bring what.Caspar and Melchior both bought one at random.Balthazar bought 2(hoping to re-gift the other)What are the chances that each king was able to present a different gift

chemist

Linkenheim

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19 Dec 21

@venda

It's that season 😉

So the probability that Caspar and Melchior get the same is one in three.
The probabiliyt that Beltsazar is getting the same pair as Capsar and melchior is also one in three, so we have a combined chance of 4 in 9 that they have the correct set to present.

Dave

S.Yorks.England

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19 Dec 21

Well done Pondy

Dave

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07 Feb 22

I don't even understand the question this week but I'm sure some of you will.We're back to the 700 thing again! :-
A legion of soldiers consists of several cohorts? of 700 soldiers.
A legion could form a wedge with one soldier on the first rank,two on the second and so forth.
What is the smallest size that a legion could be ?

chemist

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07 Feb 22
1 edit

@venda


If I understand correct, then row three would be three soldiers.
So the question is when is the sum off all integers starting from one divisible by seven.

After 175 rows we have have 15400 soldiers. They are organized in 22 Cohorts.


in fact I wrote a little formula into Excel to find the numbers.

Dave

S.Yorks.England

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07 Feb 22

Dave

S.Yorks.England

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07 Feb 22

Correct my friend.
I removed the previous post 'cos it showed the hidden content!

Dave

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27 Feb 22

A flag is made up of 5 colours and consists only of of full width horizontal strips so that each colour is adjacent to each other colour somewhere on the flag.
What is the smallest number of stripes that it could have
I suspect it's a bit like the map problem where each adjacent country had to be a different colour

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1 edit

@venda said
A flag is made up of 5 colours and consists only of of full width horizontal strips so that each colour is adjacent to each other colour somewhere on the flag.
What is the smallest number of stripes that it could have
I suspect it's a bit like the map problem where each adjacent country had to be a different colour
I'm not quite understanding the stipulation. I envision a bunch of horizontal color bars stacked up, but then not every color is adjacent to every other color.

Dave

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28 Feb 22

@bigdogg said
I'm not quite understanding the stipulation. I envision a bunch of horizontal color bars stacked up, but then not every color is adjacent to every other color.
No. I didn't understand it either.I think the wording is a bit ambiguous.
I'll post the given answer and explanation hidden
11. On an n stripe flag there are n-1 places where two stripes meet so at least 11 stripes are needed.Using digits to represent colours 12345314251 is an example solution

chemist

Linkenheim

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28 Feb 22
1 edit

@venda said
A flag is made up of 5 colours and consists only of of full width horizontal strips so that each colour is adjacent to each other colour somewhere on the flag.
What is the smallest number of stripes that it could have
I suspect it's a bit like the map problem where each adjacent country had to be a different colour
So I understand we need to design a flag made up of horizonatl stripes,in which we ensure that each colour has at least one neighbour with each colour.

Evidently we need to have each colour more than once. If I replace the colour by number my first design is 12345.

I add a 2 between 4 and 5 and get 123425. Now for 2 the condition is set. I can add a 1 between 3 and 4: 1231425 (I keep in mind that I want to make another 1 to neighbour to 5.
If I add a 4 at the end and a 3 I get
123142543 and have now 2 and 4 statisfied.

with the addition of 5 and then1 I get
12314254351

That is eleven stripes. It is a solution, but maybe not the optimum. I can't get my head around for a formula, so I did it by hand 😉

chemist

Linkenheim

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28 Feb 22

@venda said
No. I didn't understand it either.I think the wording is a bit ambiguous.
I'll post the given answer and explanation hidden
Hidden content removed
Seems that I got the wording right.