Logic Puzzles Day! 3/20

Hello friends. For today's assignment, we'll be getting away from fractions for a bit and using the logic to solve some puzzles. :)

Please break up into groups of 3.

Each group will choose a set of questions to answer (please let the rest of the class know which puzzles you choose, so no one chooses the same puzzles).

Talk with your group members about the puzzle - put your heads together!!! It may take a while, but I have a feeling you guys can figure these out. :) Summarize your answers on a sheet of paper to be handed in tomorrow. NO cheating - Google-ing the answer isn't the way to go. Here are the riddles:

Set 1

BULBS

This is one of my favorite free printable logic puzzles with a real life solution.
There are three switches downstairs. Each corresponds to one of the three light bulbs in the attic. You can turn the switches on and off and leave them in any position.
How would you identify which switch corresponds to which light bulb, if you are only allowed one trip upstairs?

A PING-PONG BALL IN A HOLE

Your last good ping-pong ball fell down into a narrow metal pipe imbedded in concrete one foot deep.
How can you get it out undamaged, if all the tools you have are your tennis paddle, your shoe-laces, and your plastic water bottle, which does not fit into the pipe?

SET 2

A MAN IN AN ELEVATOR

A man who lives on the tenth floor takes the elevator down to the first floor every morning and goes to work. In the evening, when he comes back; on a rainy day, or if there are other people in the elevator, he goes to his floor directly. Otherwise, he goes to the seventh floor and walks up three flights of stairs to his apartment.
Can you explain why?
(This is one of the more popular and most celebrated of all lateral thinking logic puzzles. It is a true classic. Although there are many possible solutions that fit the conditions, only the canonical answer is truly satisfying.)

THE BALL

How can you throw a ball as hard as you can and have it come back to you, even if it doesn't bounce off anything? There is nothing attached to it, and no one else catches or throws it back to you.

Set 3

THE MAGNET

This logic puzzle was published in Martin Gardner's column in the Scientific American. You are in a room with no metal objects except for two iron rods. Only one of them is a magnet.
How can you identify which one is a magnet?

VIRILE MICROBES

A Petri dish hosts a healthy colony of bacteria. Once a minute every bacterium divides into two. The colony was founded by a single cell at noon. At exactly 12:43 (43 minutes later) the Petri dish was half full.
At what time will the dish be full?

Set 4 - Super challenging!

SHEIKH'S INHERITANCE

An Arab sheikh tells his two sons to race their camels to a distant city to see who will inherit his fortune. The one whose camel is slower wins. After wandering aimlessly for days, the brothers ask a wise man for guidance. Upon receiving the advice, they jump on the camels and race to the city as fast as they can.
What did the wise man say to them?

MASTERS OF LOGIC PUZZLES (DOTS)

Three Masters of Logic wanted to find out who was the wisest amongst them. So they turned to their Grand Master, asking to resolve their dispute.
"Easy," the old sage said. "I will blindfold you and paint either red, or blue dot on each man's forehead. When I take your blindfolds off, if you see at least one red dot, raise your hand. The one, who guesses the color of the dot on his forehead first, wins."
And so it was said, and so it was done. The Grand Master blindfolded the three contestants and painted red dots on every one. When he took their blindfolds off, all three men raised their hands as the rules required, and sat in silence pondering. Finally, one of them said: "I have a red dot on my forehead."
How did he guess?

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Once all of your groups are finished discussing and summarizing answers (don't lose that paper!!!), you may work individually on the Chapter 6 Self-Check quizzes from the Glencoe website. This will be silent, independent work. See you tomorrow!