#10, part one of two:

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#10 part two of two:

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"FIRST!"

*applause*

That wins you points, sir!

And Zen, let's not forget that the nutsetter wrote this at the dawn of the roaring 20's god knows what type of bathtub gin they were into then, not to mention the hangover from all the Victorian sex abstinence.

foot, perhaps you should post the new puzzles at a specific time of day - say 10 am Eastern time.

I'm BigV and I endorse this statement!

eta:

Or... like the radio promotions that urge you to listen (through the endless commercials) for a specific song, a range in which the nut would be posted. That might be an easier target to hit. I do feel a certain timezone disadvantage here for when you rise and post early. Let's call it a handicap. hahhahahhahaha!

I like the random timings, it gives different people the chance to have first go.

I'm with Zen.

I'm with Zen and Rhianne. I post them when I can get to the computer w/o SWMBO chewing my ass out.
So that being written, here are nuts 13 & 14. Someone wisely crossed out 13 since it is way too easy and involves currency. At least the denominations are stated.

#14: $2.00.

That's the pro rated cost for a trip that is $4 / 24 miles. The passenger is picked up at mile 6, travels 6 miles to the city, and 6 miles back to the crossroads, for a total of 12 miles.

Of course, an infinite number of other answers could be given, with other equally valid justifications.

eta: I'm with footfootfoot, who is with Zen and Rhianne. Random's fine. I love this thread.

#14. $1.

The team costs $1 per six mile stage, which IMHO should be shared equally between all those on board.

First stage - 6 miles, $1, author alone = author pays $1.
Second stage - 6 miles, $1, author and passenger, each pay 50 cents.
Third stage - 6 miles, $1, author and passenger, each pay 50 cents.
Fourth stage - 6 miles, $1, author alone = author pays $1.

#13 ...
Notice that it doesn't say that there are 25 cent pieces.
If the list is supposed to be exhaustive, then there are no quarters and thus they cannot be changed.
If the list is not exhaustive, then nothing rules out there being two and three cent pieces as well. Or even 8.75 cent pieces...

do bus fares where you live cost less when they're more crowded?

when you share a cab do you split the ticket this way?

I, myself, am not in the habit of picking up hitchhikers, but when I do, I never charge them for the ride. My trip was already a sunk cost, and the extra expense of stopping one extra time to pick them up and once more to drop them off is negligible.

This isn't a bus, it's a hired "team".

Yeah, if I shared a cab under those circumstances, that is what I would consider fair.

What is this crazy talk about "dropping off" hitchhikers? :devil:

The answer to #13 is 12 ways (like wonder bread)

The answer to #14 is (verbatim) $1 partners 1/2 trip

At first I thought it should be $2. Thinking as though I were the owner of the team, upon reading the answer I realized that I was splitting the cost per mile with the other passenger.

New nuts coming shortly.

There may or may not be a Christmas nut.

Here is #15:

Be careful.

>>The bottle was $1.05, and the cork was $0.05 - both of which seem extremely expensive considering you could get land for $7.50 an acre.

Bottle and cork costs aside, the whiskey, apparently, was free, very free, else I'd have risen sooner to take a crack at this nut. Nice one, HungLikeJesus. :)

Good point.

So that's 0.14 acres for a bottle and 0.0027 acres for a cork.

How far will an acre take you in Zen's hired team?

Good point. Land was cheap and everything else was expensive. I think that led directly to the collapse of the housing bubble.

Interthread drift

Good King Mental Nut looked out on the feast of Stephen...

Tomorrow's nut today!

Why not?

"all sold their corn at the same prices" ... same price per bushel or same price for a year's production of corn regardless of volume?

"each received the same amount of money for his corn" ... same as each other, or the same meaning "same as previously mentioned".

Either of these allows a solution.

Or it could be that A really sucks at business and/or maths.

Or they're running a co-op. Damn commies.

hence the mental nut which needs cracking, so get cracking!

Farm subsidies.

Next question?

A was using little bushels, B medium and C giant bushels.

Or maybe A's bushels weren't very full, etc.

I was here on time, no clue. Slept on it, no clue. How about this: A's corn was popped popcorn, B's corn was fresh corn, and C's corn was dried corn. The different *densities* would account for the differing volumes. This presumes that the corn was selling for the same price per pound (?). Because it seems that the corn isn't selling for the same price per bushel (volume).

Somehow, different numbers of bushels are worth equal amounts of money. What varies? The quality of the corn? The quantity of the corn? Wait. Perhaps they all gave their corn away for free, and consequently each received the same amount of money, zero.

That's my answer. The corn was worthless, and they're taking it to the town corn dump. They're being paid *nothing*, equally.

sold 49, 28, and 7 bushels @7/$1
1,2, and 3 bushels @1/$3

Nuts.

:eyebrow:

:right:

:headshake:

I liked Bigv's answer of zero better.

When I was a lad, I remember the older generation deriding what we were being taught as the "new math." Like math could somehow change from one generation to the next. But obviously it did.

We might have a butter mountain. But every town has its own corn dump?!
Wow, you guys know how to live ;)

If the 2012 asteroid hits just right, we could get some awesome popcorn!

I have to assume that this answer involves some inherent cultural knowledge of the time, like bushels of corn are always sold either singly or in groups of 7. Because otherwise, it's just retarded.

I think it is a bit of both. and now for the next nut:

(Chrome crashed when I was loading yesterday's nut, so here are two)

#17 started with 15 cents.

That's what I get also.

For #18, >> you have to rent a sheep to get twenty; the first guy gets 10, second 5, third 4, then return the rental sheep.

#18Get one of the sheep knocked up?


With the ram, ya pervert

#18

1/2 plus 1/4 plus 1/5 does not equal 1, it equals .95. So 19 is the actual number he left them, not the number he started with. The total number he had was (.95)(x) = 19, so x=20.

I see how the math works out when you add one sheep to make the total twenty. But why just add one to do that, why not add eighty-one and distribute 50 and 25 and 20 then return 5? This better not be the answer, adding one...

Still, very creative friends I have here!

****

Ok, fine. This seems very straightforward. 19 sheep, heirs. Pretty unambiguous.


Here's the nut that needs cracking. Half of what? A quarter of what?, a fifth of what? As y'all have pointed out, this doesn't "add up". What's missing? Or what is to be left out? How can these work out... What about half of ... the weight? Regardless, those fractions will never add up to 1, the presumptive "whole". As long as we're talking about only one kind of thing (a group of 19 sheep for example) those pieces will leave some left over.

Nothing in this nut says that 1/2 and 1/4 and 1/5 is the complete list of what was "to get".

Nothing says that the "one" who gets is a different heir. I can imagine that the same "one gets" 1/2, and 1/4, and 1/5 (of the sheep??) so this heir gets 19 sheep. Still leaves 1/20th of 19 sheep unallocated. Grrrrrrr...

Maybe these "fractions" aren't talking about fractions of the flock of sheep. What about one heir getting half the sheep, another heir getting a quarter (a twenty five cent piece or a $2.50 coin, take your pick) and another gets a jug of shine (a fifth). ... ... What am I gonna do about the other "half of nineteen sheep" (ha fucking ha)??

still thinking...

15 cents

Borrow or rent a sheep

Moving on, a very easy one!

pour three gallons from 8gal cask into 3gal jug leaving five gallons in the 8gal cask

now pour three gallons from the 3gal jug into the 5gal carboy

now pour three gallons from the 8gal cask into the 3gal jug leaving 2 gallons in the 8

shit


three columns, representing three vessels, 8gal cask, 5gal carboy, 3gal jug
each row will always add up to 8 gallons, and the changes, the pours should be obvious.

8--5--3
--------
8--0--0 (pour 3 from cask to jug, filling jug, to get to the next line)
5--0--3 (pour 3 from jug to carboy, emptying jug, to get to the next line)
5--3--0 (pour 3 from cask to jug, filling jug, to get to the next line)
2--3--3 (pour 2 from jug to carboy, filling carboy, leaving 1 in jug, to get to the next line)
2--5--1 (pour 5 from carboy to cask, emptying carboy, to get to the next line)
7--0--1 (pour 1 from jug to carboy, emptying jug, to get to the next line)
7--1--0 (pour 3 from cask to jug, filling jug, to get to the next line)
4--1--3 (pour 3 from jug to carboy, emptying jug, to get to the next line)
4--4--0 (ta-da!)

Fill the 5 from the 8 (3/8) (5/5) (0/3)
Fill the 3 from the five (3/8) (2/5) (3/3)
Pour 3 into 8 (6/8) (2/5) (0/3)
Pour (2/5) into 3 (6/8) (0/5) (2/3)
Pour 5/8 into 5 (1/8) (5/5) (2/3)
Pour 1/5 into 3 (1/8) 4/5) (3/3)
Pour 3/3 into 1/8 (4/8) 4/5) (0/3)

Score, please?

36-35 O.T.

*thnort*


:)

That's not an answer. This book sucks, foot.

Here's one for you, Clod

this requires some knowledge of horses and their shoes.

Is this a four-legged horse?

My google image search showed that most horse shoes take 6 nails. So Imma say $3 for the 24 nails needed.

Thanks glatt. I'll say the total cost is 2^(n-1), where n = 6*4, for a total cost of $83,886.08

Close, 8 nails is more common, re-figure.

Ok, revised to: total cost is 2^(n-1), where n = 8*4, for a total cost of $21,474,836.48

"four for the third"

I missed that part. It's exponential, and my answer is way off the mark. It's not in the same ball park, and not even in the same city. $3, hah!

Don't forget that you have to add up the price for all the individual nails. So your calculation is correct for finding the price of the final nail. I don't remember if there is a formula for doing a sum of numerous equations. There must be, and I just can't remember it.

When I break out my calculator and do a tedious 3 minutes of punching numbers in, I get a total of $42,949,652.95

FTFY

Hiya Clod! Plenty of room in my bitter barn, pull up a stump. Or a stack of numismatic catalogs, or a partially filled wine jug of either 8, 5, or 3 gallon capacity. Mind the pile of pebbles there, we'll be needing them later to drown our sorrows.