Maths problem to solve while sitting around the campfire?

[RM Outback]

:trophy: well done diggit over to you.

 

[BigWave]

Great answer though Manpa erfect:
I reckon you deserve a beer or two for that :beer: :beer:

 

[diggit]

Sheila lives with her teenage son, Bruce, in the countrysidea car ride away from Bruces school. Every afternoon, Sheila leaves the house at the same time, drives to the school at a constant speed, picks Bruce up exactly when his after school footie practice ends at 5 p.m., and then they immediately return home together at the same constant speed. But one day, Bruce isnt feeling well, so he leaves footie practice early and starts to head home on his portable scooter.

After Bruce has been scooting for an hour, Sheila comes across him in her car (on her usual route to pick him up), and they return together, arriving home 40 minutes earlier than they usually do.

How much footie practice did Bruce miss?

 

[RM Outback]

1 hour, time spent on his scooter :/ or if he had a chuck on the way add 10 minutes

 

[diggit]

1 hour, time spent on his scooter :/ or if he had a chuck on the way add 10 minutes

I like your logic Rob but it's not the correct answer unfortunately.

Hint later today if not solved by then.

 

[BigWave]

1 hour & 20 mins (plus time for the chuck )

 

[diggit]

:trophy: Correct Bigwave :Y:

Well done :clap: erfect:

 

[BigWave]

Here goes an interesting one.........

You have 5 boxes in a row labelled 1 to 5 as shown.

There is a very quiet mouse (not Schrdinger's Mouse) in one of them.

During the night, the mouse randomly moves to a box next to it.

ie: If it was in box 3 one day, then it would move to either box 2 or box 4 that night.

Each day you are allowed to open 1 box looking for the mouse. If it's not there, you shut the box, and the next day you try again.

You MUST find the mouse within 6 openings.

How do you do this?

 

[Dihusky]

There is no Cat

 

[BigWave]

What cat Dihusky?

 

[RM Outback]

Good point Dihusky - I meant mouse not cat in the second last line

Ha ha ha I read it earlier and thought this one is way out of my league :lol:

 

[RM Outback]

Pretty sure there's more than one possible correct answer to this one subject to which box the mouse holes up in as the search begins.

If the mouse starts out in box 1 the answer is as follows,

2, 3, 2, 4, 2, 1

 

[Anniegee]

I'd get my cat to sniff it out...he's the best mouser in the world...but he likes to bring them into the house and leave them inside :argh:

 

[BigWave]

Sorry RM.
Doesn't work for all starting positions.
PS: Imagine that there are two distinct Cases:
1: The mouse was in an even numbered box when you open your first.
2: The mouse was in an odd numbered box when you open your first.
Let's now start by considering Case 1 - that it must be even in an numbered box (ie: 2 or 4).
Clearly, you'd pick an even numbered box first.
If you picked 2 and it was in there (you win in 1 move), but if it was in box 4 (you lose that round).
Next time the mouse would be in box 3 or 5.
If your next pick was in box 3 and it was there, then you win that round (in 2 moves), but if it were in box 5 you lose.
So, if it was in box 5 yesterday, you'd pick box 4 today (so you win in 3 moves)
The opening order so far is: 2, 3, 4 (or it could have been 4,3,2) with the same result.
These are the only 2 sequences that will work for Case 1 (even numbered starting positions).
But what if it starts in an odd-numbered box?

 

[diggit]

Open box 3 twice, then box 4 twice, then box 2 twice?

*edit*

:lol: I didn't even notice BWs last post.. :beer:

 

[BigWave]

Not a bad try diggit, but it won't pick up everything, like 123234

 

[BigWave]

This one may be too hard, so I'll take it further.
I mentioned two cases:
1. That it was in an even numbered box (2 or 4), in which case either 234 or 432 would ALWAYS work
2. That it was an odd numbered box. Trying the sequence of above may or may not have worked, but after these three tries, the mouse MUST now be in an even numbered box, so what two sequences would you next use to guarantee finding the cat mouse within 6 tries?

 

[Bjay]

Ide throw em all in the fire. Maths isnt my strongpoint and I hate mice. :fire: layful:

 

[Nightjar]

Slip a non maths riddle in while there is a lull.

Beginning with a nine letter word, remove eight letters, one by one and end up with eight words?

 

[Booney]

My guess would be 3,3,3,3,3,3 . ? But I can see that the mouse Could stay in 4,5 or 1,2
Next guess, It would be a high probability of the mouse being in the middle 3 boxs 2,3,4
So 2,3,4,2,3,4 ??????
Thats all I got mind blown .