Trick Questions - 9: How Many Rungs and Pages Does the Bookworm Eat?

[soroban]

. . . . . . . . Trick Questions - 9There is rope ladder hanging over the side of a yacht.
The rungs are one foot apart.
At 1 p.m. there are three rungs below the water.
The tide is rising at one foot per hour.
How many rungs are underwater at 4 p.m.

Spoiler

Three rungs.
The yacht rises with the tide.

Consider the English names of the integers from 1 to 999.
In the next 30 seconds, how many numbers can you name
that do not contain the letter "a"?

Spoiler

Start counting: one, two, three, etc.
None of them contain the letter "a".

Note: 123 is "one hundred twenty-three".
. . . . .There is no "and" used.

. . . . .The "and" represents the decimal point.
. . . . .12.3 = "twelve and three-tenths".

In the original movie, who played Frankenstein?

Spoiler

Colin Clive.
Boris Karloff played the nameless monster.

A 3-volume set of books is on a shelf in the usual way.
A bookworm eats his way from the first page of Volume 1
directly to the last page of Volume 3.
Each volume is 1 inch thick. .(Ignore covers.)
How far does the bookworm travel?

Spoiler

One inch.

      *---*---*---*
      |   |   |   |
      |   |   |   |
      | 1 | 2 | 3 |
      |   |   |   |
      |   |   |   |
      *---*---*---*
          ↑   ↑ 
          a   b

The first page of Volume 1 is at [tex]a.[/tex]
The last page of Volume 3 is at [tex]b.[/tex]

Gotcha!

 

[M R]

In the next 30 seconds, how many numbers can you name
that do not contain the letter "a"?

Spoiler

Start counting: one, two, three, etc.
None of them contain the letter "a".

Note: 123 is "one hundred twenty-three".
. . . . .There is no "and" used.

. . . . .The "and" represents the decimal point.
. . . . .12.3 = "twelve and three-tenths".

Spoiler

Erm, in the UK we say "one hundred and twenty three". Are we wrong? :p

 

[Jameson]

As an American who taught British English for a couple of years, I am pretty aware of most of the differences between our versions of English, but only recently became aware of the differences with regards to math (or maths ;) ) and numbers. Here's a cool video talking about some of them.