It has been said that exercising the brain is just as important as exercising the rest of the body. Some of the most common ways people keep their brains sharp are to play brain stimulating games, to read and also to make an effort to do puzzles. Admittedly, some of us are just better at this than others.
Perhaps continual attempts at solving puzzles will help our brains. Research has shown that brain games and logic puzzles boost brain activity and the capacity to enhance memory and processing speed. It can also help with the decline of brain power and reduce the risk of dementia.
So let’s get going at all of this. Even if you don’t solve the puzzle, your brain receives the benefit and exercise just from trying. Yes, I will give you the answers, but see if you can figure it out first.
The first is just an exercise to get you started, but good for your brain. Think of a one or two digit number. Multiply it by two and then add 12 to the result. Now divide this number by two. Now subtract the original number from the current one. You’re left with the number six, aren’t you. Pretty cool right?
1.This puzzle may take some logic: If you had four sticks, how could you turn them into four without breaking them? This one might seem simple at first, but take a moment to think it out before looking for the answer.
2. You are in a cookie factory and need to make a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies. The recipe calls for exactly 4 cups of sugar. The problem is you have two buckets. One bucket holds 5 cups and the other 3 cups. Using these buckets how can you measure exactly 4 cups of sugar?
3. A man is looking at a photograph of someone. His friend asks who it is. The man replies, brothers and sisters, I have none. But that man’s father is my father’s son. Who is in the photograph?
4. A man left home running. He ran away and then turned left, ran the same distance and turned left again, ran the same distance and turned left again. When he got home, there were two masked man. Who were they?
5. Your dad tells you that he will pay you six dollars an hour for the six seconds that you take to wash your hands before dinner. How much did you make for washing your hands?
6. As I was going to Saint Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Each wife had seven sacks. Each sack had seven cats. Each cat had seven kits. Kits, cats sacks and wives, how many were going to Saint Ives?
7. Guess the next three letters in the series GTNTL.
8. Joseph and Lena are found dead on the floor with some water around. The windows are open and a strong windy draft is blowing the curtains around. How did they die?
9. Arnold Schwarzenegger has a long one. Michael J. Fox has a short one. Madonna does not use hers. Bill Clinton always uses his. The Pope never uses his. What is it?
10. A boy is walking down the road with a doctor. While the boy is the doctor’s son, the doctor is not the father. Who is the doctor?
Just in case you need them, here are the answers!
1. All you have to do is arrange the sticks so they are in the shape of the number four.
2. Fill the three cup bucket and pour it into the 5 cup bucket. Feel the three cut bucket again and pour it into the 5 quart bucket until the five cup bucket is full. That will leave exactly one cup of sugar in the 3 cup bucket. Dump out the 5 cup bucket and dump the one cup from the three cup bucket into the empty 5 cup bucket. This leaves one cup in the 5 quart bucket. Now feel the 3 cup bucket again and add it to the 5 quart bucket. Now you have exactly 4 cups of sugar.
3. His son
4. The catcher and the umpire
5. One cent
6. One. Only one was going to Saint Ives.
7. I, T, S. The complete sequence is the first letter of every word in the sentence.
8. Well, you see Joseph and Lena were goldfishes. The wind blew and tipped their bowl over, thus killing them.
9. A surname
10. The boy’s mother
I hope you solved all of the problems and now your brain is working even better.
(Melanie Behrens – melb@marysvillejt.com)
Wednesday, January 19
