Which is the Better Bargain?

                 Recently while shopping in new Market in Calcutta, I came across two very nice frocks selling at a discount. I decided to buy one of them for my little girl Mammu. The shopkeeper offered me one of the frocks for Rs. 35 usually selling for 8/7 of that price and the other one for Rs. 30 usually selling for 7/6 of that price.

                  Of the two frocks which one do you think is a better bargain and by how much per cent? 

Answer:     8/7^th of Rs. 35 equals Rs. 40, the regular selling price of the first frock and 7/6^th of Rs. 30 equals Rs. 35, the regular selling price of the second frock. Now, if the first frock usually sells for Rs. 40 and is sold for Rs. 35 on the reduced price, then I save Rs. 5. This gives me a gain on the cost the percentage of 5/35 which equals 1/7 and that is a little more than 14.28.

              The second frock usually sells for Rs. 35, which on the reduced price costs me Rs. 30. Again I save rs.5 which equals 5/30 or 1/6 that amounts to, in percentage, a gain of little more than 16.66. The difference between the first frock and the second in terms of percentage gained is a little more than 2.38. Hence, the second frock is a better buy.  

Animals on the Farm

              My friend who owns a farm near Bangalore had five droves of animals on his farm consisting of cows, sheep and pigs with the same number of animals in each drove.

            One day he decided to sell them all and sold them to eight dealers.

            Each of the eight dealers bought the same number of animals and paid at the of Rs. 17 for each cow, Rs. 2 for each sheep and Rs2 for each pig. 

           My friend received from the dealers in total Rs. 285. 

           How many animals in all did he have and how many of each kind?  

Answer:           We know that there were five droves with an equal number in each drove, and, therefore, the number must be divisible by 5. As every one of the eight dealers bought the same number of animals, the number must also be divisible by 8. 

                   This leads us to the conclusion that the number must be a multiple of 40. Now the highest possible multiple of 40 that will work is 120 and this number could be made up in one of two ways- 1 cow, 23 sheep and 96 pigs or 3 cows, 8 sheep and 109 pigs. But the first does not fit in because the animals consisted of ‘Cows, Sheep and Pigs’ and a single ‘Cow’ is not ‘Cows’. Therefore, the second possibility is the correct answer.

The Llama Race

               Recently, while I was in a holiday resort in Peru I watched a very interesting spectacle. Two gentlemen by the name of Sr. Guittierez and Sir. Ibanez decided to have a Llama race over the mile course on the beach sands. They requested me and some of my other friends whom I had met at the resort to act as the judges.

             We stationed ourselves at different points on the course which was marked off in quarter miles.

But, the two Llamas, being good friends decided not to Part Company, and ran together the whole way. However, we the judges noted with interest the following results.

            The Llamas ran the first three quarters in six and three quarter’s minutes. They took the same time to the first half mile as the second half. And they ran the third quarter in exactly the same time as the last quarter.

            From these results I became very much interested in finding out just how long it took those to Llamas to run the whole mile. 

          Can you find out the answer? 

Answer:  The entire mile was run in nine minutes. Though form the facts given awe cannot determine the time taken over the firsthand second quarter- miles separately, we, over the first and second quarter- miles separately, we  know , however, that together they took four and a half minutes. And the last two quarters were run in two and a quarter minutes each.

Blow Hot Blow Cold

         It is a matter common knowledge that 0°C is the same as 32 ° F. It is also a known fact that 100 °C equals 212 °F. But there is a temperature that gives the same reading on both Centigrade and Fahrenheit scales.

         Can you find this temperature? 

Answer:  If X is the temperature 9X / 5 = X-32

i.e. 4X /5 = - 32

Which gives X =-40

i.e. - 40°C = - 40 °F.

The wheels

               A friend of mine in Bangalore owns a horse- driven carriage. It was tound that the fore wheels of the carriage make four more revolutions than the hind wheel in going 96 feet. However, it was also found that if the circumference of the fore wheel was 3/2 as great and of the hind wheels 4/3 as great, then the fore wheel would make only 2 revolutions more than hind wheel in going the same distance of 96 feet. 

           Can you find the circumference of each wheel?

Answer: The fore wheel is 8 feet in circumference and the hind wheel 12 feet.