Topic Title

[Buzzie]

Nah, this is actually one of my favourite jokes:

A Kangaroo is a large antipodean marsupial and a Kangaroot is a Geordie stuck in a lift :wink:

[Tallscot]

Below you will find some well known eight-letter words, with only their endings remaining. Can you determine the words?

.....YEE

.....EGY

.....IGM

.....LSE

.....COM

.....BET

.....LEL

.....DEE

[Tallscot]

Anyone?

[wildrover]

EMPLOYEE

STRATEGY

PARADIGM

.....LSE

.....COM

ALPHABET

PARALLEL

.....DEE

[Tallscot]

All correct so far.

[wildrover]

ATTENDEE

[Buzzie]

Compulse
Intercom

[wildrover]

Convulse - thanks Buzzie!

[Tallscot]

:) WR

[wildrover]

What role links Hugh Bonneville, James Nesbitt, David Bowie, Rod Steiger and Telly Savalas?

[wildrover]

Tricky one that - the answer is Pontius Pilate.

The last time a hereditary peerage was awarded was in 1990. Who was the recipient?

[playgirl]

Sorry WR, quickly jumping in.....

A maths problem, which was originally produced for 14-year-old students in Singapore, has confused adults worldwide. To be fair, it was written for the Singapore and Asian Schools Math Olympiads - a competition reserved for highly intelligent 14-year-olds, but an adult should still be able to solve it, right?

Question
Albert and Bernard just become friends with Cheryl, and they want to know when her birthday is. Cheryl gives them a list of 10 possible dates:

May 15, May 16, May 19
June 17, June 18
July 14, July 16
August 14, August 15, August 17
Cheryl then tells Albert and Bernard separately the month and the day of her birthday respectively.

Albert: I don't know when Cheryl's birthday is, but I know that Bernard does not know too.

Bernard: At first I don't know when Cheryl's birthday is, but I know now.

Albert: Then I also know when Cheryl's birthday is.

So when is Cheryl's birthday?

[wildrover]

I really don't get the fuss about this - it's very similar in concept to the Prisoners and Hats problem that has been around at least since my grandfather was at school. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoners_and_hats_puzzle .

The key to the whole problem is realising why at the start of the puzzle Albert knows that Bernard does not know her birthday. Anyway here's my attempt at an explanation.

1. For Bernard not to know the date, the day must be one of those that appears more than once i.e. it cannot be 18 or 19.
2. For Albert to know that Bernard cannot know the date he must know that the number given to Bernard was not 18 or 19. The only way he can be sure this is not the case is if the month given to him was not May or June.
3. Bernard knows after Albert's statement that the month must be July or August. If he then knows the exact date then the day cannot be 14 as there is one in each month so the date must be July 16, August 15 or August 17.
4. After Bernard's statement, Albert also knows the date must be one of those three and for him to know the exact date he must have been told the month was July, since if it was August he would still have two possible choices.
5. The date is July 16

[playgirl]

Yes, I believe so! :) Well that's what I got and the most popular answer agreed with on website

[wildrover]

And the last hereditary peerage awarded was to Denis Thatcher. In fact it's the only one awarded in the last 50 years. :arrow: