NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 10): Product Playtime

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 10): Product Playtime:

Q: Think of a familiar brand name ending in the letters G-S. Change the G-S to an O and you'll get the brand name of a different product. What is it? Hint: The first word has five letters, and the second has four.

I had more familiarity with the second term so I solved it backwards. My wife had no problem solving it forward.

Edit: Both of us had this as soon as we finished reading the question. Hopefully you found it as simple.

A: L'EGGS --> LEGO

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 3): Mathematical Synonyms

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Aug 3): Mathematical Synonyms:

Q: Start with an eight-letter mathematics term. Remove the first, fourth and eighth letters to produce a synonym of the original word. What is it?

A small percentage of the population might struggle on this, but I think most will find this puzzle relatively easy.

Edit: I was probably too obvious with the hints which included obvious synonyms of the answers. Check the comments for other hints that were provided.

A: FRACTION --> RATIO

Friday Fun - Cycling on the Bridge

Two bicyclists start cycling from opposite ends of a bridge. One cyclist is faster than the other and they meet at a point 2,000 feet from the nearest end. When each cyclist reaches the opposite end of the bridge, he takes a 15 minute rest break and then starts on his on return trip. The cyclists again meet 720 feet from the other end. Assuming each is cycling at a constant speed, how long is the bridge?

Note: There is no mention of the actual speed of each cyclist, or the time that each takes but this problem is solvable. In fact, there is an elegant solution that could be understood by an elementary school student, with basic rules of addition and subtraction. It can also be solved the "hard" way. I'll post the elegant solution next week.

Edit: I've provided an answer in the comments.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 27): Egomaniac Anagram

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 27): Egomaniac Anagram:

Q: Re-arrange the letters in the word 'egomaniac' to spell a sign seen in many stores. What is it?

Well we have returned home from Iceland safely. One thing I will say, is if you try and pronounce the place names, you'll find most Icelanders replying, "what did you say?". A pronounciation hint -- the town of "Höfn" sounds like a hiccup. The 'fn' is pronounced 'b' so don't say "Hoffin", say "Hub" as you inhale quickly. As for the puzzle, it's so easy, you can solve it faster than you can say, Kirkjubæjarklaustur (trust me, don't try...).

Edit: There were a couple hints above -- returning to a place, and the phrase "What did you say?". I initially thought that there would be a gerund with "ing" so I pulled those letters aside. I then saw the word "come" in the remaining letters and knew the answer.

A: EGOMANIAC --> COME AGAIN

Friday Fun - How Long is the Ring Road around Iceland? - Answer

We should be flying back home from Iceland about this time. Hopefully everyone has had fun with the puzzles while we have been gone. If you haven't had a chance to solve the puzzle about the Iceland Ring Road yet, take a look at last Friday's post and don't read any further. But if you want the answer, read on...

A: Let A be the speed of the first couple and B be the speed of the second couple. After an equivalent amount of time T, one couple has traveled AT miles and the other travels BT miles. For the return, the first couple now travels BT miles in 9 hours, while the other couple travels AT miles in 16 hours.

A = BT/9
B = AT/16

9A = BT
16B = AT

T = 9A/B
T = 16B/A
9A^2 = 16B^2
Take the square root of both sides (which is okay because both are positive)
3A = 4B

This tells us the ratio of their speeds is 4 to 3. In other words, over the same time, the faster couple will travel 4/7 of the ring road, the slower couple will travel 3/7. The difference is 120 miles. And if 1/7 is 120 miles, the whole road is 840 miles.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 20): Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle -- Answer

We are still in Iceland so I this will have to be another "autopost". Since I didn't see the puzzle beforehand, I'm not sure how I managed to get some hints in there, but the following words do seem to be clues, at least to a possible answer:
Fruitful, Central, Dead(line)

A: CORPSE --> CORPS

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 20): Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle

Well, this is an interesting post. I'm on vacation, so I'm actually still not around to be able to tell you what the puzzle is or to give you any hints.

Q: What is the answer to the puzzle on the NPR Website?

My wife and I should be in Akureyri in Northern Iceland at this point. We are planning on doing a whale-watching trip. I think we'll need to bundle up because it can get nippy out on the water watching whales frolick. If I'm lucky, that will be a fruitful clue to this week's puzzle and be central to solving it, but I doubt it. Help each other out, but don't give away the puzzle until after the dead line on Thursday 3pm ET.

Friday Fun - How Long is the Ring Road around Iceland?

My wife and I are taking a leisurely drive around Iceland on the Ring Road... at this point we should be a little more than half way on the East side of Iceland in Egilsstaðir. However, I thought it might be fun to give you a little topical puzzle in honor of our trip.

Q: Two couples leave Reykjavik at exactly the same time traveling opposite directions on the Ring Road around Iceland. When they meet later, one couple has traveled 120 miles farther than the other. After a night's rest in a hotel and some refueling, the couples continue their respective drives. The first couple arrives back at Reykjavik 9 hours later, the second couple takes 16 hours. Assuming that each couple maintains the same constant speed each time they drive, how long is the Ring Road around Iceland?

I'll post the answer next Friday.

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 13): Names from Early American History - Answer

My wife and I are away in Iceland for a couple weeks taking in the sights. At this point we should be in Höfn toward the Southeast of Iceland as part of an 11-day driving tour of the country. However, I didn't want to leave everyone wondering about the answer to the puzzle so I've provided a scheduled post to appear after the deadline... here it is:

A: ETHAN ALLEN <--> NATHAN HALE

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 13): Names from Early American History

NPR Sunday Puzzle (Jul 13): Names from Early American History:

Q: Name a famous person from early American history with five letters in the first name and five letters in the last. Six letters of the alphabet are used in this name, some of them repeated. These same six letters make up the name of another person in early American history whose first and last names have six and four letters, respectively. Who are these two people?

This wasn't too hard to figure out, but it might be helpful to have a list of names associated with early American history handy. Both names should be familiar to most people. One hint: don't assume that the names are exact anagrams of each other.