All the evidence tells us that your brain is like a muscle, the more that you use it the better it works. In the interest of supporting your brain and keeping it at its best, we have put together some brain teasers, a crossword and a page for colouring all designed to get your brain expanding and ticking over.

Below, you will find the answers to the most recent issues of WellBeing‘s Brain Boosters. Enjoy!

Issue #197

Brain teaser

Fourteen of the kids in the class are girls. Eight of the kids wear blue shirts. Two of the kids are neither girls nor wear blue shirts. If five of the kids are girls who wear blue shirts, how many kids are in the class?

Answer: 19

Riddle

Four prisoners are given the opportunity of freedom if just one of them can work out the answer to a simple logic riddle. The captives are lined up in order of height. The first three prisoners line up facing a wall, prisoner A is at the back and can see B and C ahead of him, but prisoner D stands on the other side of the wall and can see nothing of the other prisoners or his own hat. Blindfolds are placed over each man’s eyes and a hat is placed on each man’s head. The blindfolds are then removed and the men are asked what colour hat he is wearing. They are not allowed to turn around or converse in any way. Within a few minutes, one prisoner calls out the right answer. Can you guess which one, what colour hat he is wearing and how he knew for sure?

Answer:  After waiting about four minutes prisoner B calls out the right answer. He can see that C is wearing a white hat. If B was wearing a white hat too then A would have seen two white hats and would have known that his hat was black. As A didn’t say anything B knew that he and C must have different colour hats on and as C’s hat is white, B knew that his hat must be black.

Issue #196

Brain teaser

Insert one word in each pair to link the two words together. The end of the first word is the beginning of the second.

1. Push __ __ __ Cushion
2. Digital __ __ __ __ __ __ Shy
3. Crystal __ __ __ __ Park
4. First __ __ __ __ __ Clown
5. Bed __ __ __ __ Candy

Answer: Pin, Camera, Ball, Class, Rock

Riddle

Family Bike Race

At the Froome family reunion, five sets of twins from five different generations decide to have a bike race, with two teams and one sibling from each set of twins on each team. Each team sets off with all five cyclists in a line behind their “captain”. At any point in the race, the last person in the line can cycle to the front of the line to become the new captain. All five team members must cross the finish line to complete the race.

Both teams line up in age order but Team A starts the race with a little kid as their captain and Team B starts the race with an elderly woman as their captain. During the course of the race, the captains change six times between the two teams. When the teams cross the finish line, what are the odds that their captains will be the same age?

Answer: 100 per cent. Let’s call the five sets of twins in age ascending order 1A and 1B, 2A and 2B, 3A and 3B, 4A and 4B and 5A and 5B.

So, Team A starts in this order 1A 2A 3A 4A 5A

Team B starts 5B 4B 3B 2B 1B

The last person replaces the first person six times. So either one team does it six times and the other zero, or five times and one time, or four and two, or three and three. You will see that in each case, the leaders of the teams are the same set of twins.

For example, let’s say Team A replaces its leader once. The order will then be 5A 1A 2A 3A 4A. And let’s say Team B replaces its leader five times. Which puts them back to the starting formation 5B 4B 3B 2B 1B. Twins 5A and 5B – who have the same age! – are the finishing captains for their teams.

Issue #195

Brain teaser

If all plinks are plonks and some plunks are plinks, which of these statements must be true?

All plinks are plunks.
Some plonks are plunks.
Some plinks are not plunks.

Answer: Some plonks are plunks.

Riddle

Realising his reign was nearing its end, an ageing king was struggling to decide which of his two twin sons to give his kingdom to. So, he proposed they compete in a horse race to decide who would be the next king, with a rather peculiar stipulation: “Whoever’s horse crosses the finish line last will get the kingdom.”

As you’d expect, both sons started the race extremely slow before finally coming across a man on the side of the road. As the man slowly walked alongside them, they explained what they were doing. He then leaned in and offered two words of advice. After that, both sons took off as fast as they could toward the finish line. What were those two words of advice?

Answer: Switch horses. The king specified that whoever’s HORSE crosses the finish line last would be the winner. So, by switching horses, each son guaranteed that winning the race on the OTHER’S horse would mean that THEIR horse will actually cross the finish line last.

Issue #194

Brain teaser

Rearrange all the letters to find the four colours mixe up below. Hint: Only one is a primary colour.

RAIGET
ENOLYL
OVGOEN
LEWRE

Answer: Green, orange, violet, yellow.

Riddle

You’re standing in a hallway with three light switches on the wall, each of which turns on a different lamp inside a closed room. You can’t see inside the room, and you can’t open the door except to enter the room. You can enter the room only once, and when you do, all the lamps must be turned off. How can you tell which switch turns on which lamp?

Answer: Turn on the right switch and leave it on for two minutes. After two minutes, turn on the middle switch and leave it on for one minute. When that minute is up, turn off both switches and enter the room. One light bulb will be hot (1st switch) and one will be warm (2nd switch). The cold bulb will correspond to the switch you didn’t turn on.

Issue #193

Brain teaser

I’m not clothes but I cover your body. The more I’m used, the thinner I grow. What am I?

Answer: A bar of soap.

Riddle

Four people arrive at a river with a narrow bridge that can only hold two people at a time. It’s night-time and they have one torch that has to be used when crossing the bridge. Person A can cross the bridge in one minute, Person B in two minutes, C in five minutes and D in eight minutes. When two people cross the bridge together, they must move at the slower person’s pace. Can they all get cross the bridge in 15 minutes or less?

Answer: Yes, in stages.

1. First, A and B cross the bridge and A brings the light back. This takes 3 minutes.
2. Next, C and D cross and B brings the light back. This takes another 10 minutes.
3. Finally, A and B cross again. This takes another 2 minutes.