General

The weirdest thing last night, was in bed reading my Sunday Times magazines and heard this thin buzzing noise near my ear. Sounded just like a mosquito, so I hopped up and after two gos I managed to swat it. And, the body looks like that of a mosquito too.

Now I don't know, but I think that a mosquito in Ireland in November is kind of unlikely, so I guess it must have popped out of the ST magazine (hopping a ride from wherever they were printed) :( Any entomologists out there?

You have 9 snooker balls. All appear identical. One of them however is a slightly different weight to the others but feels the same to your hand. This ball is either lighter OR heavier. You don't know. To determine the odd ball you have a balance scales. You must find the ball in three weighings or less. How can you do it? Answers must explain FULLY how this is done.

(Answer on next page.)

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Okay let's say we have three groups of three balls, A, B and C.

There are a number of cases.

A and B same weight

Shown above are 4 men buried up to their necks in the ground.

They can not move so can only look forward.

Between A and B is a brick wall which can not be seen through.

They know that between them are 4 hats, 2 are black and 2 are white, but they do not know which colour they are wearing.

In order to avoid being shot one of them must call out to the executioner the colour of their hat. If they get it wrong, everyone will be shot.

Cosmic - the last date with all odd numbers (in our lifetime anyway) occurs today. Unless you're Buck Rogers or Fry from Futurama, it's unlikely you'll see the next one which occurs on the 1st of January, 3111. The next date with all even numbers will be the 2nd of February, 2000 (there hasn't been an all-even date since the 28th of August, 888).