Who is older, Joe or Smoe?

Two friends, Joe and Smoe, were born in May, one in 1932, the other a year later. Each had an antique grandfather clock of which he was extremely proud. Both of the clocks worked fairly well considering their age, but one clock gained ten seconds per hour while the other one lost ten seconds per hour. 

On a day in January, the two friends set both clocks correctly at 12:00 noon. "Do you realize," asked Joe, "that the next time both of our clocks will show exactly the same time will be on your 47th birthday?" Smoe agreed. 

Who is older, Joe or Smoe?

Know who is older in the case! 

"Smoe is older than Joe"

What was the puzzle?

Since one of the clock looses and other gains 10 seconds per hour, that means one looses 240 seconds (4 minutes) & other gains 240 seconds (4 minutes) in a day.

Both the clocks are set at 12:00 PM correctly. One has to gain 6 hours (360 minutes) and other has to loose 6 hours (360 minutes) to show the same time again. At the speed of 4 minutes per day the would need 360/4 = 90 days to show the same time again. 

On 90th day, they will come together to show 6:00. Exactly at 12 noon on 90th day one clock must be showing 6:00 PM and other must be showing 6:00 AM, if they have feature of showing AM/PM.

Now as per Joe it would be 47th birthday of Smoe on the day on which the clocks will show the same time. That means, the clocks are set correctly on the noon of 90 days prior to Smoe's birthday which is 1 May for sure but year yet to be known. 

If the year is leap year then 90th day before 1st May will be on 1st February and if it's not a leap year then it would be on January 31. Since, they have set their clocks correctly at 12:00 on some day in January, the year must not be a leap year. 

But if Smoe had been born in 1933, his 47th birthday would have been on May 1, 1980 which is leap year. Hence, Smoe must have born in 1932 and Joe in 1933.

Therefore, Smoe is older than Joe.

The story must be of 1979!

"What day is it?"

A girl meets a lion and unicorn in the forest. The lion lies every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and the other days he speaks the truth. The unicorn lies on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and the other days of the week he speaks the truth. 

“Yesterday I was lying,” the lion told the girl. “So was I,” said the unicorn. 

What day is it?

It must be .... day of the week. Click to know.

"The day must be a Thursday!"

Little story behind the title! 

Lion lies on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and The Unicorn, on the other hand, lies on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.


That is on Sundays both must be telling the truth. 

Suppose Lion and Unicorn made those statements today.

Lion - “Yesterday I was lying,”  

Unicorn - “So was I,”  (“Yesterday I was too lying,” ) 

If it was Sunday today, then Lion's statement would have been lie as lion tells truth on Saturdays. But as per data, both must be telling the truth on Sundays. So it can't be Sunday today.

For rest of all days, one must be telling the truth and other must be lying.

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CASE 1 : Lion is lying and Unicorn is truth teller.

For Unicorn's statement - “Yesterday I too was lying,” to be true it must be Sunday today. But on Sunday, lion also speaks truth. And lion's statement can't be true on Sunday as concluded earlier. 

Hence, today must be the case below.

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CASE 2 : Lion is truth teller and Unicorn is lying.

Again for Lion's statement - “Yesterday I was lying,” to be true it must be Thursday today. 

And if today is Thursday Unicorn is lying with it's statement - "“Yesterday I too was lying,” as it was Wednesday yesterday where Unicorn always tells truth on Wednesday. 

Hence, today, on Thursday, Unicorn must be lying with his statement while Lion is telling the truth. Both are as per behaving the given data.

 

A Rich Earl And Swamp

A rich earl has become the owner of a piece of land, which to his dissatisfaction turned out to be nothing more than a big swamp. The earl wants to get rid of the swamp. 

A salesman advises him to use his fast-growing plants which can cover the swamp very quickly. "This plant doubles every day, tomorrow you will have two, the day after tomorrow four, etc. In 80 days, your swamp will be completely covered." The earl reacts: "80 days? This takes far too much time. Then just give me eight of these plants."

Question 1: What did the earl think?

Question 2: And what do you think?

Go to the answers directly!

Planting Trees Covering Swamp

What's the exact story? 

The earl must have thought that planting 8 trees on first day itself would cause him to wait for only 10 days. That's totally wrong conclusion.

Though started with 8 trees, on other day number will be doubled only not tripled or increased to x8. Starting with 8 trees is like skipping 3 days (2,4,8) if started with 1 tree.That is only 3 days would be saved. 

In short, with 8 plants, the earl need to wait for 77 days!