1. Grass in lawn grows equally thick and in a uniform rate. It takes 24 days for 70 cows and 60 days for 30 cows to eat the whole of the grass. How many cows are needed to eat the grass in 96 days?

Answer :   20 cows

g - grass at the beginning
r - rate at which grass grows, per day
y - rate at which one cow eats grass, per day
n - no of cows to eat the grass in 96 days

From given data,
g + 24*r = 70 * 24 * y - A
g + 60*r = 30 * 60 * y - B
g + 96*r = n * 96 * y - C

Solving for (B-A),
(60 * r) - (24 * r) = (30 * 60 * y) - (70 * 24 * y)
36 * r = 120 * y - D

Solving for (C-B),
(96 * r) - (60 * r) = (n * 96 * y) - (30 * 60 * y)
36 * r = (n * 96 - 30 * 60) * y
120 * y = (n * 96 - 30 * 60) * y [From D]
120 = (n * 96 - 1800)
n = 20

Hence, 20 cows are needed to eat the grass in 96 days.

2. You have 14 apples. Your Friend Marge takes away 3 and gives you 2. You drop 7 but pick up 4. Bret takes 4 and gives 5. You take one from Marge and give it to Bret in exchange for 3 more. You give those 3 to Marge and she gives you an apple and an orange. Frank comes and takes the apple Marge gave you and gives you a pear. You give the pear to Bret in exchange for an apple. Frank then takes an apple from Marge, gives it to Bret for an orange, gives you the orange for an apple. How many pears do you have?

Answer :    None

Frank gave you a pear in exchange of the apple which Marge gave you. And you gave that pear to Bret in exchange for an apple. All the others exchanges involved apples and/or organges.

Four couples are going to the movie. Each row holds eight seats. Betty and Jim don't want to sit next to Alice and Tom. Alice and Tom don't want to sit next to Gertrude and Bill. On the otherhand, Sally and Bob don't want to sit next to Betty and Jim.

3. SlowRun Express runs between Bangalore and Mumbai, For the up as well as the down journey, the train leaves the starting station at 10:00 PM everyday and reaches the destination at 11:30 PM after three days. Mr. Haani once travelled by SlowRun Express from Mumbai to Bangalore. How many SlowRun Express did he cross during his journey?

Answer :

Mr. Haani crossed 7 SlowRun Expresses during his journey.

Let's say that Mr. Haani travelled by SlowRun Express on Wednesday 10:00PM from Mumbai. The first train he would have crossed is the one scheduled to arrive at Mumbai at 11:30 PM the same day i.e. the one that left Bangalore at 10:00 PM on last Sunday.

Also, he would have crossed the last train just before reaching Bangalore on Saturday.

4. Find sum of digits of D.
Let A= 1999 (power) 1999,  B = sum of digits of A,  C = sum of digits of B,  D = sum of digits of C  (HINT: A = B = C = D (mod 9))

Answer :    The sum of the digits of D is 1

Let E = sum of digits of D.

It follows from the hint that A = E (mod 9)

consider, (" ^ " means power)
A = 1999 ^ 1999
< 2000 ^ 2000
= 2 ^ 2000 * 1000 ^ 2000
= 1024 ^ 200 * 10 ^ 6000

< 10 ^ 800 * 10 ^ 6000

= 10 ^ 6800

i.e. A < 106800

i.e. B < 6800 * 9 = 61200

i.e. C < 5 * 9 = 45

i.e. D < 2 * 9 = 18

i.e. E <= 9

i.e. E is a single digit number.

Also,

1999 = 1 (mod 9)

so 19991999 = 1 (mod 9)

Therefore we conclude that E=1.

6. A number of 9 digits has the following properties:

The number comprising the leftmost two digits is divisible by 2, that comprising the leftmost three digits is divisible by 3, the leftmost four by 4, the leftmost five by 5, and so on for the nine digits of the number i.e. the number formed from the first n digits is divisible by n, 2<=n<=9.

Each digit in the number is different i.e. no digits are repeated.

The digit 0 does not occur in the number i.e. it is comprised only of the digits 1-9 in some order.

Find the number.

Answer :    381654729

One way to solve it is Trial-&-Error. You can make it bit easier as odd positions will always occupy ODD numbers and even positions will always occupy EVEN numbers. Further 5th position will contain 5 as 0 does not occur.

The other way to solve this problem is by writing a computer program that systematically tries all possibilities

7. How many possible combinations are there in a 3x3x3 rubics cube? In other words, if you wanted to solve the rubics cube by trying different combinations, how many might it take you (worst case senerio)? How many for a 4x4x4 cube?

Answer :

There are 4.3252 * 10^19 possible combinations for 3x3x3 Rubics and 7.4012 * 10^45 possible combinations for 4x4x4 Rubics.

Let's consider 3x3x3 Rubics first.

There are 8 corner cubes, which can be arranged in 8! ways.
Each of these 8 cubes can be turned in 3 different directions, so there are 3^8 orientations altogether. But if you get all but one of the corner cube into chosen positions and orientations, only one of 3 orientations of the final corner cube is possible. Thus, total ways corner cubes can be placed = (8!) * (3^8)/8 = (8!) * (3^7)

Similarly, 12 edge cubes can be arranged in 12! ways.
Each of these 12 cubes can be turned in 2 different directions, so there are 2^12 orientations altogether. But if you get all but one of the edge cube into chosen positions and orientations, only one of 2 orientations of the final edge cube is possible. Thus, total ways edge cubes can be placed = (12!) * (2^12)/2 = (12!) * (2^11)

Here, we have essentially pulled the cubes apart and stuck cubes back in place wherever we please. In reality, we can only move cubes around by turning the faces of the cubes. It turns out that you can't turn the faces in such a way as to switch the positions of two cubes while returning all the others to their original positions. Thus if you get all but two cubes in place, there is only one attainable choice for them (not 2!). Hence, we must divide by 2.

Total different possible combinations are
= [(8!) * (3^7)] * [(12!) * (2^11)] / 2
= (8!) * (3^7) * (12!) * (2^10)
= 4.3252 * 10^19

Similarly, for 4x4x4 Rubics total different possible combinations are
= [(8!) * (3^7)] * [(24!)] * [(24!) / (4!^6)] / 24
= 7.4011968 * 10^45

Note that there are 24 edge cubes, which you can not turn in 2 orientations (hence no 2^24 / 2). Also, there are 4 center cubes per face i.e. (24!) / (4!^6). You can switch 2 cubes without affecting the rest of the combination as 4*4*4 has even dimensions (hence no division by 2). But pattern on one side is rotated in 4 directions over 6 faces, hence divide by 24.

8. There were N stations on a railroad. After adding X stations 46 additional tickets have to be printed. Find N and X.

Answer :

Let before adding X stations, total number of tickets
t = N(N-1)

After adding X stations total number of tickets are
t + 46 = (N+X)(N+X-1)

Subtracting 1st from 2nd
46 = (N+X)(N+X-1) - N(N-1)
46 = N2 + NX - N + NX + X2 - X - N2 + N
46 = 2NX + X2 - X
46 = (2N - 1)X + X2
X2 + (2N - 1)X - 46 = 0

Now there are only two possible factors of 46. They are (46,1) and (23,2)

Case I: (46,1)
2N - 1 = 45
2N = 46
N = 23
And X = 1

Case II: (23,2)
2N - 1 = 21
2N = 22
N = 11
And X = 2

Hence, there are 2 possible answers.

9. Dr. DoLittle always goes walking to the clinic and takes the same time while going and while coming back. One day he noticed something. When he left the home, the hour hand and the minute hand were exactly opposite to each other and when he reached the clinic, they were together.

Similarly, when he left the clinic, the hour hand and the minute hand were together and when he reached the home, they were exactly opposite to each other. How much time does Dr. DoLittle take to reach home from the clinic? Give the minimal possible answer.

Answer :    32 minutes 43.6 seconds

In twelve hours, the minute hand and the hour hand are together for 11 times. It means that after every 12/11 hours, both the hands are together.

Similarly in twelve hours, the minute hand and the hour hand are exactly opposite to each other for 11 times. It means that after every 12/11 hours, both the hands are opposite.

Now, let's take an example. We know that at 12 both the hands are together and at 6 both the hands are exactly opposite to each other.

After 6, both the hands are in opposition at [6+(12/11)] hours, [6+2*(12/11)] hours, [6+3*(12/11)] hours and so on. The sixth such time is [6+6*(12/11)] hours which is the first time after 12. Thus after 12, both the hands are opposite to each other at 12:32:43.6

Hence, Dr. DoLittle takes 32 minutes and 43.6 seconds to reach home from the clinic.

10. Three men - Sam, Cam and Laurie - are married to Carrie, Billy and Tina, but not necessarily in the same order.
Sam's wife and Billy's Husband play Carrie and Tina's husband at bridge. No wife partners her husband and Cam does not play bridge.
Who is married to Cam?

Answer :    Carrie is married to Cam.

"Sam's wife and Billy's Husband play Carrie and Tina's husband at bridge."

It means that Sam is not married to either Billy or Carrie. Thus, Sam is married to Tina.

As Cam does not play bridge, Billy's husband must be Laurie.

Hence, Carrie is married to Cam