Ramlal is a night watchman in a large company. On one fine morning when Ramlal was about to leave for home, his boss informs him, “I'll go for a business trip to Colombo. Tomorrow I will depart from Chennai airport”.

Ramlal, however advises him to take a ship.

“Why should I?” inquired the boss.

“Yesterday night I dreamt that the plane to Colombo crashes, just before it will land”, is the response from Ramlal.

The president smiles first, but since he is pretty superstitious he decides to take the ship. When he arrives in Colombo, he is told that the plane which he should have taken had crashed. When the president returns from the trip, he gives a big reward to Ramlal and immediately fires him. Why?

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Imagine you are in a big house and you need to match out the 3 switches located in the first floor with the three light bulbs located in the ground floor. In the ground floor there are 3 bulbs (all are off at the moment), each switch belongs to some bulb.

Question

How can you find out, which switch belongs to which bulb?

Other conditions

It is impossible to see from one room to another.

He can only get down only once to check out the bulb.

Only hands are used. No other device.

Leave your answers below as comments.

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This puzzle is a DTI--Debt-to-Income--problem that banks usually utilize to calculate whether or not a potential borrower will be able to pay back the loan.

Background Info: Mr. and Mrs. Abrams have a combined yearly income of $90,000. They would like to purchase a commercial property on which to start a business for $215,000. They have spoken with a potential lender, who indicated they can provide a $200,000, 30 year loan at 7% interest if the Abrams can qualify. In addition to the property payment, the Abrams estimate their taxes and insurance to be $145 per month. Mr. Abrams has a student loan payment of $67 a month and Mrs. Abrams has a car payment of $347 a month. Assume an amortization factor of 6.65.

Question: Will the Abrams be able to qualify for this loan?

Do your own calculations, and then check below for the right steps and the correct answer.

Step One: Calculate their monthly income by dividing $90,000 by twelve. Their monthly income is then $7,500.

Step Two: Calculate their property payment by taking into account the amortization factor for a 30 year long at 7%. Their estimated monthly payment is $200 multiplied by 6.65 amortization factor, leaving them with a $1330 monthly payment.

Step Three: Calculate their total PITI and monthly debt. The $1300 a month, added to the $145 month, means their monthly expenses are $1475 per month. Their total monthly expenses then include the $1475, plus their $67 and $347 payments, bringing them to $1889.

Step Four: Calculate their Debt to Income Ratios. The first ratio is the $1475 expense versus their $7500 income, meaning that they are under the 28% threshold the bank requires. Their full expenses of $1889 versus their $7500 monthly income is just over 25%, which is still well below the 36% the bank requires.

Solution: Their percentage of monthly income to monthly debt is high enough that they do qualify for the loan!

Danielle is a math whiz with a keen interest in real estate, checking on prices of land for sale in her area and calculating the probability of being approved for loans.

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The Pierrot in the illustration is standing in a posture that represents the sign of multiplication. He is indicating the peculiar fact that 15 multiplied by 93 produces exactly the same figures (1,395), differently arranged.

The puzzle is to take any four digits you like (all different) and similarly arrange them so that the number formed on one side of the Pierrot when multiplied by the number on the other side shall produce the same figures. There are very few ways of doing it, and you shall give all the cases possible. Can you find them all?

Remember you are allowed to put two figures on each side of the Pierrot as in the example shown, or to place a single figure on one side and three figures on the other. If we only used three digits instead of four, the only possible ways are these: 3 multiplied by 51 equals 153, and 6 multiplied by 21 equals 126.

Leave your answers below as comments.

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The Great Russian poet Benediktov was very fond of mathematics and he collected and compiled a whole volume of trick brain teasers. Though this work was never published, the manuscript was found in 1924. An interesting problem contained in the manuscript, captioned ‘An ingenious Way of Solving a Tricky Problem’ goes as follows:

One woman made a living by selling eggs, had 90 eggs which she wanted her three daughters to sell. So she gave her eldest daughter 10 eggs, 30 to her second daughter and 50 to the youngest.

'You better agree among yourselves', she told them; ' about the price you're going to ask fo you eggs, and stick to it. But I hope that the eldest will receive as much for her 10 eggs as the second will for her 30 eggs and the third for her 50 eggs. In other words each of you should bring back the same amount of money and keep in mind; the total for 90 eggs should not be less than 90 bucks.

I found this interesting puzzle from the book named More Puzzles by Shakuntala Devi.

Post your answers below as comments or discuss it on the QuickerMaths facebook page.

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Three countrymen met at a cattle market. ‘Look here,’ said Hari to Jaggu, ‘I’ll give you six of my pigs for one of your horses, and then you’ll have twice as many animals here as I’ve got.’

‘If that’s your way of doing business,’ said Dinanath to Hari, ‘I’ll give you fourteen of my sheep for a horse, and then you’ll have three times as many animals as I.’

‘Well, I’ll go better than that,’ said Jaggu to Dinanath; ‘I’ll give you four cows for a horse, and then you’ll have six times as many animals as I’ve got here.’

No doubt this was a very primitive way of bartering animals, but  it is an interesting little puzzle to discover just how many animals Jaggu, Hari and Dinanath must have taken to the cattle market.

If you enjoy puzzles like this you may also enjoy math classes from an accredited online college.

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1. If 3 cats kill 3 rats in 3 minutes, how long will it take 100 cats to kill 100 rats?
2. Is it legal for a man to marry his widow’s sister?
3. A monkey is at the bottom of a 30-foot well. Each day he jumps up 3 feet and slips back two. At that rate when will the monkey reach the top of the well?
4. I have 2 minutes to catch a train and 2 Km to go. If I go the first Km at the rate of 30 Km per hour, at what rate must I go the second Km in order to catch the train?
5. The number of eggs in a basket doubles every minute. The basket is full of eggs in an hour. When was the basket hall full?
6. What is the smallest number of ducks that could swim in this formation: two ducks in front of a duck, two ducks behind a duck and a duck between two ducks?
7. A boat will carry only 200 pounds. How a man weighing 200 pounds and his two sons, each of whom weighs 100 pounds, use it to cross a river?

Leave your answers below as a comment.

Online masters degree programs are available for those who want to learn advanced math skills.

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A man on a park bench is looking at a small portrait. You ask him, Who is that in the picture?
The man says, Brothers and sisters, I have none, but that man's father, is my father's son.
Can you tell what person is in the picture?

A beggar's brother died, but the man who died had no brother. How could this be?

Leave your answers below as comments. If you have more such puzzles based on family relationships, post them as comments below.

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To solve this problem you’ll require some innovative thinking. Let’s see how many of you can come up with some feasible solution to this problem posed by Akbar infront of everyone. If you can think in “the Bribal way”, you can answer this. So here goes the story –

Akbar-Birbal Tales - Retrieving the Ring

Once Akbar threw his gold ring in to a dry well and asked his ministers to retrieve it without climbing down into the well. Everyone thought deeply but could not come up with a solution. Birbal loved challenges like this. He promised the king to get back his ring before sunset.

What would have you done, had you been in the place of Birbal. Give your solution as a comment below.

If you are fond of such witty tales and you love the insight these stories provide, consider reading the book suggested in the last post - Solve Your Problems – The Birbal Way

There is another equally interesting book – Fix your Problems – The Tenali Raman Way

If you’ve read any other book similar to these, please share with all of us.

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In each post I’ll narrate a problem faced by Birbal. However, I’ll not specify the solution sited by him. It’s up to you to provide solutions as comments below. The solution can be similar to Birbal’s solution or it can be completely different. From each story also try to deduce some management principles applicable in today’s life.

What can we learn from Birbal?

Birbal’s way of problem solving encompasses all the skills required for solving complicated puzzles, riddles and brain teasers. Logical reasoning, lateral thinking, critical thinking, out-of-the-box thinking, etc., all are applied wherever required by Birbal to solve the problem at hand.  I’ll narrate a formula in the form of an acronym – BRIBAL, which stands for each step of the problem solving process, resulting in an ideal solution.

Formula for Problem Solving

B – Begin

I – Investigate

R – Relate

B – Balance

A – Apply

L – Link

I got this formula from a book worth its price, named – Solve Your Problems – The Birbal Way

So here goes the first story of this series -

First Story – Lesson from the Holy Book

Akbar, once said to Birbal – “Birbal, it is said in one of your Hindu Holy Books that Lord Vishnu one day heard the agonized cry of one of His elephants and rushed to its aid. Why would a god with so many servants at his disposal himself rush to help an elephant?”

Give a solution below as comment, which could have satisfied intellectually demanding emperor Akbar.

Read the next post in this series - Akbar-Birbal Tales - Retrieving the Ring

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