August 2017 Picture Puzzles – Answers
1. Impersonal
2. Pop idol
3. Criminal intent
4. Long division
5. Carrying to excess
6. Imperatives
7. For all we know
“Mixed Bag” Questions May 2017 – Answers
1. Fletch; Fletch Lives
2. 200 (approx 180)
3. The Beatles; The Maharishi
4. Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan
5. 7 (Six plus goalkeeper)
6. North and South Korea
7. organist
8. c. After Christmas Day. Boxing Day is the first of the Twelve Days of Christmas.
9. The Great Barrier Reef
10. c. South China Sea
HARDER:
11. China
12. A dialect of German spoken in Brazil
13. Spectacled Bear aka Andean Bear aka jukumari, ukumari or ukuku, scientific name Tremarctos ornatus
14. Lost sponsor and sponsorship due to Canada’s cigarette advertising bans
15. It comes from horses
16. Animals that have displayed “conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty while serving or associated with any branch of the Armed Forces or Civil Defence Units” (British)
17. Steve Elkington (1990). The Wyndham Championship is a regular golf tournament on the PGA Tour. It is played annually in Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S., and was originally called the Greater Greensboro Open.
18. A rhetorical question / a question that didn’t require an answer
19. The daughters of William Shakespeare with married surnames.
20. A rattle used in herding sheep
May 2017 Logic & Maths Problems – Solutions
1. Suzie.
Since Suzie always lies and Samantha always tells the truth, neither lady would ever say that her own name is Suzie. Therefore the woman on the left must be lying about what the other lady said. The lady on the left is therefore Suzie.
2. 1101
3. From strongest to weakest: Laura, Lance, Lenny, Lulu
4. He makes a mound of earth and stands on it to reach the skylight
5. 78
6. The house numbers
7. Mother 73, daughter 37
8. Bob, Ed, Dave
9. Mr Red worked for Green & Co
Mr Green worked for Blue & Co
Mr Blue worked for Red & Co
10. a = 21 b = 20
Puzzles for April 2017
Our Crossword this month has Paranormal Pastimes as its theme, and we return to a choice of standard or cryptic clues.
April 2017 Skeptical Crossword Puzzle (HTML format)
or
80 April 2017 Crossword Paranormal Pastimes (.pdf format).
There are ten new April 2017 Logic & Maths Problems (HTML format)
or
57 Logic and Maths Puzzles April 2017 for pdf (.pdf format);
and a new set of seven Picture Puzzles and twenty “Mixed Bag” questions at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE
Enjoy!
A Skeptic’s Guide to the Scientific Method
This article first appeared here in July 2011. You can also download the latest .pdf version here: Scientific Method . Our full range of Skeptics Guides can be accessed using the USEFUL INFO tab at the top of this page.
“Science is best defined as a careful, disciplined, logical search for knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by examination of the best available evidence and always subject to correction and improvement upon discovery of better evidence. What’s left is magic.
And it doesn’t work.”
– James Randi
The term “Scientific Method” is used to describe the way scientific research is designed, performed and reviewed. Good science depends on rigour – strict and unfailing adherence to basic principles.
In simple terms, as a scientist, you would:
1. Make some observation about something that is going on in the universe. View More A Skeptic’s Guide to the Scientific Method
“Mixed Bag” Questions April 2017 – Answers
1. a. Substitute b. Footloose c. The Wild Rose d. Octopuss’s Garden e. Funky Town
2. “SANCTION” (although “CANONIST” could be considered a legitimate answer.)
3. C. 760
4. Tiny Tim
5. No Trees
6. C. Nicaragua
7. C. a furniture van
8. Athens, Antwerp, Amsterdam Atlanta
9. Sweden
10. 1970
HARDER:
11. He’s a Mathematical genius with an IQ said to be about 230
12. Kindergarten
13. New South Wales
14. Estonia
15. Oxford and Cambridge reserve Rowing Eights teams
16. Geronimo
17. 1916
18. An annual Viking festival held in Shetland
19. Romerik, in modern-day Norway
20. 723
April 2017 Logic & Maths Problems – Solutions
1. 7
2. 48 (the differences start at 2 and keep doubling)
3. (a) 11 (b) 111 (c) 1111
4. 3
5. 8
6. 29 days
7. 1987
8. 1432
9. 7. yellow, yellow, yellow, light-blue
In the second row there was one colour change from the first row; red was taken out and replaced with yellow… and this guess received one more keypeg. This means yellow is in and red is out. And if yellow is in, obviously it must be in column 3.
There was one colour change from the second and fourth rows… dark-blue was taken out and replaced with brown. Since the number of keypegs stayed the same, this means they are either both in or both out. So if they are both in then green and light-blue must both be out, according to the information received with the fourth guess. (Since it must be yellow and brown that are drawing the two keypegs.) But how can green and light-blue both be out if two black keypegs were received in the third guess? They can’t so this means that dark-blue and brown must both be out, not in.
So, red is out, dark-blue is out, brown is out
Yellow is in.
One of green or light-blue is in but not both.
A double of green is out (Row 3)
So the four colours must be either:
yellow, light-blue, light-blue, light-blue
yellow, yellow, yellow, green
yellow, yellow, light-blue, light-blue
yellow, yellow, yellow, light-blue
A triple with light-blue just doesn’t work.
If green is in it can’t be in columns 3 or 4. A simple check indicates no solution fits with it in either columns 1 or 2 either so this colour combination is not correct.
If light-blue is in twice one must be in column 4 and the other must be in column 2 since light-blue can’t be in column 1 (row 1) or column 3. But yellow, light-blue, yellow, light-blue would not receive a black keypeg in row two, which it did.
The only combination left happens to work. yellow, yellow, yellow, light-blue fits each guess.
10. a. 8 b. 24 c. 24 d. 8
