Skeptics Café

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

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

1. Lara went first, then Kara, then Sara, then Mara, and then Tara.

2. Mr Cooper is the doctor

3. 72 days

4. East

5. They are father, son and grandson

6. 120 degrees

7. George – turkey; Vic – chicken; John – ham
If Vic had the turkey, then statement 2, Vic did not have the chicken would also be true. As only one statement is true, Vic did not have the turkey
Now assume John had the turkey sandwich. If so, the both the third and the fourth statements would be true which again contradicts the fact that only one of the statements is true. So John could not have had the turkey sandwich. So if Vic did not have the turkey and if John did not have the turkey, it must have been George
Now assume that Vic had the ham sandwich. This would then mean both the second and the fourth statements were true which is not possible. So Vic must have had the chicken.
The third statement (John did not have the chicken sandwich) is the only true statement.

8. Shape D

9. Blue, yellow, black, red, green

10. 10 of diamonds, King of Hearts, 8 of Spades

1. Wedge-tailed Eagle

2. Heels

3. Hobart

4. Moonies

5. 1968

6. ALL SYSTEMS GO

7. a bus

8. Bill Woodfull (Australia), Douglas Jardine (England)

9. James Brolin

10. My Fair Lady

HARDER:

11. 5 (Menzies, Fadden, Curtin, Forde, Chifley)

12. 1977

13. Russia, Canada, China, United States, Brazil

14. A pound of flesh

15. Surfers Paradise or Gold Coast. (The QI Building)

16. 93

17. Its Stromatolites (very rare living fossils; large structures built around cyanobacteria)

18. 1976

19. Tasmania

20. Flowering Blue Gum

1. 1 shilling (12 pence)

2. 10

3. Beth
Joe can’t be telling the truth because then Beth would be lying, and Al’s statement (which is also a lie) would mean that Beth is telling the truth. These two facts contradict each other. Therefore Joe is lying, which means that Beth is telling the truth.

4. 11 times

5. 100

6. A plane figure enclosed by 10 straight sides e.g.

7. 13 days

8. In order, left to right: Green, red, light blue, brown

9. 1 in 3
For any woman to have two children of different ages, the four equally likely outcomes are:
Two boys
Older boy, younger girl
Older girl, younger boy
Two girls
However, if you know that at least one of the children is a girl, that eliminates “two boys” and leaves only three equally likely outcomes, one of which is “two girls”.

10. The Green Door.

Assume Freedom is behind the red door. All three doors would then have true statements which we know is not possible since one of them must be false.

Assume Freedom is behind the blue door. All three doors would then have false statements which we know is not possible since one of them must be true.

Freedom is therefore behind the green door. The blue door and the green door have true statements and the red door has a false statement.