You’ll find a new lot of Picture Puzzles and “Mixed Bag” Questions in the PUZZLES PAGE ;
September 2016 Skeptical Crossword Puzzle is about general skeptical issues;
while the September 2016 Logic & Maths Problems feature dice, cats, cigarette butts, photo albums and a ring around the Earth.
Enjoy!
(reposted from AUSTRALIAN SKEPTICS INC website)
The Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science has awarded Dr Ken Harvey the 2016 ANZAAS Medal.
The medal is awarded annually for services for the advancement of science or administration and organisation of scientific activities, or the teaching of science throughout Australia and New Zealand and in contributions to science which lie beyond normal professional activities. Previous winners of the medal include Sir Gus Nossal, Sir Mark Oliphant and Harry Messel. View More Congratulations, Dr Ken Harvey
August’s Picture Puzzles and “Mixed Bag” Questions are at the top of the PUZZLES PAGE ;
August 2016 Skeptical Crossword Puzzle revisits Chiropractic ;
and there’s a set of August 2016 Logic & Maths Problems .
Enjoy!
1. 1.6%
2. 30
3. 0.16 (Two fifths squared is four twenty fifths or 16 hundredths)
4. c
5. 324
6. Sam has 21 balls and Fred has 15 balls.
If Sam would give Fred 3 balls, they would have an equal number (i.e., 18 balls each).
If Fred would give Sam 3 balls, then Sam would have 24 balls and Fred would have 12 balls.
7. b
8. $128
9. a
10. 579 pages
1. 72
2. a. 7
b. Scores of 10 and 11 are equally likely
c. 4 and 24
3. 26. (a quick way of approaching this if you know that 676 is a perfect square is to realise that its square root must lie between 20 (20 X 20 = 400) and 30 (30 X 30 = 900). Then, since 676 ends in 6 the only candidates are 24 X 24 and 26 X 26. However, if the answer was 24, then 676 would have 3 as one of its factors; its digits must add up to some multiple of 3. But 6 + 7 + 6 =13. That rules out 24; the answer must be 26)
4. 6, if he saves and reuses the butts from his own newly rolled cigarettes.
5. 3 cats
6. Two. (83 and 89)
7. a. 15 triangles; b. 9 triangles
8. 62 photos
9. a. Yes b. Yes c. Yes (as the gap is 1.6 m some men might have to crouch a bit)
10. The ring road is about 10% quicker
1. 4 animals (1 pig , 1 dog, 1 cat, 1 cow)
2. a. 1 in 9
3. 177, 174 and 171
4. 21 rectangles
5. Three melons
6. Dale
7. a. (left) Sally; b. (Middle) Sue; c. (Right) Sarah
8. a. 69 birds b. 184 birds
9. Arrangement C
10. The child with the black hair is the girl, and the child with the white hair is the boy.
Since at least one of them lied, the only possibility is that they both lied, otherwise they would be two boys or two girls.
This article first appeared as a Vic Skeptics discussion pamphlet and again here in December 2010.
The full range of our discussion pamphlets can be downloaded from our USEFUL INFO page.
by Peter Barrett, (Canberra Skeptics), updated 2016 by Ken Greatorex
It’s one of the great questions: is there life elsewhere in the universe, apart from the Earth? Skeptics would say, “Almost certainly, but at the moment we don’t know how likely it might be.”
Life thrives on Earth, particularly in the tropical and temperate latitudes. Life exists even in the harsh desert and polar regions. But most importantly, life has been found to exist in places previously thought inhospitable, such as inside rocks in the dry valleys of Antarctica or around geothermal vents, where the water is boiling hot. The fact that life can survive in such unlikely places dramatically increases the range of potential habitats for life elsewhere. So are there places where life could exist elsewhere in our own Solar System?
1. temperate
2. four-part harmony
3. centennial
4. beady eyes
5. frankincense
6. seasoning
7. melancholy
