MHB Trick Questions - 9: How Many Rungs and Pages Does the Bookworm Eat?

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The discussion centers around a series of trick questions designed to challenge problem-solving skills and lateral thinking. Key questions include a scenario involving a rope ladder on a yacht with rising tides, prompting participants to calculate how many rungs are underwater after a few hours. Another question asks participants to name integers from 1 to 999 that do not contain the letter "a," emphasizing the linguistic differences in English. Additionally, a riddle about a bookworm traveling through a multi-volume set of books is presented, testing spatial reasoning. The conversation also touches on the differences between American and British English, particularly in mathematical terminology, highlighted by a referenced video that explores these variations.
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. . . . . . . . Trick Questions - 9There is rope ladder hanging over the side of a yacht.
The rungs are one foot apart.
At 1 p.m. there are three rungs below the water.
The tide is rising at one foot per hour.
How many rungs are underwater at 4 p.m.
Three rungs.
The yacht rises with the tide.
Consider the English names of the integers from 1 to 999.
In the next 30 seconds, how many numbers can you name
that do not contain the letter "a"?
Start counting: one, two, three, etc.
None of them contain the letter "a".

Note: 123 is "one hundred twenty-three".
. . . . .There is no "and" used.

. . . . .The "and" represents the decimal point.
. . . . .12.3 = "twelve and three-tenths".
In the original movie, who played Frankenstein?
Colin Clive.
Boris Karloff played the nameless monster.
A 3-volume set of books is on a shelf in the usual way.
A bookworm eats his way from the first page of Volume 1
directly to the last page of Volume 3.
Each volume is 1 inch thick. .(Ignore covers.)
How far does the bookworm travel?
One inch.
Code:
      *---*---*---*
      |   |   |   |
      |   |   |   |
      | 1 | 2 | 3 |
      |   |   |   |
      |   |   |   |
      *---*---*---*
          ↑   ↑ 
          a   b
The first page of Volume 1 is at a.
The last page of Volume 3 is at b.

Gotcha!
 
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soroban said:
In the next 30 seconds, how many numbers can you name
that do not contain the letter "a"?
Start counting: one, two, three, etc.
None of them contain the letter "a".

Note: 123 is "one hundred twenty-three".
. . . . .There is no "and" used.

. . . . .The "and" represents the decimal point.
. . . . .12.3 = "twelve and three-tenths".

Erm, in the UK we say "one hundred and twenty three". Are we wrong? :p
 
As an American who taught British English for a couple of years, I am pretty aware of most of the differences between our versions of English, but only recently became aware of the differences with regards to math (or maths ;) ) and numbers. Here's a cool video talking about some of them.

 

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