An enigma is a person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand. Below are a list of past weekly challenge enigma's listed in descending chronological order.
In a contest, there are four fruits (an apple, a banana, an orange, and a pear) which have been placed in four closed boxes (one fruit per box). People may guess which fruit is in which box. There were 123 participants in the contest. The results are; 43 people guessed none correctly, 39 people guessed one correctly and 31 people have guessed two correctly. How many people guessed three correctly and how many people guessed all four correctly?
Answer:
It is not possible to only get three correct because the fourth would also be correct. Therefore, the answer would be (123-43-39-31 = 10) 10 people guessed all four correctly.
In the back yard, there is a hollow stump, that contains six ears of corn. If a healthy squirrel carries out only three ears each day, how many days will it take to empty the stump?
Answer:
Six. Each day the squirrel will carry out the two ears on his head plus one ear of corn.
Many years ago, a wealthy old man was near death. He wished to leave his fortune to one of his three children. The old man wanted to know that his fortune would be in wise hands. He stipulated that his estate would be left to the child who would sing him half as many songs as days that he had left to live. The eldest son said he couldn't comply because he didn't know how many days his father had left to live, and besides he was too busy. The youngest son said the same thing. The man ended up leaving his money to his third child, a daughter. What did his daughter do?
Answer:
Every other day, the daughter sang her father a song.
