10. Something for the Marmalade

A little girl I know sells oranges from door to door.One day while on her rounds she sold ½ an orange more than half her oranges to the first customer. To the second customer she sold ½ an orange more than half on the remainder and to the third and the last customer she sold ½  an orange more than half she now had, leaving her none.Can you tell the number of oranges she originally had? Oh, by the way, she never had to cut an orange.

11.   The Bus Number

While visiting a small town in the united states, I lost my overcoat in a bus. When I reported the matter to the bus company I was asked the number to the bus. Though I did not remember the exact number I did remember that the bus number had a certain peculiarity about it. The number plate showed the bus number was a perfect square and also if the plate was turned upside down, the number would still be a perfect square  of course it was not?I came to know from the bus company they had only five hundred buses numbered from 1 to 500.From this I was able to deduce the bus number.Can you tell what was the number?

12.   To Catch a Thief

Some time back while in England I came across a case in a criminal court. A man was being accused of having stolen certain valuable jewels and trying to run away with them. When he was caught by a smart police officer who look overtook him.In cross examination the lawyer for accused asked the police officer how he could catch up with the accused who was already twenty seven steps ahead of  him, when he started to run after him. ‘Yes sir’, the officer replied. ‘He takes eight steps to every five of mine’.‘But then officer’, interrogated the lawyer, ‘how did you ever catch him, if that was the case?’‘That’s easily explained sir,’ replied the officer, ‘I have got a longer stride… two steps of mine are equal to his five. So the number of steps I required were fewer than hi, and this brought me to the spot where I captured him.’A member of the jury, who was particularly good at quick calculation did some checking and figured out the number of steps the police officer must have taken.Can you also find out how many steps the officer needed to catch up with the thief?

To view answer Click Here and check answers respectively to question number.