What was my actual license number?

72.  Lose or Gain

A man I know runs a workshop in Calcutta. He bought two lathes to use in his workshop. However, He found out afterwards that they did not serve the purpose for which he had bought them, and so he decided to sell them. He sold them each for Rs.600 making a loss of 20% on one of them and a profit of 20% on the other.

Did he lose or gain in the transaction, and how much did each machine cost him?

73.     A Problem of Combination

A box contains 12 marbles of three different colours green, yellow and blue   4 each.

If you were to close your eyes and pick them at random, hoe many marbles must you take out to be sure that there are at least two of one colour among the marbles picked out?

74.    On the See-Saw

Some day back, walking through the park, I saw a little girl trying to play the see-saw all by herself. It takes two to see-saw, but here was a girl who was ingenious enough to try and see-saw on her own.

I saw her tying a number of bricks to one end of the plank to balance her weight at the other.

I curiously noted that she just balanced against sixteen bricks, when these were fixed to the short end of the plank and I also noticed that if she were to fix them to the long end of the plank, she only needed eleven as balance.

I wondered what was the girl’s weight. The brick, I could guess weighed equal to a three quarter brick and three quarter of a pound.

Can you figure it out?

75.      The Special Number

There is a number whose double is greater than its half by 45.

Can you find this number?

76.  Sawing the Tree Trunk

A heavy tree trunk can be sawed into a 12 ft long piece in one minute. How long will it take to saw it into twelve equal pieces?

77.   The Spilt

Can you split 34 parts into two parts such that 4/7 of  one of the parts equals 2/5 of the other?

78.      At the Fete

A number of us went out together to a charity fete one day. Our party consisted of 4 different professional groups, namely 25 writers, 20 doctors,18 dentists and 12 bank employees. We spent altogether Rs.1,330

Later it was found that 5 writers spent as much as four doctors, that twelve doctors spent as much as nine dentists, and that six dentists spent as much as eight bank employees.

How much did each of the four professional groups spend?

79.      At the Store

I entered a store and spent one half of the money that was in my purse. When I came out I found that I had just as many paise as I had rupees and half as many rupees as I had paise when I went in.

How much money did I have  with me when I entered?

80.     The Bigamist

A man I know in Bombay committed bigamy by marrying two women at brief intervals, one without the knowledge of the other. Somehow he was not brought to the notice of the law and though; if exposed the axe could fall on him any day, he decided to get the best out of the situation while it lasted.

He was found of both the women and had no special preference for either. One lived near Church gate and the other in Bandra. After work he generally went to the station, and took that train which got into the station first-Church gate or Bandra. He arrived at his destination at random timings, but found that he was visiting his Church gate wife much more often than the other, despite the fact both the church gate and Bandra trains were on schedules which brought him to his station equally often. The same thing had been happening for a very long time.

Can you find the reason for the frequency of his Church gate trips?