Gareth Moore - 10-Minute Brain Teasers: Brain-Training Tips, Logic Tests, and Puzzles to Exercise Your Mind

Sudoku

Sudoku has one very simple rule: fill in the grid so that each row, column, and marked 3 by 3 box contains each of the numbers 1 to 9 once and once only.

No guessing is required, and there is only one solution. If youre not sure you understand the rules, then take a quick peek at the answer to see how it works.

BEGINNERS EXERCISE 1 SOLUTION

Read this tale of tails, and then answer as many questions as you can without checking the text again. Then when youve done that, go back and check the text and answer the rest.

On Tuesdays, Katie tends to go for a walk in the park with her brother Toms dog, Sammy. Sammy is quite a friendly dog and so tends to say hello in a doggy kind of way to quite a mix of canine chums. Particular friends of Sammy include Woof, the golden retriever owned by the local barber, and Mr. Bark, the small spaniel thats frequently found yapping madly at small children who dare to come into his domain. Sammy is a creature of habit, so he tends to walk Katie around the park in a clockwise direction, while the other dogs take their owners around the circular park path in a counter-clockwise direction. Sometimes the barber, Bob, walks his dog in the same direction as Sammy, but truth be told, he generally only does this on Wednesdays. Odd but true.

Occasionally, a neighborhood cat has the temerity to wander across what is clearly Sammys own turf on earth, and, in fact, Katies tortoiseshell cat Black sometimes also does thisalthough usually she knows better than to do this on Tuesdays. But the funny thing is that, on other days of the week, she only wanders in when theres the chance to try and bully the window cleaners little yappy spaniel that isnt quite so brave as his yappy little mouth would like you to think. Fridays good for that.

This cat and dog life has been going on for the best part of three years now, so maybe its time for things to changeSammys even considering walking the other way around the park now! Of course if he did that hed bump into his doggy friends/foes not quite so often, so hes not sure; he might only do that on alternate Tuesdays.

• Which way around the park does Mr. Bark walk?
• On what days of the week do we know the barber is in the park?
• What color is Black?
• What job does the spaniels owner have?
• What is the relationship between Katie and Tom?
• Which dogs sometimes or always walk clockwise around the park?
• How many different people are mentioned by name?
• How many times is the word chum (or chums) used in this story?
• On what day of the week does the cat in the story normally avoid the park?
• What sort of dog is Woof?
• If Sammy walked the other way around the park, how often is he planning to do this?
• How many rabbits co-star in this story?

BEGINNERS EXERCISE 3

Kakuro

Fill in the grid so that each run of squares adds up to the total in the box above or to the left. You can only use the numbers 1 to 9, and you may not repeat any number within any run (a number may reoccur in the same row/column in a separate run). Totals below the diagonal line give the sum of the numbers in the run below, while totals to the right of the diagonal line give the sum of numbers in the run to the right.

No guessing is required, and there is only one solution. If youre not sure you understand the rules, then take a quick peek at the answer to see how it works.

BEGINNERS EXERCISE 3 SOLUTION

BEGINNERS EXERCISE 4

• How many clear corners are there in this illustration?
• How many rectangles can you count?
• How many different colors would you need to color in each shape so that no two colors were adjacent to one another?
• How many intersections are there where a + sign is formed?
• And how many intersections where a T is formed?

BEGINNERS EXERCISE 4 SOLUTION