Awesome Puzzles

1. Place two letters in each set of brackets so that they form a word when tacked onto the letters on the left and form another word when placed in front of the letters on the right. The letters placed in the brackets must produce an eight letter word when read downwards in pairs.

HE(**)LY

HO(**)AR

AU(**)NK

CO(**)CH

Answer:  restrain.

               Here/rely

               Host/rely

               Aura/rank

               Coin/inch.

2. A billiard table is in the form of a rectangle with integral sides and just four pockets, one in each corner. A ball shoots out of the pockets at angles of 45 degree to the sides. Will it bounce around the table or finish up in one of the pockets?

Answer:  One of the pockets though not the one it started from.

3. A driving school claims an average test pass rate of 76.8 percent. What is the least number of pupils required to achieve this result?

Answer:  125. (96 passes out of 125 give an average of 76.8%).

4. A bag contains 65 balls of eight different colours. There are eight of each colour (including red). What is the least number you would have to pick, without looking, to be sure of selecting 3 red balls?

Answer:  59. (The first 56 balls could be of all colors except red. This would leave 8 balls, all of which are red, so any three chosen would be red.