Flea Market Coins

You have in your pocket a half-dollar, a quarter, a dime, and a nickel. You are at a flea market, staring at a table of various small items. The clerk shows you several of them, each of which has a different price, and any one of which can be purchased with one or more of the coins in your pocket without your receiving any change. What is the largest number of items the clerk could show you?

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Age (Squares, Prime)

My age is a perfect square number of years greater than a perfect square; it is also a perfect square number of years less than a perfect square. Next year my age will be a prime number less than 50. What is my age this year?

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Arrange Playing Cards

This puzzle tests your powers of deduction. The five cards shown below were turned face down, shuffled, and put in a pile, one on top of another. Using the information given in the clues, see if you can identify each card’s position in the pile.

CLUES

  1. Two black cards are adjacent.
  2. A diamond is immediately above the king.
  3. The spade is above exactly one club.
  4. The 10 is below the 7, but above the ace.
  5. The king is not the fourth card.

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Men, Wives, Sons

Three men named Barber, Cutler, and Drake have wives named Emily, Ginger, and Louise but not necessarily in that order. Each couple has a son, the names of the boys being Allan, Henry and Victor. Drake is neither Louise’s husband nor Henry’s father. Emily is neither Cutler’s wife nor Allan’s mother. If Allan’s father is either Cutler or Drake, then Louise is Victor’s mother. If Louise is Cutler’s wife, Ginger is not Allan’s mother. What is the name of each man’s wife and son?

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Seniors, Couples, Reward

Three couples in the senior class solved the mystery of the Senior Bulletin Board and received the $5400 reward. The money was divided unequally among the six students. The girls together received $2400. Sue had $200 more than Jan, and Lynn had $200 more than Sue. Tom got half as much as his girlfriend; Bob got the same amount as his girlfriend; and Matt got twice as much as his girlfriend. Who is going with whom?

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Borjums

When put into test tubes in the lab, the four species of borjums always arrange themselves in groups of four, according to their weight, with the lightest on top and heaviest on the bottom. It is impossible to see more than two of them at a time, or to determine whether the two are next to each other or are separated by one or more borjums of intermediate weight. (A strange organism, no?) However, six definite facts have been established by the biology students to date, as follows:

  1. The alpha borjums are always lower down than the betas.
  2. The gammas are always higher up than the alphas.
  3. The delta borjums are always lower down than the gammas.
  4. The betas are always higher up than the deltas.
  5. The deltas are always lower down than the alphas.
  6. The gammas are always higher up than the betas.

Write the relative positions of the four species. Also, which of the six facts didn’t you need?

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