h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One of your mates lives at number 14 (of 20 houses). The other one lives in a longer street....... possibly a much longer street...

That is correct, but I have another couple of mates, one of whom lives in a road with less than 100 houses. Any takers for him?

I'd guess number 84 of 119 houses.

Whoops, I was wrong and you were right. He does indeed live at 84/119. There are no further friends who live in a road with less than 100 houses.

That's probably enough to award you the points

Over to you...

"That's probably enough to award you the points"

Faint praise indeed!

You forgot my imaginary friend who lives at 14i.

"You forgot my imaginary friend who lives at 14i."

Of course, *my* friend lives towards the shadier end of his street, at number 16,730 of 23,660 houses. Do you know anyone living, under the same conditions, on a longer road?

Oddly, no, I don't.

OK, I'll post another one then...

Someone said we should try to get some more young people on to h2g2, so here's a brainteaser just for them:

* * *

Me and my mate Pigeon went down the park last night. I brought five 2-litre bottles of Tesco's super-strength cider, and Pigeon brought three more. When we got down there we met Fat Boy. Well, we shared the cider and chillaxed. Man it was sick.

I got £2 off Fat Boy for the cider, but how much of it should Pigeon get?

I have found two ways of sharing the money. The first (which I think is not the one you are looking for) is to give hime 3/8 of it (i.e. 75p) as he supplied 3/8 of the cider.
What I think you are looking for, though, is to give him 25p. This is based on the fact that he drank all but 1/3 bottle of his own cider, but Fat Boy drank 2 1/3 bottles of your cider (i.e. 7 times more of yours than his).

Yep, you described it well: 25p was the answer I was looking for

Over to you

May I just say that you really did capture the idiom with that last question, Icy. Nice phrasing.

Innit.


Geggs

Thanks Geggs,

Think I'll apply for a job with Edexcel.

I start with two full mugs, one containing milk and the other containing tea, in exactly equal amounts. I transfer 3 spoonsful of milk from the first mug to the second, and stir thoroughly. Then I transfer 3 spoonsful from the now-milky tea in the second mug back into the first mug.

Which is greater: the amount of tea now in the first mug or the amount of milk now in the second mug?

I've heard this one before, so I'll keep quiet

No takers?

Well, if the volume is the same in each mug, then the respective concentrations (or amounts of one in the other) must be identical.

Let m be a mug of milk, and t be a mug of tea. If you had, say 0.7m + 0.3t in one mug, and 0.2m + 0.8t in the other, then your total amount of milk would be 0.2 + 0.7 = 0.9 (less milk than you started with). Similarly, there would be more than one mug of tea.

It only works if the respective concentrations are the same in each.

I'll post another one:

Q. When an express train is going from London to Edinburgh, what parts of the train are actually moving towards London?

wheels?

How?

The lower half of the wheel is turning in the direction of London.