Question: Walking home one day, you take a short cut along the train tracks. The tracks cross a narrow bridge over a deep gorge. At the point you are 3/8 of the way across the bridge, you hear the train whistle somewhere behind you. You charge across the bridge, and jump off the track as the train is about to run you down. As it happens, if you had gone the other way, you would have reached safety just before being run over as well.
If you can run ten miles per hour, how fast is the train moving?
Answer: The train is moving at 40 miles per hour. Imagine that a friend is walking with you. When the train whistle blows, you head away from the train, he heads toward it. When he reaches safety, you will be 6/8 (or 3/4)of the way across the bridge, and the train will have just reached the bridge. For the train to cross 4/4 of the bridge in the time you cross the remaining 1/4, the train must be moving four times your speed.
Question: Joe bets Tony $100 that he can predict the score of the football game before it starts. Tony agrees, but loses the bet. Why did Tony lose the bet?
Answer: Joe said the score would be 0-0 and he was right. "Before" any football game starts, the score is always 0-0.
Question: A young boy needs to cross a bridge that can only hold 100 pounds of weight. The young boy weighs 98 pounds. The young boy also has 3 balls that each weigh 1 pound each. The yougn boy needs to get across the bridge with all the balls at the exact same time. How does he get across the bridge with all 3 balls at the same time?
Answer: The Boy juggles all 3 balls while he walks across the bridge.
Question: Trains travel from one town to another town all day, always on the same track, always going nonstop and at the same speed. The noon train took 80 minutes to complete the trip, but the 4 PM train took an hour and 20 minutes. Why?
Answer: 80 minutes is the same as an hour and 20 minutes.