[pippystardust]

if a brick weighs 4pounds and half a brick
  then what does a brick and a half weigh ?

[Joe L. Ogan]

Is there something tricky about this.  I see your point  Thanks for comments,, joe L.Ogan

[CliffordK]

I think you're off a bit.
I'd put the answer at 12 pounds.

[RD]

if a brick weighs 4pounds and half a brick
  then what does a brick and a half weigh ?

i.e.        b = 4 + ½b
=>     ½b = 4
=>        b = 8
=> CliffordK is correct

[pippystardust]

  Well done Clifford    the answer is indeed 12 pounds     its a simple algebra question made tricky by its wording...   the question is basically    What is the weight of a the brick ?

This one has caused a helluva rumpus in work  even amongst academics ..its only when i DREW it on a board as a seesaw   with a brick on one side.. balanced by a half brick and a 4lb weight on the other that SOME people started to get it !!!!

[damocles]

There was an old (probably first world war vintage) puzzle that went: "If a hen and a half laid an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs would a rooster lay in a week?". That was, of course, the easy one. The harder variant went: "If a hen and a half laid an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs would a hen (working at the same rate) lay in six days?"

[imatfaal]

There was an old (probably first world war vintage) puzzle that went: "If a hen and a half laid an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs would a rooster lay in a week?". That was, of course, the easy one. The harder variant went: "If a hen and a half laid an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs would a hen (working at the same rate) lay in six days?"

Your second question - and PippySD's OP are important.  Algebra is great -  I love it - but it is of little use if you cannot take real world lumpen phrase and represent it algebraically

[Don_1]

Based on all of this, can you tell me then, how much milk is in a bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk?

[CliffordK]

There was an old (probably first world war vintage) puzzle that went: "If a hen and a half laid an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs would a rooster lay in a week?". That was, of course, the easy one. The harder variant went: "If a hen and a half laid an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs would a hen (working at the same rate) lay in six days?"

Hmmmm

So, the question is which half of the wishbone did the half a hen have.     

So, algebraically, one gets...
R = the number of eggs laid by the rooster...
E = the number of eggs laid in 6 days.
H = the number of eggs that 1.5 hens lays in 1.5 d.
So, it would be

E =10xR + 4xH   

So...
One must conclude E=6  eggs laid by one hen in 6 days. 

[neilep]

Based on all of this, can you tell me then, how much milk is in a bar of Cadbury's Dairy Milk?

As a firm believer in empirical study I took a bar of choccy and asked a cow !....The cow consumed the choccy and then did a cow pat !....so...I reckon it's about 2 litres !

*broken English mode* Cow eat wrapper too.....silly cow !!





Bona- fide non-doctored piccy of cow eaty choccy !

[damocles]

From CliffordK:

So, algebraically, one gets...
R = the number of eggs laid by the rooster...
E = the number of eggs laid in 6 days.
H = the number of eggs that 1.5 hens lays in 1.5 d.
So, it would be

E =10xR + 4xH   

So...
One must conclude E=6  eggs laid by one hen in 6 days. 

so there are the Eggs and the Rooster, but the Rooster will lay 0  -- Rooster is the key, because when we cancel the lower case we arrive at
ERR0R
and we can conclude that the answer must be 4 eggs, not 6!

[Bored chemist]

From CliffordK:

So, algebraically, one gets...
R = the number of eggs laid by the rooster...
E = the number of eggs laid in 6 days.
H = the number of eggs that 1.5 hens lays in 1.5 d.
So, it would be

E =10xR + 4xH   

So...
One must conclude E=6  eggs laid by one hen in 6 days. 

so there are the Eggs and the Rooster, but the Rooster will lay 0  -- Rooster is the key, because when we cancel the lower case we arrive at
ERR0R
and we can conclude that the answer must be 4 eggs, not 6!

Nobody said the answer  was 720