Brain Challenge Answers

Lots of Working Memory practice for you this month.

Name the Flowers

Just for fun, the names of these flowers have been turned into anagrams (a word or phrase made by rearranging the letters).

Could you name at least five of the flowers?

O! Mad Girl – MARIGOLD

Rain on Act – CARNATION

Thy Chains – HYACINTHS

Stares – ASTERS

List Up – TULIPS

It’s Love – VIOLETS

Nose and lid – DANDELIONS

How Many Socks?

Bart is a sock fiend! He just throws them in a drawer – ten white socks and ten black socks are all jumbled together. The socks are alike except for their colour. If Bart closes his eyes and pulls out socks without looking, what is the smallest number he can take out and still be sure he has a matching pair?

Answer: Bart has only to take out three socks. Here’s how: If the first two socks Bart grabs don’t match, then the third sock is bound to match one of the other two.

Delete and Make More Words

Write the word SNOWING on your paper or screen.

Now delete the letter N to make SOWING. Can you now keep deleting one letter at a time, always creating a new word, until you have just one letter left? That will be a word, too.

SNOWING

SOWING

SWING

SING

SIN

IN

I

Did you find another way?

Kitten Challenge

Two mothers and two daughters are admiring three adorable kittens in the pet shop window.
They each buy a kitten and leave the store with their very own kitten.
No-one has to share a kitten.
There were only three in the store.

How can this be?

Answer: The three kittens can be easily divided if the two mothers and two daughters are:
a woman, her daughter and her grand-daughter!

The Totem puzzle

Look carefully and the Totem and imagine you are looking down on it from directly above. Which of the three shapes below would you see?

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