Brain Teasers

Question-1: Four members of a band are walking to a night concert. They decide to take a shortcut, but must cross a bridge. Luckily they have one flashlight. Because of the varying size of their instruments, it takes each member a different amount of time to cross the bridge - it takes the first person one minute, the second person two minutes, the third person five minutes and the fourth person ten minutes. They must cross the bridge in pairs, traveling at the slower speed so if the one minute person went with the ten minute person, it would take a total of ten minutes. Since there is only one flashlight, one person must come back across the bridge, then another pair can cross. They only have 17 minutes to cross the bridge and still get to the concert on time. What order should they cross to get everyone across and get to the concert?

Question-2:Niles and Guile were at the train station. The sign on the wall read, "Boston to New York-50 cents. Round Trip-1 dollar." (They were riding the Economy Express) Niles made Guile a friendly wager. "I bet you can't order a round trip ticket without speaking to the attendant. Guile replied, "You're on!" Without speaking to the lady at the desk, Guile laid out his money. To Niles' horror, Guile grabbed his round-trip ticket and walked back smiling to Niles. What did Guile do?

Answer-1: First, the one minute person and the two minute person must cross the bridge, for a total of two minutes. Then the one minute person should come back with flashlight - total of three minutes. The five minute person and the ten minute person cross together next, making the total thirteen minutes. Now the two minute person goes back and (total now fifteen minutes) and gets the one minute person and they cross together bringing the total to seventeen minutes.

Answer-2: He laid out four quarters. The attendant knew that, as he had only quarters, he would have only laid out two if he had wanted a one-way ticket.