Very Interesting – July-August 2019

Puzzles

PIT YOUR WITS AGAINST THESE BRAINTEASERS BY DAVID J BODYCOMBE,

QUESTION-SETTER FOR BBC FOUR’S ONLY CONNECT

MIND GAMES

We’d love to hear

your feedback on

these puzzles.

Please email

[email protected].

Answers: 1a, 2b, 3a, 4c, 5a, 6a, 7c

QUESTION 1

QUESTION 1

The first ‘supercomputer’

was 1964’s CDC 6600,

built by who?

a) Seymour Cray

b) Steve Wozniak

c) Gordon Moore

QUESTION 2

Which of the following is

NOT a real

supercomputer?

a) GRAPE

b) CaROL-V

c) Deep Crack

QUESTION 3

The Chinese

supercomputer Tianhe-1

takes its name from the

Mandarin for what?

a) Milky Way

b) Lightning bolt

c) Roadrunner

QUESTION 4

Supercomputers’ speed

is measured in Petaflops.

That’s how many floating

point operations per

second?

a) One billion (1x 109)

b) One trillion (1x 1012)

c) One quadrillion (1x

1015)

QUESTION 5

The first computer to

reach Petaflop speeds

was built by IBM in 2008.

Can you name it?

a) Roadrunner

b) Sequoia

c) Blue Waters

QUESTION 6

Which operating system

is used by over 90% of

current supercomputers?

a) Linux

b) Mac OS X

c) Windows 97

QUESTION 7

What is the top speed of

Japan’s K Computer, the

most powerful in the

world?

a) 3.14 Petaflops

b) 8.16 Petaflops

c) 10.51 Petaflops

YOU ARE:

0-2 A bit slow

3-5 Mega brainy

6-7 Peta than the rest

Quick quiz

Test your knowledge of

supercomputers

QUESTION 1

What nine-letter word can be

formed when you mix together

WIND and FROST?

QUESTION 5

Anne thinks that these eight

letters have something in

common. Barbara, however,

thinks there is one letter missing

from the group. What can you

deduce about Anne and Barbara?

QUESTION 3

If the water in these two jugs was

mixed, what would the resulting

temperature be? You may assume

no heat loss.

QUESTION 4

Move one match to form a

square

QUESTION 2

What is the missing term in this

sequence: India, Victor, ____ ,

Lima, Charlie, Delta, Mike?

QUESTION 6

Which eight squares should be

shaded in, to make this a valid

crossword with half-turn symmetry?

QUESTION 8

Place tents in the empty squares so that the number of

tents in each row and column matches the numbers shown.

Every tent must be immediately next to a tree (horizontally

or vertically). One tent per square only. Tents are never

adjacent to each other – not even diagonally.

QUESTION 7

Steve went to the Greyhound

races with £64. On each of the six

races, he bet half the money that

he had on the even money dog.

Half the dogs he backed won.

Ignoring betting duty, how much

cash did he end up with?

B C D E G P T V

Solutions

X-ray. They’re the Roman numerals I, V, X, L, C, D and M, converted into the NATO Q2) SNOWDRIFT. Q1)

Move the Q4) 30°C. Use a weighted average as follows: ((500 x 15) + (250 x 60)) / 750 = 30. Q3) alphabet.

Barbara is Q5) match at the bottom left slightly outwards. A very small square is then formed in the middle.

American. The eight letters rhyme: Anne pronounces Z as ‘Zed’ but Barbara pronounces it as ‘Zee’, which

£27. It doesn’t matter which races he won Q7) B2, B6, C4, C6, D1, D3, E1, E5. Q6) rhymes with the others.

See illustration.Q8) and lost – the result’s always the same.