Someone last week suggested that we post bar exam questions during our scheduled Wednesday morning radio silence during the weekly 9 to 11 a.m. editorial meeting. Since you’re already well on your way to being lawyers, why not?
Then we looked at some sample bar exam questions.
Yeah, no.
Instead—logic questions courtesy of brainscramble.com. But there’s a twist! This time, you don’t get the solutions. We can’t have you going soft. (Also we couldn’t find the solutions. Sue us.)
1. (Warm up) Aviva was planning to take a trip around the world. She liked names that were similar to hers, so she made a list of places she would like to visit. However, one of these places doesn’t belong. Which one is it and why?
Arrawarra, Australia; Caraparac, Peru; Daba Qabad, Somalia; Krape Park, United States; Nagubugan, Philippines; Oktahatko, Florida; Ilokano, Polynesia
2. There are ten people at a party. In order to win a large prize, everybody wants to make a handshake only with people shorter than themselves. They are penalized for shaking hands with someone taller. Assume everybody is different in height, and assume everybody wants to win. How many handshakes are made?
3. What sort of story begins with a limb and ends with a finish?
More questions after the jump!
4. 2 x 10 = 2 x 11. Explain how this can be true.
5. California starts with “c” and ends with “e.” Explain how this can be true.
6. You are on your way to visit your grandma, who lives at the end of the valley. It’s her birthday, and you want to give her the cakes you’ve made. Between your house and her house, you have to cross 7 bridges, and as it goes in the land of make believe, there is a troll under every bridge! Each troll, quite rightly, insists that you pay a troll toll. Before you can cross their bridge, you have to give them half of the cakes you are carrying, but as they are kind trolls, they each give you back a single cake. How many cakes do you have to leave home with to make sure that you arrive at Grandma’s with exactly 2 cakes?
7. Starting with an empty barrel, put in order.
2/3 full
1/4 empty
1/2 full
3/4 empty
8. Tommy began peeling a pile of 44 potatoes at the rate of 3 per minute. Four minutes later, Sam joined him, and peeled at the rate of 5 potatoes per minute. When they were finished, how many potatoes had each peeled?
9. Merle patched all the holes in his boat using the proper materials, and tested his repair by filling his boat with water. It didn’t leak. Yet, his friend knew immediately it would sink anyway, when he saw Merle’s repair job. Why?
10. A firefighter stood on the middle rung of a ladder, spraying water on a burning house. He then climbed up 6 rungs before the heat of the flames caused him to come down 10 rungs. After some minutes he was able to climb 18 rungs to the very top of the ladder. How many rungs did the ladder have?
Got ’em, except for 9 (and 2 is questionable). Anybody else?
Radio?
Have an idea about 9, but it feels like a guess-the-author’s-specific-intent riddle.
I think 2 is what you think it is.
5 is bugging me.
It seems #2 can’t be answered based on the information given.
9: It was the Titanic!
@3 commas?
1. Ilokano is the only one that is not a palindrome.
2. I don’t really see how any handshakes are made if everyone knows everybody’s relative heights. Or, if nobody can refuse a handshake, the shortest man will be handshaken to death.
3. An… arm… varnish. story.
4. Rounding error.
5. It can be true if you allow the French spelling: “Californie”
6. 2 cakes. Each troll takes half the cakes (one cake) and returns one cake.
7. An empty barrel, 3/4 empty, 1/2 full, 2/3 full, 1/4 empty
8. Tommy has peeled 24 potatoes, Sam 20.
9. Merle patched all the holes, including the big one in the top where the water would get out. Merle essentially made a big, wooden water tank.
10. 28.
If we know the answers, is it uncouth to post them?
Got ’em all. Should we post answers or no?
5: It’s true if you read the sentence like this: California starts with “c” [and] ends [starts with] “e.” The sentence is correct, just misleading.
Seeing as someone beat me to it:
1. Peru: all others contain letters from her name
2. 0: by definition every handshake is with someone taller
3. Legend
4. 2 x 10 is twenty, 2 x 11 is twenty too
5. California State
6. 2-every troll takes half (1) and returns 1=2
7. 3/4 empty, 1/2 full, 2/3 full, 1/4 empty
8. 44 potatoes
9. The patches were on the inside of the boat
10. 29 rungs
@7: 2) That’s what I thought, no handshakes get made.
3) Leg-end
4) x=0. With parentheses: (2)(0)(10)=(2)(0)(11).
5) “California” starts with “c”, and “ends”, with “e”.
9) Oof. That’s got to be it, only how did he fill it with water?
10) 29 (it has to be an odd number for there to be a middle rung).
1. Ball Bearings
2. Ball Bearings
3. Ball Bearings
4. Ball Bearings
5. Ball Bearings
6. Ball Bearings
7. Ball Bearings
8. Ball Bearings
9. Ball Bearings
10. Ball Bearings
Awww, come on guys, it’s so simple maybe you need a refresher course. Heyya! It’s all ball bearings nowadays. Now you prepare that Fetzer valve with some 3-in-1 oil and some gauze pads, and I’m gonna need ’bout ten quarts of anti-freeze, preferably Prestone. No, no make that Quaker State.
@11
1. Could be the last one, which is the only one that’s not a palindrome. The names of the countries, states, etc., following the commas might just be there to throw us off.
@12 – 2) I still like the idea of a very short man handshaken to death. I think I’m going to stick with that answer.
3-5) Oh for fuck’s sake.
9) He… um. Repaired the boat underwater? I was also thinking that maybe he made it top-heavy, but that’s about as much of a stretch as sealing off the top of the boat with water inside.
10) Ah yes. Of course. I was in a hurry to get answers up. Didn’t think that one through very thoroughly. Perhaps a rung burned off at some point?
The Bar Exam question was great. I completely missed the right to travel issue. Sneaky.
2.
One problem here is with the phrasing. In order to win, everybody wants to shake hands, etc. So in order to win, you just have to desire it; you don’t need to actually shake hands.
9. The boat will sink because he filled it with water.
9– The boat will sink because it’s filled with water.
Wait! No!
9) “Boat” in this sense refers to a submarine. It is meant to sink.
I am not ammused.
@13 Harold Faltermeyer salutes you. Put your drinks on the Underhill’s tab, and tip yourself and the boys.
note about number 6 – you want to end up with TWO cakes, not one. example: for the seventh bridge, you will need to have 3 cakes (he will take 2 but give 1 back, leaving you with 2 total). so for the 6th bridge, you will need to end up with 3 cakes AFTER the troll takes half and gives you one back, etc.
@23: No. At each bridge, the troll will take half of your cakes. If you have two, he will take one. Then he will give you one back, no matter how many he took. At each bridge, you will start with two and end with two.
@23 – If you get there with 3 cakes, I assume the troll will take 1.5 cakes and give back one, leaving you with 2.5 cakes from which the next troll will take 1.25 and give back one. Eventually, you have two cakes and a pile of Xeno’s crumbs.
@23 If you want to get in this boy’s hole, you’ve got to pay the troll toll. You’ve got to pay the troll toll to get in.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/46574/its-alwa…
I agree with #20 the boat is a submarine, and is designed to “sink”.
BTW… most of these brain scrambles that depend on poorly constructed sentences and grammar are more like tests of patience than brain power.
@27/28, exactly right about pun-based riddles, and that’s the context in which #9 should be answered.
For the same reason that 4 and 6 are factually incorrect statements, 9 should be understood as a riddle about how a “patch” might behave in relation to the water pressure.
Never mind that a welded patch on an aluminum boat would work equally well on either side of the hull. Never mind about any actual recommended practice for patching holes in fiberglass, plastic, wooden, metal or inflatable boats. That is supposed to be irrelevant for the sake of the stupid riddle.
Yet strangely it remains relevant that in any stupidly-constructed riddle universe, one would never fill a submarine with water to check for leaks.
4 and 5, rather.
So, do we all file a class action suit against the Slog for… something. Felonious Silliness, perhaps?
9 he could have patched it backwards. He’s supposed to try to keep water out, not in, but tested that it will keep water in. So if the patches are on the wrong side, they’ll fail and let water in.
Intern Katherine Long may not realize how shit like this can torment OCD puzzle solvers to the point of having to analyze the significance of the phrase, “when he saw Merle’s repair job,” in a riddle construct that makes no actual sense in the physical world.
@33 – You can get a “Merle’s repair job” up on Aurora for about fifty bucks.
(4) 2 x10 base 2 = 2 x 11 base 1=4
but I actually like 2×10=20 and 2×11 = twenty too
Why the hell does this girl want to visit Somalia?
Oh, also on #1, call her Hannah next time. It makes the solution to the question less obvious if you use a name anyone has ever had.
For 4, I’m going with the X=0 solution. It soothes my math brain, while twenty too just makes me want to scream pun very, very loudly. Logic. Rationality. Without them, I will end up a whimpering pile in the corner of a round room.
Number two is 46. Since all the people were of different height they would each be able to shake hands with some number of the other 9 established by their position in the height ranking. Thus, the tallest would have 9 hands to shake, the second tallest 8, and so on through to the tenth and shortest person who would have zero hands to shake.
@40, no, shorter people are penalized for shaking hands with taller people. Therefore the shortest person would refuse to shake hands with anyone. The second shortest person would wish to shake hands only with the person who refuses to shake anyone’s hand. And so on. No one gets a hand shake.
@41 Of course your are right. Thanks for letting me know.