A Bar Joke and a Bar Puzzle

First, let me start you on a joke.

A man has been coming to the bar weekly and ordering four small glasses of Scotch. The bartender offered him to take two large glasses instead of four small as it would come cheaper, but the man explained that they are four brothers living far apart from each other. Last time they met they decided that whenever each of them drinks, he should order four glasses to celebrate their brotherhood and imagine them all drinking together.
One day the man came to the bar and ordered three glasses. The bartender started on his condolence assuming that one of the brothers has passed away, but  the man quickly rebutted that everyone is alive only he has recently been at his annual checkup and the doctor told him to stop drinking.

Now, to the puzzle that our fan Ilya spotted somewhere on Facebook (or at the bar?) and thought you would like:

Three very logical people walk into a bar. The bartender asks "Do you all want a drink?"
The first person says "I don't know."
The second person says "I don't know."
The third person says "Yes!"

Question is, what explains such strange answers by these logical people, and why do they actually make perfect sense?

Your thoughts and suggestions are accepted any time until midnight Eastern Time on Sunday, on our Family Puzzle Marathon.

Image by marsmet511 used under CCL.

A Mad Men Puzzle

This puzzle is inspired by the recently ended Mad Men season 5 and is an interpretation of a puzzle from the Mathematical and Logical games book by Franco Agostini.

Don, Roger and Bert often meet and frequently drink together. We want to find out who had a drink at this particular client meeting. We know that:
1) If Don took a drink, so did Roger;
2) Roger or Bert frequently drink, but never at the same time during those meetings;
3) Don and Bert like to start such meetings with a drink, but not necessarily together;
4) If Bert drunk, so did Don.

Who had a drink on this specific occasion?

Your answers are accepted any time until midnight Eastern Time on Sunday, on our Family Puzzle Marathon.     

Is There More To More?

This is a tricky puzzle, yet a trivial one, depending on how you look at it.

You have a container, such as a glass or a bucket. How to fill this container up three times without ever taking anything out of it?

The answer does not include any outside help, evaporation or divine intervention.

Top image by cafemama, distributed under CCL.

Answers accepted all day long on Friday June 3rd and Saturday June 4th, on our Family Puzzle Marathon. They will be hidden until Sunday morning (EST) and everyone who solved it will get a puzzle point. Please, explain your answer.

Lemonade Stand: a profitable enterprise?

With the first signs of spring and a T-shirt weather my daughter recollected her dream of placing a lemonade stand on the street. We have never done it before - our weekends are so packed with activities, and I (who grew up in a socialistic environment) am so uncomfortable selling anything to our dear neighbors. But I know that one day or another I have to let her live this simple dream. I am also certain that this could not be a powder-based lemonade that has that distinct chemical taste. We should go for the real thing. The question is: can this whole enterprise be profitable? I doubt that even my super nice neighbors will pay more than a $1.50 for a paper cup with a fresh home-made lemonade.

Here is a simple lemonade recipe I found on the web:

Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1 cup water (for the sugary syrup)
1 cup lemon juice
3 1/2 cups cold water (to dilute)

Assume that the water is free. Lemons are 3 for $1. It looks like we need approximately 5 lemons for 1 cup of lemon juice. Sugar is 2 pounds for $1.50.
9 oz plastic cups are sold 50 for $2.50.

Is it possible to make any profit with this enterprise?

Top image by Conlawprof, distributed under CCL.

Answers accepted all day long on Friday & Saturday, on our Family Puzzle Marathon. They will be hidden until Sunday morning (EST) and everyone who contributed something reasonable will get a puzzle point. Please, explain your answer.

The Math of Cocktail

At one of the fancy holiday parties you tasted an amazing cocktail that you decided to attempt to reproduce later at home. When days later two of your friends stopped by, you offered to make it for them. You were sure it contains two ingredients (say liqueur and champagne), but not certain of their proportions. When you made the first cocktail, you filled half of the glass with champagne, then poured 1 teaspoon of liqueur and tasted it a bit. You realized that you need to add much more liqueur to match the taste from the party. When making the second glass, you poured three times more liqueur than you originally put in the first glass. However, when you tasted it, you saw that a bit of liqueur is still needed. Perhaps a third of the amount you had to add to the first glass. How much liqueur do you need to pour in the glass the next time to make the perfect cocktail?

Enter your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon page. Solve three and get a prize!

Mystery at the Bar

Two people came to the bar. The barman trying to get even for some past deeds, poured exactly the same poisonous drink for each of these people. Both visitors sat at the bar, unaware of the evil plot. One of them gulped his drink very fast, another was sipping very slowly. When the slow drinker finished his glass, he fell off the bar stool and died. Why the fast drinker survived?

Submit your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon site. Solve three puzzles and get a prize!

How drunk is your son?

Imagine you are visiting your son in college. In his dorm room you notice a completely full bottle of an unlabeled liquid smelling like alcohol. The next day, the bottle is partially empty with a temporary cork in it. You know who may have been drinking but would like to find out how much has been consumed exactly. How could you do it without leaving any clues? You happen to notice a ruler on your son's desk...


By the way, if your kids are far from the college age, replace "wine" with the "baby formula" in the above puzzle. How much did your baby sip?

Submit your answer on our Family Puzzle Marathon site. Solve three puzzles and get a prize!

Need to test alertness level of your kid or friend remotely. See this creative solution.

Wine Seller

Wine seller sells his wine in 300 ml and 500 ml quantities and naturally has measuring jugs in those sizes. One day, a customer asked for just 100 ml of wine, as he had very little money. The wine seller agreed to sell him the wine, and measured it out with just two jugs. How did he do it? (from Logic Puzzles book by the Diagram Group)

Water and Wine.

There are two beakers, one containing water, the other wine. A certain amount of water is transferred to the wine, then the same amount of the mixture is transferred back to the water. Is there now more water in the wine than there is wine in the water? (from M.Gardner)

Please explain when you answer.