Solution:

The question can practically disarm you. But we promise by the time you read the solution, you will find that it was way easy than you were thinking.

Let us name the boxes with a number - Box1, Box 2..., Box10. Now you must be familiar with the weights of the balls precisely. By saying that we are not implying that you will have to take one ball from every box and judge the weight of every ball.

What you have to do is pick one ball from Box 1, 2 balls from Box 2, 3 balls from Box 3, ...., 10 balls from Box 10. Thus after taking balls from every box in such a manner, you will finally have 55 balls in total. There comes the time to use the weighing machine.

If all the balls were weighing adequate, the combined weight should be 55 x 10 grams = 550 grams. But since one of the box has defected balls, the weight will be less than that. Here is the tricky part and explains why we took different number of balls from each box.

If the total weight is less than 1 gram, then the defective box is the Box 1 since we took 1 ball from that box. If the Box 2 is defective, the total weight will be less than 2 grams. In similar fashion you can identify the defective box by analyzing the total weight that is calculated by the weighing machine.

Solution:

17 min

The initial solution most people will think of is to use the fastest person as an usher to guide everyone across. How long would that take? 10 + 1 + 7 + 1 + 2 = 21 minutes. Is that it? No. That would make this question too simple even as a warm up question.

Let's brainstorm a little further. To reduce the amount of time, we should find a way for 10 and 7 to go together. If they cross together, then we need one of them to come back to get the others. That would not be ideal. How do we get around that? Maybe we can have 1 waiting on the other side to bring the torch back. Ahaa, we are getting closer. The fastest way to get 1 across and be back is to use 2 to usher 1 across. So let's put all this together.

1 and 2 go cross
2 comes back
7 and 10 go across
1 comes back
1 and 2 go across (done)

Total time = 2 + 2 + 10 + 1 + 2 = 17 minutes

Solution:

17 mins

The initial solution most people will think of is to use the fastest person as an usher to guide everyone across. How long would that take? 10 + 1 + 7 + 1 + 2 = 21 mins. Is that it? No. That would make this question too simple even as a warm up question.

Let’s brainstorm a little further. To reduce the amount of time, we should find a way for 10 and 7 to go together. If they cross together, then we need one of them to come back to get the others. That would not be ideal. How do we get around that? Maybe we can have 1 waiting on the other side to bring the torch back. Ahaa, we are getting closer. The fastest way to get 1 across and be back is to use 2 to usher 1 across. So let’s put all this together.

1 and 2 go cross
2 comes back
7 and 10 go across
1 comes back
1 and 2 go across (done)

Total time = 2 + 2 + 10 + 1 + 2 = 17 mins

Solution:

The answer is very simple. All she had to do is take the fifteen cards from the top and reverse them. This would make another pile out of that and there will be two piles - one of 15 cards and one of 37 cards. Also both of them will have the same number of inverted cards.

Just think about it and if the mathematical explanation will help you understand better, here it is.
Assume that there were p inverted cards initially in the top 15 cards. Then the remaining 37 cards will hold 15-p inverted cards.
Now when she reverses the 15 cards on the top, the number of inverted cards will become 15-p and thus the number of inverted cards in both of the piles will become same.

Solution:

10,15,9,20,12

Explanation:
The score obtained on the first throw is 10.
The score obtained on the second throw is 15.
The score obtained on the third throw is 9.
The score obtained on the fourth throw is 20.
The score obtained on the fifth throw is 12.

Solution:

Put one black rock in one sack and put all the rest in the other one. In such manner you will get about 3/4 probability of surviving.

Solution:

The probability of two numbers being relatively prime is 60%. Thus if you keep playing the bet, you will hypothetically make 20 cents on every play.

Thus, you should accept the bet.

Solution:

One of the cop will move clockwise while the other will move anti-clockwise every day. In such a manner, they will catch the thief in minimum seven days.

Solution:

The answer is 2. First, divide the coins into 3 equal piles. Place a pile on each side of the scale, leaving the remaining pile of 3 coins off the scale. If the scale does not tip, you know that the 6 coins on the scale are legitimate, and the counterfeit is in the pile in front of you. If the scale does tip, you know the counterfeit is in the pile on the side of the scale that raised up. Either way, put the 6 legitimate coins aside. Having only 3 coins left, put a coin on each side of the scale, leaving the third in front of you. The same process of elimination will find the counterfeit coin.

Solution:

Since the knife was in her hand which implies that she was planning to kill her husband "Inspector Montalbano".

Solution:

10

Explanation:
Equation 1 + 9 + 11 = 1 can be derived from
One (o) + nine (n) + eleven (e) = one => 1

Similarly for equation,
12 + 11 + 9
Twelve (t) + eleven (e) + nine (n) => ten (10)