Solution:

Forgive and Forget

Solution:

10 prisoners must sample the wine. Bonus points if you worked out a way to ensure than no more than 8 prisoners die.

Number all bottles using binary digits. Assign each prisoner to one of the binary flags. Prisoners must take a sip from each bottle where their binary flag is set.

Here is how you would find one poisoned bottle out of eight total bottles of wine.

Bottle 1 Bottle 2 Bottle 3 Bottle 4 Bottle 5 Bottle 6 Bottle 7 Bottle 8
Prisoner A X X X X
Prisoner B X X X X
Prisoner C X X X X
In the above example, if all prisoners die, bottle 8 is bad. If none die, bottle 1 is bad. If A & B dies, bottle 4 is bad.

With ten people there are 1024 unique combination so you could test up to 1024 bottles of wine.

Each of the ten prisoners will take a small sip from about 500 bottles. Each sip should take no longer than 30 seconds and should be a very small amount. Small sips not only leave more wine for guests. Small sips also avoid death by alcohol poisoning. As long as each prisoner is administered about a milliliter from each bottle, they will only consume the equivalent of about one bottle of wine each.

Each prisoner will have at least a fifty percent chance of living. There is only one binary combination where all prisoners must sip from the wine. If there are ten prisoners then there are ten more combination where all but one prisoner must sip from the wine. By avoiding these two types of combination you can ensure no more than 8 prisoners die.

One viewer felt that this solution was in flagrant contempt of restaurant etiquette. The emperor paid for this wine, so there should be no need to prove to the guests that wine is the same as the label. I am not even sure if ancient wine even came with labels affixed. However, it is true that after leaving the wine open for a day, that this medieval wine will taste more like vinegar than it ever did. C'est la vie.

Solution:

2 people

Say 2 helpers are Helper1 & Helper2

Helper1 food Helper2 food McDuck's Food
End of Day 1 : 1 4 4
Now 'A' will head back

End of Day 2 : N/A 2 4
Now 'B' will head back

Now Mr. McDuck have 4 day food :-)

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)

Solution:

Just 2

Day One: You make your first cut at the 1/7th mark and give that to the worker.
Day Two: You cut 2/7ths and pay that to the worker and receive the original 1/7th in change.
Day three: You give the worker the 1/7th you received as change on the previous day.
Day four: You give the worker 4/7ths and he returns his 1/7th cut and his 2/7th cut as change.
Day Five: You give the worker back the 1/7th cut of gold.
Day Six: You give the worker the 2/7th cut and receive the 1/7th cut back in change.
Day Seven: You pay the worker his final 1/7th.

Solution:

mother

We know from (3) that the youngest person was not the victim, from (4) that the youngest person was not the helper and from (6) that the youngest person was not the killer. The youngest person can only have been the witness therefore. If we make up a chart there are now three possible combinations:

Oldest person (father) H H M

Next to oldest (mother) V M H

Next to youngest (son) M V V

Youngest (daughter) W W W

(H = Helper ; V = Victim ; M = Murderer ; W = Witness)

We can work out from (5) that the father was the oldest, from (2) that the youngest person must have been the daughter. Therefore the next to the youngest must have been the son and the next to the oldest, the mother.

Solution:

Playing chess

Game needs two players so Brother-8 is playing chess with Brother-2

Solution:

Firstly: Policeman should take the thug across the river thames and escort the boat back with him. (Thug across, everyone else on this side)
Then, Policeman will take one cat along, leave it there, and on the way back, bring back the thug (since thug cannot be left with anyone without policeman's supervision).
Then Mrs. Mother will take the second cat on the other side. Drop it there and bring the boat back. For the 4th trip, Mrs. Mother And Mr. Father Will travel to the other side, and Mrs. Mother will stay there, and MR. Father will bring the boat back. (Now Mrs. Mother and 2 cats are on the other side.)
5th trip, the policeman takes the thug across. Both of them stay there and Mrs. Mother will come back. Then for the next trip, Mr. Father and Mrs. Mother will go on the boat, and Mrs. Mother will stay there, and Mr. Father will return back.
Then for the 7th trip, Mr. Father will travel with one dog. On the return, the policeman and the thug will return. Then in the next trip, the Policeman will take the second dog. (Now Mrs. Mother and her two cats; Mr. Father and his two dogs and the Policeman is here).
Now finally the policeman takes the boat on the other side and brings back the thug.
Tough one, right ?

Solution:

The driver is actually the wife and mother.

Solution:

They use the bricks and dirt from the tunnel to stand on it.

Solution:

This statement is true but only in a specific case i.e. if both of the siblings continue to live till the day the younger is as old as the elder one was during the time of their birth.