Solution:

Fifteen minutes can easily be measure using these two hour glasses.

Step 1: He will start both the hourglass.

Step 2: The moment the eleven minute hourglass is empty, he will invert it.

Step 3: When the thirteen minutes hourglass is empty, he will invert the eleven minute hourglass.
In step 3, we will have counted thirteen minutes. Since we inverted the eleven minute hourglass in step 2, it started from fresh and was inverted just for two minutes (13-11=2). In this manner when it is reversed when the thirteen minute hourglass is finished, it will have two minutes of sand left. This time when the sand finishes, he will have measured fifteen minutes. (13+2=15)

Solution:

There are 3 fruits (1 grapes, 1 apples, and 1 oranges).

Solution:

Fifteen Minutes.

After frying for five minutes, you can take out one steak and put the third one inside while turning the other one inside. After five more minutes, one steak is fried from both sides and you can take it out. Now put in the steak that we removed and turn the other one inside. After five more minutes, they both will also be fried from both sides.

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:

There are two things to keep in mind:
Firstly there is at least one red hat. (There can be two or three as well).
Secondly the competition is fair for everyone.

Thus if there is only one red hat, that person will see two green hats on other heads and will be able to deduce his own color as red. However the other students will see one red and one green hat and can never be sure. In such manner, the competition will prove to be partial for one student.

Suppose if there are two red hats. Then the students who are wearing red hats will see one red and one green hat on others. Now they must have deduced that there can’t be just one red hat. Thus they will know that they are also wearing a red hat. But the one who is wearing a green hat will see two red hats and can never be sure of his own color. In this case as well, the competition will not be fair.

Thus the only possible and fair means is if all of them are wearing a red hat. The one who is able to deduce the situation first, will raise his hand and will tell the correct answer.

Solution:

The first step that they will take will be a leap of logic. What it means is that they will deduce that every color must appear twice at least. Why? Because the master logician has assured them that the puzzle will not be impossible for anyone of them. And if a color appears only once in the circle, the person wearing it will have no clue about that color which will not be fair for him.

Then the logicians will follow the same and look for all the colors of hats in the circle. If one of them sees a color just once, he can safely assume that he is also wearing the hat of the same color as by leap of logic, no color can appear just once. Thus when the bell is rung, he will leave.

In the similar fashion, if anyone sees another color just once, he can determine that he is wearing the hat of the same color and will leave when the bell rings or will be disqualified and sent home. Unvaryingly, if a color is seen twice, they will be eliminated after the first bell. Hence, there must be at least three hats of any of the remaining color.

Assume that you are sitting in the circle and you don’t see a color once but see it twice. Then if they were the only two hats of the same color, the logicians must have left at the first bell already. But they did not. Which means that there are three hats of that color and you are wearing one. Thus you will leave after the second bell.

Solution:

At each draw, the number of strawberry candies are either decreasing by 2 or not decreasing at all. In the case of orange candies, at each draw, they are either increasing by 1 or decreasing by 1.

Thus on an assumed outset with at least one candy in the jar to begin with, if the number of strawberry candies are 0 or are even in numbers, they will finish off leaving an orange candy at the end. If otherwise, the remaining candy will be a strawberry one.

Solution:

23rd day

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 16 + 17 + 18 + 19 + 20 + 21 + 22 + 23 = 276

Thus our anniversary falls on the 23rd day of the month.

You can apply other formulas to shorten the process but that is the simplest way to do it.

Solution:

Read the question carefully again. New Year do falls after Christmas but that happens if two different years. The question is put up against the year 2050 and thus there will be 51 weeks and 2 days in between them as New Year will appear on 1 January 2050 and Christmas will happen on 25 December 2050.

Solution:

45 minutes

Explanation :
All you have to do is burn the first rope from both the ends and the second rope from one end only simultaneously. The first rope will burn in 30 minutes (half of an hour since we burned from both sides) while the other rope would have burnt half. At this moment, light the second rope from the other end as well. Where, the second rope would have taken half an hour more to burn completely, it will take just 15 minutes as we have lit it from the other end too.

Thus you have successfully calculated 30+15 = 45 minutes with the help of the two given ropes.