BrainBashers : Brain Teasers and Puzzles

A business man was in BrainBashers Village for a meeting. He had time to spare before the meeting, so he decided to get a haircut. He looked at a street map and was surprised to find that there were only two barbers in town, right across the road from each other. He walked across the village and came to the two barber shops. He went into the first one and was shocked by the dirtiness and the hair everywhere. The place was a mess! He looked at the barber and the barber had a really messy haircut all in his face and uneven. He went across the street to the other barber and saw the place was immaculate, clean and shining like new. The barber was nicely dressed and had a dazzling haircut: it was perfect. However, the man walked across the street and got his haircut at the shabby barbers. Why?

Since people can't cut their own hair and there were only two barbers in town, the two barbers must have cut each other's hair. As the messy barber had a poor haircut, it must have been from the clean barber. The good haircut was therefore performed by the messy barber.

What word goes in the brackets:

FOOD [ROAD] HARD
WEEP [....] FALL

LEAP: from the third letter of the second word, plus the third letter of the first word, plus the second letter of the second word, plus the fourth letter of the first word.

You have the misfortune to own an unreliable clock. This one loses exactly 24 minutes every hour. It is now showing 3:00am and you know that is was correct at midnight, when you set it. The clock stopped 1 hour ago, what is the correct time now?

6:00am: since the clock is losing 24 minutes every hour, for every real hour that has passed, the clock will only show 36 minutes. Since the clock shows 3:00am, we know that 180 clock minutes have passed. This therefore equals 300 real minutes and hence 5 hours. The clock stopped 1 hour ago and the time must now be 6.00am. QED.

What is represented by this BrainBat?

WEEDGWEEDUWEEDAWEEDRWEEDDWEED

Using the BrainTracker grid below, how many words can you find? Each word must contain the central M and no letter can be used twice, however, the letters do not have to be connected. Proper nouns are not allowed, however, plurals are. There is at least one nine letter word. Excellent: 36 words. Good: 26 words. Average: 20 words.

O
T
I

A
M
T

P
N
R

Common words: aim, am, amp, arm, armpit, atom, imp, impart, import, IMPORTANT, main, man, manor, map, mar, martin, mat, matron, matt, minor, mint, moan, moat, mop, omit, pram, prim, ram, ramp, rim, roam, romp, tom, tram, tramp, trim.

All words: aim, am, ami, amin, amino, amir, amort, amp, arm, armpit, atom, imp, impart, import, IMPORTANT, inarm, ma, main, maintop, mair, man, manito, mano, manor, map, mar, mart, martin, mat, matin, matron, matt, mattin, mi, mina, minor, mint, mir, mitt, mo, moa, moan, moat, moira, mon, mop, mor, mora, morn, mort, mot, mott, nam, nim, nom, noma, norm, om, omit, optima, pam, pima, pitman, potman, pram, prim, prima, primo, prom, protamin, ptomain, ram, rami, ramp, rampion, rim, roam, rom, roman, romp, tam, tamp, tampion, tampon, timpano, titman, tom, toman, tram, tramp, trim, tritoma, tromp.