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IQ Answers

Voice Card  -  Volume 33  -  John Card Number 10  -  Sun, Nov 13, 1994 9:43 PM







Suzanne asked me explain the solution to the final problem in last issue's IQ test. Here it is:

A fish has a head 9" long. The tail is equal to the size of the head plus one-half the size of the body. The body is the size of the head plus the tail. How long is the fish?

First, let's translate this into algebra. H = length of head, T = length of tail, and B = length of body. We are trying to determine H+B+T.

H = 9
T = H + B/2 = 9 + B/2
B = H + T = 9 + 9 + B/2 = 18 + B/2

So, if B = 18 + B/2 then:

{sub 18 from both sides} B-18 = B/2
{mult both sides by 2} 2B-36 = B
{sub B from both sides} B-36 = 0
{add 36 to both sides} B = 36

If B=36 then T = 9+B/2 = 27

So the total length of the fish = Head + Body + Tail = 9 + 36 + 27 = 72.

For those of you fretting over any of the other questions, here are the answers. (I obtained them by cracking the program and peering inside ):

1-2 2-5 3-4 4-3 5-2 6-2 7-5 8-5 9-3 10-5 11-3 12-2 13-4 14-5 15-5 16-4 17-2 18-4 19-4 20-4 21-4 22-2 23-3 24-2 25-2 26-2 27-4 28-3 29-3 30-5 31-4 32-3 33-2 34-3 35-2 36-4 37-2 38-4 39-4 40-3 41-4 42-2 43-5 44-1 45-2 46-4 47-4 48-3 49-5 50-2 51-4 52-2 53-2 54-5 55-3 56-1 57-5 58-5 59-3 60-4




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