Alice’s Adventures in Numberland – Answers

by admin July 4, 2020

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Here we reveal the answers of our Lewis Carroll-inspired brainteasers. (The questions featured in a previous blog post)

MAZE

Can you find a route from the outside of the maze to the centre?

DOUBLETS

For each pair of words, can you find a series of words which link them, changing just one letter each time? All links must be real words.

Drive PIG into STY – PIG/WIG/WAG/WAY/SAY/STY

Make WHEAT into BREAD – WHEAT/CHEAT/CHEAP/CHEEP/CREEP/CREED/BREED/BREAD

Raise FOUR to FIVE – FOUR/FOUL/FOOL/FOOT/FORT/FORE/FIRE/FIVE

Prove GRASS to be GREEN – GRASS/CRASS/CRESS/TRESS/TREES/FREES/FREED/GREED/GREEN

Change OAT to RYE – OAT/RAT/ROT/ROE/RYE

Cover EYE with LID – EYE/DYE/DIE/DID/LID

Raise ONE to TWO – ONE/OWE/EWE/EYE/DYE/DOE/TOE/TOO/TWO

Crown TIGER with ROSES – TIGER/TILER/TILES/TIDES/RIDES/RISES/ROSES

DOUBLE ACROSTIC POEM

Each couplet in this poem clues an 8-letter word. If you find all 8 words, their first letters will spell out a word, and their last letters will spell out another word.

They’ll jump off a cliff from a great height, for fun

In a computer game from 1991

LEMMINGS

Just the right tipple for a long run

To match your own chemical composition

ISOTONIC

Kids won’t touch it – they prefer jam

Sounds like it’s near Lewisham

BROCCOLI

Practise makes perfect, that’s what they say

Regarding the vehicle that takes you away

REHEARSE

Brenda with three Es is feeling pretty

Confused about this northern city

ABERDEEN

Caesar’s troubled by its bite

Maybe a candlelit dinner tonight?

ROMANTIC

It’s almost like there’ll be bows and knots

At the time of year you give presents lots

YULETIDE

First letters spell out: LIBRARY

Last letters spell out: SCIENCE

AMBIGRAMS

Can you devise a rotation ambigram for the word FISH? Or a reflection ambigram for BIRD?

Rotation ambigram for the word FISH (from bigforrap.wordpress.com): Reflection ambigram or the word BIRD (from ambigramme.com):

OVERLAPPING SQUARES Knight

Can you draw this shape made from three interlaced squares, using one continuous line, without going over any parts of the line twice, without intersecting the line you’ve already drawn, and without taking your pen off the paper?

Overlapping squares

A DINNER PARTY

At a dinner party, the host invites his father’s brother-in-law, his brother’s father-in-law, his father-in-law’s brother, and his brother-in-law’s father. What’s the smallest number of guests there could be?

A dinner party solution

Males are denoted by upper case and females are denoted by lower case letters. The host is C and his guest is E. His father’s brother-in-law is B or C. His brother’s father-in-law is C. His father-in-law’s brother is C. His brother-in-law’s father is C. Therefore the smallest number of guests is 1, C.

ANAGRAMS

Can you unscramble these sentences to form relevant phrases?

HELP V. KEEN TRIO OF DAFTNESS – FESTIVAL OF THE SPOKEN NERD

“LESS TOKEN GREENERY”, SHE SANG – GEEK SONGSTRESS HELEN ARNEY

SEE ME OUT, TV’S MISTER EXPLODER MAN – EXPERIMENTS MAESTRO STEVE MOULD

BRB, I HIRE TRASHY LIT – THE BRITISH LIBRARY

I WANTED DEAN IN CD’S SURREAL NOVEL – ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

AM AUS, AND ATTEMPT ARITHMETIC PRANK – STAND-UP MATHEMATICIAN MATT PARKER

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This post was previously published on blogs.bl.uk and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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