Brain Teasers
Steev McCheapskate
Fun: (2.76)
Difficulty: (2.07)
Puzzle ID: #31932
Submitted By: bigSWAFF_69_ Corrected By: Winner4600
Submitted By: bigSWAFF_69_ Corrected By: Winner4600
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
Steev McCheapskate was trying to mail a package to a friend far away. The person at the Post Office weighed the package and figured out the total amount to ship it. The total to ship the package was $7.83, but Steev only had $7.80.
He took the package home to try and lighten the weight (thus lowering the cost). He didn't have any extra boxes, so a smaller box was out of the question. After an hour or so of thinking, he finally decided what to do.
What did Steev do to lower the weight of the box?
He took the package home to try and lighten the weight (thus lowering the cost). He didn't have any extra boxes, so a smaller box was out of the question. After an hour or so of thinking, he finally decided what to do.
What did Steev do to lower the weight of the box?
Hint
Steev had a birthday party the day before...Answer
All Steev did was squish a helium filled balloon (that was leftover from his birthday party the previous day) in the package. When the box was weighed, the helium balloon lowered the weight just enough to knock $0.03 off the shipping total.Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
I'll need to keep this in mind for the next time I'm shipping a package!
Yeah
Sorry, Big SWAFF, but once again you've neglected your homework. Helium has a lifting force of 1 gram per liter.
(http://science.howstuffworks.com/)
A normal amusement park balloon can lift about 14 grams, so you would need TWO of these to provide one ounce (28.35 grams) of lift - and you must reduce the weight of the package by an ounce to get to the next lower postage rate. Also, as you cram the balloons into an already full package, you reduce their volume and therefore reduce their lift, since lift results from helium displacing a volume of heavier air. Back to the drawing board on this one!
(http://science.howstuffworks.com/)
A normal amusement park balloon can lift about 14 grams, so you would need TWO of these to provide one ounce (28.35 grams) of lift - and you must reduce the weight of the package by an ounce to get to the next lower postage rate. Also, as you cram the balloons into an already full package, you reduce their volume and therefore reduce their lift, since lift results from helium displacing a volume of heavier air. Back to the drawing board on this one!
^^^^ wtf?!?!?!?!?!?!?
..yeah that brain teaser was wierd
..yeah that brain teaser was wierd
unklemyke, when did I ever say it was a "normal amusement park baloon"? It could just have easily been one of those big fancy "Happy Birthday" baloons that you can find at novelty stores, they have much more lift than a normal sized baloon. Note this IS in situation, you need to think outside the box (oh, what a pun ).
what?
Sorry but i don't get this
Actually, the post office will charge the next higher rate for being a fraction of an ounce over the limit of the lower rate. So a miniscule displacement of the heavier air could indeed be sufficient to do the trick. The likelihood of a 3 cent difference, particularly at that cost, is nil, but the teaser's good even with that minor point.
Truthfully, unklemyke, it seems you have it out for Swaff. Great teaser! I found it humurous.
who wouldn't have 3 cents more? then again, Steev McCHEAPskate...
all i can say is that it was a weird teaser
The ballon didn't lower the weight, it simply brovided bouyancy so the box could be l8ifted a bit so it SEEMS lighter, in reality, it weighs HEAVIER(a bit).
hahahaah wouldn't of thought of that- I figured he used cheap wrapping paper and there by reducing the weight from before! hahahahah
I loved your teaser Big Swaff. and I got the answer without even looking at the hint! My only concern is that I'm not sure all packages are completly air tight.
I thought he made lots of tiny little holes in it, but then again, that wouldn't be very good for mailing, would it?
This is so weird it is perfect! Probably would,'t work in practice unless the box was large enough to fit a big balloon in but we'll give you some poetic licence. I can just see it now, thousands of people taking very large boxes to the post office where they (the boxes) have to be held down on the scales to try and register their weight!
nice one dude i was thinking he'd just cut holes in it, like someone said before me
nice one thoguh
nice one thoguh
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