Amazing ''Aha !'' Puzzles

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles IMPROVE YOUR ABILITY TO THINK ‘OUTSIDE THE BOX’ AND BOOST YOUR CREATIVITY!

Lloyd King

PUZZLE WIZARD

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many kind people I’d like to extend my appreciation to for encouraging me in my puzzle writing. First of all, I’d especially like to thank Mum, Hannah, Nan, Mark, Anna and the rest of my family for their help, advice and support. In addition, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my dear Grandfather, Bert, who, though very sadly no longer with us, provided me with the inspiration to create the various pirate puzzles in this book. When I was a child, he would often take great delight in pretending to be Long John Silver. He would grab a broom, turn it upside down to create a makeshift crutch and, then, with a half-crazed look in his eyes look at me and roar, “Ahrrrrr, me lad! Ahrrrrr!” He was a lovely chap and a real character and is very fondly remembered by everyone who knew him. Next I’d like to thank the fantastically creative and friendly members of the Vinci Society (www.vincisociety.net), who have put a great deal of time and effort into solving these puzzles and also given me lots of extremely helpful feedback in the process. Finally, I’d like to thank my friends and fellow puzzle designers Philip Carter and Barry Clarke for arousing my interest in puzzles in the first place and, also, for giving me lots of encouragement along the way. Book design: Lloyd King Published by Puzzle Wizard through Lulu.com 3131 RDU Center Suite 210 Morrisville NC 27560 USA Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles © Lloyd King, 2004 ISBN: 1-4116-1330-9 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers and/or author.

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

This book is dedicated to my family and friends

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

Other Books by Lloyd King Test Your Creative Thinking Puzzles for the high IQ

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

CONTENTS Acknowledgements…………………………………...2 Dedication……………………………………………….3 Other Books by Lloyd King....…………………………4 Introduction…………………………….……………….6 Aha! Rating..…………………………………………….8 Puzzles…………………………………………………….9 Answers………………………………………………..127

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

INTRODUCTION “Aha!” puzzles have always appealed to me more than any other type of puzzle. There’s just something about them that strikes a chord with me. In case you’re not exactly sure what they are, they’re the ones with those frustratingly ‘obvious’ answers. Yes, that’s right. Those ones! When the answer, which is usually startling, hits you, you get a sudden flash of inspiration popularly known as an “Aha!” and it feels very much as though you’ve been hit by a bolt of lightning. It’s a wonderful, energising feeling and it is this, in part, that makes “Aha!” puzzles so very rewarding and addictive. Frequently the solution to an “Aha!” puzzle pops into your head unexpectedly while you no longer appear to be consciously working on it. Surprisingly, this is the result of a complex parallel process that synthesizes the input from both of the brain’s hemispheres. These are the right hemisphere, which is the more imaginative and intuitive side, and the left hemisphere, which is the more logical and analytical side. The data is relayed between the hemispheres via the corpus callosum, a thick band of more than 200 million nerve fibres. In many ways “Aha!” puzzles are ideal for stimulating creativity because, by appearing impossible, implausible, bizarre or paradoxical in some way, they immediately arouse our curiosity. Also, because you know the answers are usually very simple (well, once you know them!), you feel you really ought to be able to get them. It’s just a matter of when and how. These factors along with the prospect of an “Aha!” and the often humorous nature of the answers awaken our childlike sense of playfulness, which is the key to unlocking our creativity. Another BIG plus is that no specialist or unusual mathematical knowledge is needed to solve them, making them much more accessible to everyone. 6

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

In designing the puzzles for this book I have tried my best to make them exciting and intriguing so that they really grab your attention. Because of this, they will hopefully stimulate your creativity and imagination, teach you to think ‘outside the box’, improve your ability to switch easily from one perspective to another, increase the fluency with which you generate ideas, develop your intuitive powers, make you better at finding unusual associations and patterns and, with any luck, even make you laugh a little too. All in all, they should provide your brain with a truly comprehensive and mind-altering lateral workout. As you make your way through the various mind-warping challenges that follow, you’ll encounter all sorts of fun situations and enchanting characters like Windlestraw the wizard, Cinderspeller the witch and Captain Swishbuckle, the swashbuckling adventurer. To negotiate them successfully, you really will need to call upon every last drop of your imagination and creativity and be willing to abandon your existing assumptions so that you are ready for all kinds of tricks, twists, lateral leaps and downright skullduggery too! The puzzles, which are divided into four categories according to their approximate level of difficulty, range from ‘Easy Riders’, which are the simplest, to ‘Quantum Leapers’, which will prove a challenge to even the most experienced of puzzle solvers. Well, I really hope you have at least as much fun solving the puzzles as I did creating them, and that by the end of the book you feel as though you’ve learned something worthwhile along the way. Lloyd :o) Aha! Puzzles www.ahapuzzles.com [email protected]

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

AHA! RATING a aa aaa aaaa

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Easy Rider Subtle Side-Stepper Tough Kooky Quantum Leaper

PUZZLES

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

1.

A MAGIC SPELL

a

What magic word does this wizard say? (6 letters)

2.

CAT AND MOUSE

aa

Cinderspeller the witch has six mischievous pet cats called Broomstick, Drusilla, Kat, Pumpkin, Theresa and Vanessa. One day one of these naughty cats catches and eats her pet mouse, Hazel. Can you figure out below which cat ate her?

? ATE HER 3.

SHAKEN AND STIRRED ?

aaa

During a drinks party James Bond asks one of his colleagues the following question. Can you correctly replace the asterisk to find out which famous Bond character he is talking to?

“Is neat rum ok, *?” 10

Puzzles

4.

THE SIX TOWERS

aaa

Can you add two lines to complete this sequence of towers?

5.

PICTURE IMPERFECT

aa

Here is a picture showing two wigwams nestled amongst some trees on a Native American Indian reservation. What single thing is missing from the picture?

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

6.

GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION

aaa

Someone has stolen the petty cash from the office safe. Mr. Always, Mr. Now, Mr. Sometimes, Mr. Tomorrow and Mr. Ever are under suspicion. Who?, what?, when?, how? and where?. The culprit, guilty by association, is Mr. *. Can you figure out who did it?

7.

SITTING ROOM

aa

Take away one of the letters below to leave “a chair”.

HCAIR 8.

GUESS WHO

aaa

Can you figure out what three-letter male name should replace the question mark below and also give an approximation of how many sweets Samantha ate?

“I ate every one of the sweets my aunt gave me.” said Samantha. “I guess ? ate 20 sweets in all!”

12

Puzzles

9.

THE DISAPPEARING PARROT TRICK aa

Picture ‘A’ shows Polly the parrot in her cage. Where’s Polly gone in picture ‘B’?

A

B

Also, see if you can find a fish containing five letters in her cage.

10.

THE FOURTH DIMENSION

aaa

Albert Einstein is in a room 5ft wide, 6ft long and 8ft high. In another way, however, it is ever so slightly less than IIft. Where is he?

13

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

11.

THE SWORD IN THE LAKE

a

As King Arthur rowed across the lake, the mystical Isle of Avalon with its castle at one end loomed out of the morning mist. Suddenly, the mist cleared and Arthur could see the legendary sword Excalibur rising up out of the lake. Can you?

12.

ANALOGY

aa

Can you complete this analogy?

Choose from:

13.

CAR CHASE

aa

Can you unscramble the following letters to find a familiar twoword noun?

MOI CHEVROLET 14

Puzzles

14.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION

aaa

Move one line to leave both sides of this equation equal.

15.

THE ODD COUPLE

aaa

Which two of these seven groups of letters are the ‘odd’ ones out?

16.

LEAN AND MEAN

aaa

What is the next number in this series?

76, 77, 78, 79, 20, 27, ?

15

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

17.

A CHANGE OF DIRECTION

aa

This arrow is pointing from south to north. Move one line and add another to leave the arrow pointing from east to west.

18.

BULLY FOR YOU!

aaa

Move one match in this rearing bull to leave a famous Native American Indian.

16

Puzzles

19.

ON THE ROCKS

aa

Just add ice to this cocktail to get a popular drink. (4 and 4 letters)

20.

REVERSE LOGIC

aa

While Tess was stuck in a traffic jam in London recently a double-decker bus pulled out of a side road just in front of her, turned right and headed in the direction shown. What is the explanation?

17

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

21.

THINK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN

aaa

Egyptologist Sandy Tooms is deep inside the Cairo Museum of Ancient Antiquities searching the endless labyrinth of corridors for room 210 where some ancient Egyptian artifacts are being stored. When she eventually finds the room she discovers to her horror that she has forgotten the password to open the security door. Unbeknown to her, however, the very appropriate elevenletter password is, in a manner of speaking, right in front of her.

Can figure out what it is?

22.

THE UNDERDOG

aaa

Move one of the letters below to a new position in the row to create a type of dog.

D

18

G

O

Puzzles

23.

YAKETY-YAK

aaa

This ‘yak’ has been created using matches. Can you take away six matches to leave a yak going in the opposite direction?

24.

TAKE A BREAK

aaa

Can you replace each * in the following sentence in an almost identical way so that it makes perfect sense?

EVERY YEAR AT E*I IN THE FRENCH ALPS AND THE F*I THE MORE FUN I HAVE!

25.

GO FULL CIRCLE

aaa

Can you fill in the rest of the letters?

ABCDE = HOME BCDE = FORETELL CDE = P??? 19

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

26.

WITNESS

aaa

Cinderspeller is in an especially bad mood today. Some scoundrel has stolen her brand new crystal ball. “Oh!” she cries, “You can’t trust anyone these days!” She suspects that one of her five henchmen, Bill, Charlie, Len, Pete or Ron, has taken it, but she has no proof. Fortunately for her, Broomstick, her loyal black cat, witnessed the theft and can therefore tell her who the culprit is.

The thief is

Can you figure out what the thief is called?

27.

THERE BE A SEA MONSTER HERE!

aa

When swashbuckling adventurer Captain Swishbuckle had successfully navigated his way around the seven seas from east to west, he saw a terrifying sea monster. Can you figure out what type of sea monster it was?

DCIUCQCSTCNCACICG 20

Puzzles

28.

BOUGHT TWO BOOK

aaa

Anna absolutely loves to shop as well as to read, so when she came across two copies of her favourite novel on sale for only ninety cents each in a second-hand bookshop, she just had to buy them. Can you figure out the title of this famous novel from her bill, which is shown below? (5, 3 and 11 letters)

29.

BUBBLE CAR

aaa

Take away three of the four shapes below to leave a sort of car.

30.

SCIENTIFIC FIGURE

aaa

Fill in the missing letters to leave a well-known scientific figure.

??S??U?? ?E?? ?? ?E??E?? ??N???R??E (1543 – 1816)

21

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

31.

LETTER OF INTRODUCTION

aa

Can you decode this letter in compressed Morse code, which begins with a dash and is followed by three dots?

Conversion Table

32.

MEN OF LETTERS

aa

Which letter should replace the question mark below: J, K, L, M or N?

22

Puzzles

33.

ANIMAL MAGIC

aaa

What animal containing five letters can you create by rearranging one of the four letters below?

34.

TEMPERATURE READING

aa

Is this mug of coffee warm, lukewarm or cool and how do you know?

35.

THE HAPPENING

aaa

Which letter should replace the question mark below: L, M, N, O or P?

N1M1H? 23

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

36.

A DRINKING PROBLEM

aa

A cowboy walks into a saloon bar and asks for half a pint of beer. What type of horse does he want and of what colour?

37.

IT’S A KIND OF MAGIC

aaa

Have you always secretly thought of yourself as a bit of a magician? Well, here’s your chance to prove it! ‘All’ you have to do is remove an ace from a deck to leave a bouquet. It might seem impossible, but see if you can you do it.

38.

GET A LIFT

aa

Rearrange one letter to leave the word lift going from left to right.

24

Puzzles

39.

HOVER CRAFT

aaa

Outside the castle Windlestraw the wizard was honing his psychokinetic powers ready for the upcoming Magic Olympics. Velvet, his black cat, looked on in wonderment. “You’re bound to win, Windy!” she enthused, “I bet there’s not another wizard in the entire kingdom that can make fifteen cubes levitate.” “Ahem!” said Windlestraw, clearing his throat. “If you look a little closer, Velvet, you’ll see that there are, in fact, sixteen cubes.” Puzzled, Velvet carefully counted the cubes again, but she could still see only fifteen. Can you see the sixteenth cube?

40.

EQUATION

aa

Move one letter or symbol in this equation so that both sides are equal.

X+X=O 25

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

41.

ANIMAL FARMER

aa

Lucy asked a farmer about buying one of his baby animals to keep as a pet. His reply, less five vowels, was as given below. If you can correctly figure out what he said, you should then be able to figure out his name. What is his name?

T H P G L T S S L D 42.

STAR-CROSSED

aa

Fill in the missing letters to leave a kind of star containing eight letters that may be read in a clockwise or a counter-clockwise direction, but not both.

43.

CHANGEOVER

aa

April goes into a shop in London that sells Native American Indian products with £500. She spends £499 and 20p and leaves the store with _ / _ _ _ _ _ _. What does she buy?

26

Puzzles

44.

COUNTER-FIT

aa

Rearrange one of the 24 lettered counters below to leave a total of 25 counters.

45.

CLOCKWISE

aaa

An apprentice clock repairer is given the task of taking apart a clock and putting it back together again. Unfortunately, he forgets to put the hour and minute hands back on and one other essential thing. Can you figure out what that is?

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

46

THE EQUALISER

aaa

Move one digit below to leave both sides of this equation equal.

47.

CLIFFHANGER

aa

This year the owl has very wisely decided to go to sea in a beautiful luxury liner, while the pussycat has chosen to stay behind on dry land and wave goodbye from a nearby cliff top because, being a cat, she doesn’t like water all that much. She looks sad because the ship is sailing perilously close to the rocky shore and she doesn’t know what to do to warn it. Quickly now! Take away six straight lines from the pussycat to avert a potential cat-astrophe!

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Puzzles

48.

LION TAMING

aa

While driving along in his van, the zookeeper of Puzzleville Zoo spots an escaped male lion walking along a street. Can you help him catch the lion by taking away two lines to make it about the same size as a mouse and, therefore, much easier and safer to capture?

49.

WORDIE

aaa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (4 and 8 letters)

W O R K SEESAWS

50.

?????????

aaaa

Can you see what completes this sequence?

???5???2?, 1?1?, ??3???4??, 3??2???, ?6?5

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

51.

THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST

aa

Late one evening, while Robbie McTavish and his friends were sitting around exchanging stories in their local pub, he showed them this sketch he had made of a strange looking beast he had recently seen. When he told them what he thought it was his friends were a little sceptical. Do you know what he saw? (3, 4, 4 and 7 letters)

52.

KICKSELF

aaa

What do the following groups of letters have in common?

AERO QAR ANIH AYNE AOMA TPYG AYBI ECNAR

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Puzzles

53.

GHOST BRAINBUSTER!

aa

On a recent visit to Haggis Castle, one of Scotland’s most haunted buildings, psychic investigator Spooky Hunter snapped this amazing photograph, in which a ghostly figure can be clearly seen hovering on the right side of the picture. As if that wasn’t incredible enough, when Spooky later studied the picture he noticed that there was another ghostly being hidden in the picture. Use your sixth sense to see if you can find it.

54.

SUNDOWN

aaa

Logically, which 3 letters should be underlined in the bottom row?

SUN SUN SUN SUN SUN

MVEMJSUNP BNLFKPNWX TGPJUWFLC PNWFAYBLR FOSKMECTH

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

55.

SHEEP DIP

aaa

This is the conceptual artist Damien Picasso’s latest work, a huge tank with glass sides containing four fish suspended in formaldehyde. Hidden somewhere in the tank is a female sheep. Can you find it?

56.

PLAIN SAILING

aa

Can you work out the logic behind this equation?

57.

NINE

Take away three lines below so that it still says 9.

32

aaa

Puzzles

58.

DON’T OVERSTEP THE MARK

aaa

Which phrase comes next in this sequence?

DA VINCI EINSTEIN ALPHA WAVE ARCHIMEDES LATERAL LEAP ?

Choose from:

a) HOW OBVIOUS b) THIS IS THE ANSWER c) I HAVE SOLVED IT d) I KNOW THE SOLUTION e) THIS WAS FAR TOO EASY

59.

MATCH PLAY

aaa

Rearrange these seven matchsticks to form a single square shape. None of them may overlap or be broken.

33

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

60.

GOLDFISH

aa

Professor Bunsen-Bernard loves goldfish and even keeps three of them in his laboratory, where they live in a glass chemistry flask, supported by a tripod. At the moment they are all facing to your left. Can you take away eight of the short lines that make up the three goldfish to leave another fish looking to your left?

61.

THIS WILL DRIVE YOU DOTTY

aa

While playing the board game Monotony, Tina the teenager gets bored and decides to examine one of the dice. While the sum of the number of spots on opposite faces is 7, as you would expect, the face opposite the one she is looking at with 4 spots on it has only 2 spots on it. Can you think why this might be?

34

Puzzles

62.

TOP SECRET

aa

In which case are the top secrets below: upper or lower?

63.

THE PHANTOM MENACE

aa

When at night this clock appears to say thirteen o’clock all the ghosts and ghouls come out to play and wreak havoc at Spooky Mansion. At what time is that?

35

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

64.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

aaa

What number should replace the question mark below?

65.

BUBBLE, BUBBLE, LOVE AND ?

aaa

Windlestraw has a number of magic potions that are shown bubbling away in flasks below. If flask B contains love potion, what kind of potion does flask D contain?

A

66.

B

C

D

E

F

MAKING A SPLASH

G

H

I

aaa

Poor Professor Bunsen-Bernard has accidentally knocked over a test-tube of corrosive fluid that has splashed over the piece of paper on which he has written this letter sequence. The result is that three of the letters have been completely obliterated. Can you work out what the letters were?

36

Puzzles

67.

PURPLEBEARD’S TREASURE

aaa

In 1534 the infamous buccaneer Captain Purplebeard buried some treasure on the tropical island of Seaport at one of six locations: H, K, M, S, T and X. At which of these locations was the treasure buried and why is the year 1534 and only that year especially significant?

68.

LETTER QUEST

aaa

Which lettered shape should replace the question mark: 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5?

Choose from:

1

2

3

4

5 37

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

69.

SPACEMAN

aa

Can you rearrange two of these three things to create an astronaut?

70.

TO CATCH A THIEF

aaa

Someone has stolen a precious diamond. Under suspicion are Susan, Agnes, Nancy, Simon and Tommy. One of them is definitely guilty. Look over this puzzle carefully. Eventually you will find the culprit. It is very easy. Too easy some might say.

????? STOLE IT 71.

WHAT’S COOKING?

aa

Windlestraw’s supper is bubbling away in two glass flasks normally used for brewing his magic potions because he is very behind with the washing-up. Just one more thing needs to be added to each flask and his vegetarian meal will be finished. What will he be having for supper? (9 letters)

38

Puzzles

72.

MISS-DIRECTION

aaa

What word should replace the question mark?

73.

QUESTION TIME

aaa

If the answer is BOTXFS, the question is? (8 letters)

74.

WATER INTO WINE

aaa

Below is a glass containing water, represented here by the letter W. Can you perform a minor miracle by moving one line to leave wine?

39

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

75.

THE RIDDLE IN THE STONE

aaa

Sir Percival was riding his trusty steed Snort through the Forest of Riddles when he came across a babbling brook, beside which stood a large boulder with some cryptic instructions and four large letters engraved on it.

He dismounted, looked at the inscription for a moment, and then said excitedly: “Ooh! I see!” Delighted to have solved the riddle, he jumped back on Snort and continued on his way singing that ‘well-known’ medieval song Oh Early Light. Can you solve the riddle? (3, 4 and 5 letters)

76.

THEY’LL BE BACK!

Can you fill in the missing 4-letter term?

40

aaa

Puzzles

77.

AN INSIDE JOB

aa

Turn the two dials until they are in the correct positions and then say the magic words to unlock the safe.

78.

SPANISH TREASURE

aaa

Rich Pickins the pirate has a treasure chest containing five identical old silver Spanish coins. Below is an overhead view showing the open chest. What kind of coins does it contain?

41

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

79.

OUT OF AFRICA

aaa

What letter should go in place of the question mark?

80.

NO END IN SIGHT

aaa

Can you place a letter in the end shape to leave something that is made of sugar?

81.

FINISHING TOUCH

aaa

One of the letters below is unfinished. Without changing the 4 given letters in any way, can you complete that letter?

A

42

I

T

H

Puzzles

82.

LIGHTS OUT

aaa

Below are four cars with four smashed headlights. Can you figure out the culprit’s first name?

83.

THE PIE-EYED PIRATE

aa

Jolly Roger the pirate is especially jolly at the moment. He has just returned from a sea raid with a chest laden with golden nuggets and, to celebrate, he has decided to splash out on two pies at the local tavern. As you can see, he already has his eye on one of them! However, he may soon become a very irate pirate when he learns the truth about his ill-gotten gains. What are the nuggets really made of? (4 and 6 letters)

43

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

84.

TAKE IT AWAY!

aaa

Take away one line to leave both sides of this equation equal.

85.

BIG MISTAKE!

aaa

Can you see the mistake below? (4 letters)

86.

CRYPTIC

Can you solve this cryptic?

Hidden in these lines for all to see Are seven letters concealed by me. First ask yourself why this is so odd Each one contained like a pea in a pod. Next sit yourself down and sip some tea And let your keen eye meander playfully. Then see the answer jump out on elastic And have the pleasure of solving this cryptic!

44

aa

Puzzles

87.

DOWNTOWN

aa

What is the name of the famous city below?

88.

AHA!

aa

Which option completes this word series?

GUESS SOUND CARAT TREAT ? Choose from:

ASKED GLARE MATCH SPACE WHALE A B C D E 45

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

89.

CROSSBONES ISLAND

aaa

This small isle is known as Crossbones Island because its outline resembles the two crossed thighbones found on the traditional pirate flag, the Jolly Roger. All you have to do is move from square to square in any direction to discover what item of jewellery is buried there. (1, 6, 2 and 6 letters)

90.

SHAPE SHIFTER

aaa

Move one line to turn this square into a cone.

91.

IN-SIGHT!

What word is invisible below?

ESB___LVN 46

aa

Puzzles

92.

HEADS AND TAILS

aaa

If you correctly add the two missing match heads below, you will be left with a famous waterway. Do you know what it is called?

93.

PICTURE PUZZLE

a

What three-letter word does this picture represent?

94.

SLEIGHT OF HAND

aaa

Two magicians get into a lift on different floors of an apartment block, press the same button and get out on the eighth floor. The question is “Why do the two magicians go to the eighth floor?” The answer is “Because they both pressed a ***** 8.” What is the missing word?

47

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

95.

AHARRRRR!

aa

The other day I was sitting in my local tavern The Spyglass, which overlooks the sea, when in sailed my old friend the pirate Captain Conan Drum. “Well, shiver me barnacles!” he roared on seeing me. He too is a bit of a puzzle addict and so, after joining me for a glass of grog and telling me about his latest exploits on the high seas, he couldn’t resist showing me his latest conundrum. He reached into one of his jacket pockets and produced seven gleaming gold doubloons, which he then proceeded to arrange on the table in front of me exactly as shown below. “Now, me lad.” he said with a mischievous look in his eyes. “I’ll wager you’ll not be able to solve this one. Take away two coins from this here arrangement to leave five coins across and three coins going down.” It was clear the wily old sea dog still had one or two tricks left up his sleeve, as I couldn’t for the life of me see how it could be done. Can you see through his skullduggery and solve it?

96.

GOING THROUGH A PHRASE aaaa

Can you find the familiar phrase below? (6, 7, 1, 2, 3 and 8)

ROUGH FATE 48

Puzzles

97.

OUT WITH THE OLD

aaaa

Here are three rickety old houses. Can you rearrange the last two houses so that they all become new?

98.

TIME PLEASE!

aa

Exactly what time does this one-handed alarm clock say? (4, 1 and 5 letters)

100.

CLOSE ENCOUNTER

aaa

Can you find the intruder? Which letter does not belong in the following sentence?

jet faced yeti in blinding UFO 49

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

101.

MATCHMAKING

aaa

Below are eleven headless matches. Add two more headless matches to leave a total of fourteen.

102.

ROUND TRIP

aaaa

What is the next word in this sequence?

OPAQUE TOPAZ CHROME RIG CODED BY POETS HAT ? Choose from:

ANGLE, DREAMT, HEROIC, OWES, RESONATED. 50

Puzzles

103.

ANALOGY

aaa

What word completes this analogy?

SMALL CREATURES is to GOBLIN as SCREAM A RESULT is to ? 104.

TRICK OR TREAT?

aaa

Trick, an apprentice wizard, liked nothing more than to invent puzzles in his spare time and his best friend Bo, a knight’s page, really enjoyed trying to solve them. “Hey, Bo,” said Trick one sunny afternoon as the two of them were sitting in the castle courtyard twiddling their thumbs. “I made up a puzzle especially for you last night.” He handed Bo a piece of thin paper with some digits on one side. “Wow, thanks, Trick!” said Bo excitedly, quickly grabbing it from him. “OK.” continued Trick, “Now, all you have to do is turn the piece of paper upside down to discover what the King might one day say to you.” Without pausing to think, Bo immediately turned the piece of paper around and began staring at the inverted number intently, but it didn’t seem to say anything at all. At least, nothing that made any sense. Then, just as he was about to give up, he had an “Aha!” and, seeing the light, could see the phrase as clear as day. “Trick, you devil, you!” he said laughing. “I wish!” Can you see what the phrase is?

51

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

105.

FILLING IN THE BLANKS

aaaa

What is the missing word?

ONE OVER SIX MINUS FIFTEEN = DIMS EIGHT ADDED TO SEVENTY TWO = _ _ _ _

106.

THE MISSING TIARA

aaa

What a disaster! On the very morning of the annual palace ball someone has stolen Princess Carolina’s tiara. She is very distraught and adamant that, without it, she will not be attending the ball. Hurriedly, the King summons Inspector Gumshoe to help find the missing tiara. When Gumshoe arrives, he immediately suspects five dodgy looking members of the palace staff. They are Betty, Kenny, Percy, Terry and Wendy. But he can find no proof. Then just one hour before the ball is due to start Gumshoe receives this anonymous note:

Understandably, he is completely baffled by it. Can you figure out who stole the tiara in time so that the princess shall go to the ball?

107.

THE CHIPS ARE DOWN

What word is missing from this well-known rhyme?

10, 20, 30, 4. 50, 60, 70 ?. 52

aa

Puzzles

108.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

aa

Can you decode this well-known rhyme? Each symbol represents a letter.

109.

THE GHOST PIRATE

aaa

In the Cornish seaside town of Looe is an old tavern called Davy Jones’s Locker, where there is an old wooden sea chest. Local legend has it that it once belonged to an infamous pirate and that, should anyone ever dare to remove six small identical items of jewellery from it, the ghost of this fearsome buccaneer will appear and cut them to ribbons! Are you brave enough to figure out who the owner of this chest supposedly was and what the items of jewellery are?

53

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

110.

MAGIC SHAPE

aa

All morning Windlestraw had been teaching Trick how to make various objects levitate. “Well done, my boy!” said Windlestraw proudly, for his protégé had just succeeded in making eleven pens levitate. “That’s amazing!” said Bo, unexpectedly bursting into the room. Unfortunately, his sudden arrival broke Trick’s concentration and the pens tumbled to the floor. Windlestraw frowned. “Oops, sorry.” said Bo sheepishly. “No problem.” said Trick smiling at his friend. “I was getting pretty tired anyhow.” “Hey!” said Bo perking up again, “That heap of pens suggests a magic shape!” “Yeah?” said Trick somewhat doubtfully. “Yes, really!” replied Bo. “So it does!” said Windlestraw chuckling, “Bo’s absolutely right.” What magic shape does it suggest?

111.

FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT

aa

Take away six letters to leave a familiar phrase. Be warned, though. You’ll need a beady eye to solve it!

ABCDEFGHIJ 54

Puzzles

112.

TRAFFIC JAM

aa

As you can see, there are two vehicles below shown going to the left. Can you find a third type of vehicle going to the right? (1 and 7 letters)

113.

I WENT NEXT

aaa

What should replace the question marks? Clue: I went next.

114.

SECRET RENDEZVOUS

aaa

Two travellers decide to meet up in Red St around 2am. In which city do they intend to meet?

55

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

115.

WOOLLY THINKING

aaaa

If the letter “U” is missing from the following arrangement of letters, where exactly does it belong?

A

S

E

O H

P

C

S

V

B

R X

K

116.

.

A NEW ADDITION

aa

Add one line to leave both sides of this equation equal.

117.

DESIGNER SPACE GEAR

aa

Rearrange one letter below to leave something only an astronaut might wear.

ATSUI 56

Puzzles

118

ON TO CAR

aa

At the moment this car is facing you. Can you move just two shapes to leave it looking to your right?

119.

CREATE A CREATURE

aa

Alice was walking through the forest when she came across a rather strange-looking creature. If you choose the correct letter from one of the two words on either side of the brackets and then insert it inside the brackets, you’ll be able to read the name of this creature going downwards.

ACT (__) PUN LOG (__) HAT DOT (__) FLY RED (__) CAT WAG (__) ORB HUG (__) MAP IRK (__) YEN LEG (__) BOA HEN (__) PAL BUG (__) ASK FOX (_) CAR

120.

A TALL STOREY

aa

This building, if feet lower, could be one of the tallest buildings in the world. What is it called?

57

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

121.

CIRCULAR REASONING

aaaa

Can you find the missing letters?

FOE = PERIPHERY DUO = CONCURRENTLY HERO = F???

122.

GOLD DIGGERS

aa

Some gold miners wish to dig a hole. If it takes them 10 - 8 minutes to dig two holes, how come it takes them 10 - 4 minutes to dig one hole? Also, how many miners are there? Assume they always take the same amount of time to dig a hole.

123.

CONDUCTOR

aa

By what name is this conductor better known? (9 and 3 letters)

THOR DINGLING 124.

LATERAL THINKING PUZZLE

aaa

Professor Ed de Bono was in his study deep in lateral thought when in popped his young son. His son then asked him a question to which the preoccupied professor replied: “02417, 20. I’m 43895896.” Looking somewhat disappointed, his son then left the room. If each digit represents a letter of a familiar phrase, what did the professor say and what is his son’s name?

58

Puzzles

125.

ONE HUMP OR TWO?

aa

An Arab is on board a new train that takes in the capitals of Beirut, Amman and Cairo. How many humps does his camel have?

126.

MISSING NUMBERS

aaa

What are the three missing numbers?

RAT = 35, 55, 90. IT = 70, 40, 70. ET = ?, ?, ?. 127.

DECODE

aa

See if you can decode the following to find out what you are.

Bcr ILOLI ADNET 128.

CONTINENTAL DRIFT

aaa

A certain creature is taken from a continent and moved to the region found on the exact opposite side of the Earth. Once there, however, it finds itself back in the continent from which it has just been removed! What is the creature? (3 letters)

59

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

129.

CODE WORD

aaaa

First convert these letters to Morse code and write the resulting sequence of dots and dashes on a piece of paper. Then see if you can decode this sequence to find an appropriate eightletter word.

UETREBAI Conversion Table

130.

LETTER PYRAMID

What is the missing letter?

A AG PAG OGET FAGOR FRAGAL CAT?RAG 60

aaa

Puzzles

131.

WORDIE

aaa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (3, 6 and 6 letters)

C H BOOTY E S T 132.

MISSING WORD

a

What is the missing word?

COME GOES DOWN UP MUST ? 133.

IT’S A GAS!

aa

Which gas is no longer present in this list? (5 letters)

SILICON HELIUM NEON HYDOGEN MERCURY OXYGEN 61

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

134.

WORDIE

aaa

What word does the following represent? (10 letters)

LMN U 135.

HORSING AROUND

a

In what place will these four horses find themselves when they face the other way?

136.

NOTHING TO IT

aaa

Can you figure out the logic behind this equation?

9–I+0=0 137.

IT’S A MIST-ERY

aaa

While Windlestraw is taking a nap under his favourite enchanted tree, his two mischievous nephews, Bubble and Trouble, who are spending their summer holidays with him, creep into the magic cave where he keeps all his magic potions, spell books and other equipment. Very soon they begin fighting over his magic wand and accidentally turn themselves into two small creatures - all around are thick mists. What type of creatures have they turned themselves into? (5 letters)

62

Puzzles

138.

THE PYRAMID TEMPLE

aaa

Treasure hunter Nebraska Jones emerges from the dense jungle undergrowth to find himself in front of a large pyramid-shaped temple. Above the entrance he notices this series of strangelooking symbols. What do they represent?

139.

SHORT AND SWEET

aaaa

What should replace the question marks below?

4n = 10 for sure n = ?? ????

140.

A STRANGE CONCOCTION

aaa

What letter is missing from this weird sequence of letters?

63

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

141.

TWISTER

aaaa

Can you figure out what these weird looking things are?

142.

THE F PLAN

aaaa

Can you rearrange two of the eleven toothpicks below to leave a capital F?

64

Puzzles

143

THE BOTTOM LINE

aaa

Which word completes this list?

Choose from:

144.

A

B

C

D

E

F

UPPER CANINE

aaa

What two letters should replace the question marks?

65

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

145.

CARD SHARP

aaaa

Below are 14 cards with some of the letters of the alphabet on them. Why does the letter K appear on the missing card?

146.

WORDIE

aaa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (8, 3, 1, 5, 2 and 4 letters)

147.

LARD JUMBLE

aa

Can you find an eight-letter word amongst these ten jumbled up letters that describes what the other two letters are?

66

Puzzles

148.

X MARKS THE TREASURE

aaa

One of the Xs on this map indicates where some treasure is buried. What is the treasure and in what country is it found?

149.

ABOUT FACE

aa

Can you take away one line from this picture of a spotted dog to leave a picture of a horse?

67

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

150.

A LATERAL LEAP

aaa

Trick was taking a snapshot of Windlestraw up on top of one of the castle battlements where the snow-capped peaks of the nearby Witch Hat Mountains formed the perfect backdrop. “Hey, Windy!” called out Trick, who was peering at him through the camera’s viewfinder. “Could you possibly move just one step to your right? I’m afraid I can’t quite see the city behind you.” Looking baffled, Windlestraw gathered up his robe and leaped sideways in a sprightly and comical fashion. “That’s perfect.” said Trick, clicking the shutter button while trying very hard not to laugh! Look carefully at Trick’s photo of Windlestraw below and see if you can discover what he meant.

68

Puzzles

151.

SOUNDS A LITTLE FISHY

aaa

While visiting the Natural History Museum in London you go to see their incredible life-size model of a Blue Whale and notice that a letter has fallen off the sign in front of it. How do you fix the sign and, in so doing, also create a small spiny fish containing eleven letters?

152.

THE WITCH’S SPELL

aa

From what creature has Cinderspeller created this demonic looking cat with a forked tail?

153.

MISSING LETTERS

a

The following has ‘LA’ on one side and ‘NY’ on the other. Can you figure out what it is?

___/_N__E_/__A___ 69

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

154.

WORDIE

aa

What familiar two-word noun does the following represent? (6 and 7 letters)

155.

CAN YOU CRACK IT?

aaa

To open a safe door you must turn this pointer either 90 degrees clockwise or 90 degrees counter-clockwise. Be careful, though. If you turn it the wrong way, a security alarm will go off. Which way should you turn the pointer so that it says open?

156.

WORDIE

aa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (7 and 8 letters)

70

Puzzles

157.

THE TRUTH WILL OUT

aaa

Today is Florence’s birthday, but she doesn’t want anyone to know just how old she is so there are no candles on her cake. Despite this, see if you can figure out how many candles should be on it, her age as indicated by that number and, lastly, what should replace the question mark.

158.

COSMIC, MAN!

aa

Can you add the three objects on the right to this space scene to start a cosmic meltdown? You may place them behind those already in the picture.

71

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

159.

SAUSAGE DOG

aa

Here is a dachshund, which is a dog with a long body and short legs, on a lead. Can you take away 4 lines to leave something else with a lead?

160.

WORDIE

aaa

What film does the following represent? (1, 4, 4, 1 and 4 letters)

ROOMFU 161.

MONSTER DIAMONDS

aa

You discover these four boxes in a cave, guarded by a terrifying monster, which is sound asleep. Suddenly, it awakes! Quickly now! Which box contains three large diamonds?

A

72

B

C

D

Puzzles

162.

HUNTER-KILLER

aaa

Which three letters are missing from the following: ETL, HUS, LWO, TEP or YRA?

BONCCCSOIR 163.

MATCHING PIGS

aa

Here are two pigs facing each other created using matches and buttons. One of them has six spots. Take away 2 matches and move 3 buttons to leave 2 identical pigs facing the same way as each other.

164.

CAPITALISE

aaa

Rearrange these four shapes to leave two capital Hs.

73

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

165.

THINK AHEAD

aaaa

Mr. Wells’ favourite sequence goes like this. Can you find the last two missing shapes?

Choose from:

A

166.

B

C

D

E

SERIES

What four-letter number comes next in this series?

one thirty-two fifteen forty seventeen sixty-eight ????

74

aaa

Puzzles

167.

OVERTAKING MANOEUVRE

aaa

Below are two right-hand drive cars, which are heading towards you. The car on the left has pulled out of its lane and is overtaking the car on the right. Very soon it will be directly in front of it. Can you move just four shapes so that the car on the left is in front of the car on the right? Each rectangle, circle, etc. counts as one shape.

168.

CANINE CONUNDRUM

aa

This picture of a naughty dog describes a familiar phrase that says where he might end up. Where is that? (2, 3, 3 and 5 letters)

75

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

169.

MISSION TO MARS

aaa

While on an exploratory mission to Mars you discover an ancient building with this strange set of symbols above what appears to be some kind of doorway. To enter the building, you must decipher their meaning. Can you figure out what that is?

170.

WORD LIST

aaa

What word completes the following list?

TURKEY SHACK ATONE YACHT KNOTS ? 171.

MISSING LETTERS

aa

The following normally has two Cs at the front and two at the back. Do you know what it is?

?A?E?O?S? 76

Puzzles

172.

COCKTAIL

aaa

Below is a diagram of a glass containing a cocktail stick. Can you move one line to complete the cocktail?

173.

HYBRID

aa

A man meets a cross cat. What sort of cat is it? (4 and 3 letters)

174.

FALLING ON HARD TIMES

aaa

A rambler goes for a walk. He starts out from X and walks to Y. Next he walks from Y to Z and then from Z back to X. At what times does he start and finish his walk?

175.

PHRASE

a

What does this say?

TH! S! SAS! LLYTR! CK 77

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

176.

NAME AND NUMBER

aaa

Three crack shots, Sue, June and another person, fire nine shots at three targets. Some bullets pass through the targets. Two of the shooters’ names and scores are given below. Can you figure out the third one’s name and score?

SUE = 665 177.

JUNE = 7675

?=?

WORDIE

aa

What word does the following represent? (8 letters)

xπr

178.

NINE LINES

aaaa

Move one of the small lines below to a new position in the arrangement to leave nine. There should be no redundant lines.

78

Puzzles

179.

THE SPY WHO PUZZLED YOU

aaa

Secret agent Dublo Waite is dining out to lunch with his secretary Penny Money in a trendy London restaurant when the waiter hands him this seemingly unfinished message:

Dublo Waite, I have some vital information for you. Meet me at Trafalgar Square at 2pm today. You will be able to spot me because I shall be wearing a bright red .. Dublo Waite quickly reads the message, apologises to Penny Money for having to leave her at such short notice, and then heads off to meet the informant, who will be wearing a bright red what? (4, 2 and 5 letters)

180.

MONKEY PUZZLE

aa

What does this say?

181.

ANALOGY

aaa

What two-digit number should replace the question mark?

79

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

182.

THE KISS

aaa

Can you find the missing circle?

Choose from:

80

A

B

C

D

E

F

Puzzles

183.

IN A WORD

aa

Rearrange one letter to leave a word.

184.

JUST A MINUTE

aa

The hour hand, minute hand and second hand of a watch, indicate that it is exactly 12 o’clock. Exactly sixty seconds later the second hand points directly to the very first minute division line after the hour one. If the watch is in perfect working order, what is the explanation?

185.

CROSSWORDS

aaa

What is the missing letter?

81

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

186.

WORDIE

aaa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (4, 4 and 3 letters)

Y R PLA A PA T 187.

OUT OF SHAPE

aa

Which one of these five shapes is a sort of gentle arc?

188.

CUBE

aaa

Can you fold this unfolded, six-sided see through cube just four times along four lines to leave a cube?

82

Puzzles

189.

RIVER CROSSING

aa

This famous river has a number of cities along its course. What is its name?

190.

DIGIT

aa

What digit is represented by the question marks below?

2467390??? 8958493?86 5420373??? 936738634? 7322320??? 191.

A POINTLESS EXERCISE

aaa

Place the same four letters, none of which are adjacent in the alphabet, in the same positions in each of these letter wheels to leave two eight-letter words going either clockwise or counterclockwise.

83

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

192.

SERIES

aa

Which figure comes next in this sequence?

Choose from:

A

193.

B

C

SOLVE IT!

Can you find the answer below?

SUN LIT

84

D

E

aa

Puzzles

194.

PHRASE SEARCH

aaa

Start at the square containing the letter ‘T’, as indicated below, and then move from square to square along the connecting lines without changing direction between consecutive squares to spell out a famous phrase of 3, 4 and 7 letters. You must visit every square at least once. The first letter of the phrase has been placed in the grid.

195.

ODD ONE OUT

aaa

Which is the odd one out?

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

85

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

196.

GAMESMANSHIP

aaa

Move one of the two digits on the right side of this equation to the left side to leave both sides equal.

197.

ODD ONE OUT

aaa

Which is the odd one out?

a) amw b) driakbl c) uook d) ku e) urlw f) laon g) ouar

198.

WALKABOUT

aa

An Aborigine goes on walkabout in the Australian outback. He walks IOºNN and finds a vegetable. He then walks IºNSE and hears a sound. What does he see when he walks IºNW: a koala bear, a drunk, a movie, a shooting star, a toothbrush or a flying saucer?

86

Puzzles

199.

TURN OVER

aa

In the following arrangement of fourteen cards, only two cards are spades, one of which, the ace, is shown face up. Which additional three cards should you turn over to be certain of leaving at least one other spade showing?

200.

LOW-KEY

aaa

What letter should replace the question mark in this incomplete set of keys?

201.

AROUND THE TABLE

aaa

Seven knights - A, B, C, D, E, F and G - were arranged in a particular order around King Arthur’s Round Table: B faced ?.

87

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

202.

BARNSTORMER

aaa

A storm is approaching and Merryweather the horse is standing outside the barn where his stable is. Can you take away one line and rearrange another to leave him safely in his stable inside the barn?

203.

TOAD IN THE WHOLE

aaa

A dog made out of matches is lying on a grassy riverbank and its reflection is clearly visible in the river’s waters. Take away two matches, one arranged horizontally and the other arranged diagonally, to leave a toad.

88

Puzzles

204.

MAKE THE CONNECTION

aa

Can you see how this sequence of numbers is connected to pi?

3, 1, 19, 19, 15.

205.

GET THE LO DOWN

aa

Can you complete this 5-letter word? The letters ‘LO’ could be said to be a synonym of the 5-letter word you are looking for.

?LO?? 206.

WORDIE

aa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (7 and 4 letters)

M A LLA R D

207.

EASY TIGER!

aa

What sounds just like a tiger and occupies areas of coniferous forest extending across much of sub-arctic North America and Eurasia? (5 letters)

89

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

208.

SIGNS

aaa

What letter should replace the question mark?

−HE÷MO=E−E÷? 209.

AN INSECT

aa

Can you fill in the missing letter to leave an insect?

SEANC? 210.

IN A JAM

aaa

Jan has just three more ingredients to add to complete the damson jam. What are they? (3 letters)

211.

WORDIE

aa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (1, 4, 2, 3 and 6 letters)

JACK JOKER DEALS

90

Puzzles

212.

STATELY HOME

aa

In which very famous stately home would you find the following?

MOAT RUINS CAFE DIET TEAS 213.

ANGEL FISH

aaa

Here is an Angel fish in an aquarium. Believe it or not, there are also eleven other ‘fishes’ of the same size in the aquarium. Can you find them?

214.

PICTURE ALBUM

aa

Which famous popular music album cannot be seen in this picture? Each star represents a letter in its title.

91

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

215.

PARLEZ-VOUS FRANÇAIS

aa

You are at a garden party hosted by the Count and Countess de Vine at Le Chateau Bordeaux. Go on don’t be shy. Even though you may not speak French very well, raise a glass and try to make some kind of chat.

216.

WORDIE

aaa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (4, 2 and 4 letters)

MOOR WITHOUT OARS 217.

BRAIN TWISTER

aa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (5 and 7 letters)

TORN BRA ADO 92

Puzzles

218.

ODD ONE OUT

aaa

Which is the odd one out?

A

219.

B

C

D

E

F

SERIES

aa

Fill in the rest of the letters to complete this series of words.

_I_M_ __S_L__ _H_ I_T_ _P_I___ S_G__

220.

EQUATION

aaa

Rearrange one letter so that this equation is correct.

TV=S

93

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

221.

WORDIE

aa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (5, 3 and 3 letters)

222.

DRIVER

aa

This car is midway between the states of Massachusetts and New York. What is the famous driver’s last name? (7 letters)

MA 223.

NY MISSING LETTER

What is the missing letter?

RE-EMPT Choose from:

N, O, P, Q, R.

94

a

Puzzles

224.

ANAGRAM

aaa

Can you rearrange the four i’s below to create an anagram? (7 letters)

i i i g r i m 225.

ODD ONE OUT

aaa

Which row of letters is the odd one out: 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

226.

VULGAR FRACTION

aa

How can you add a line like those below to leave an eighth and a ninth?

95

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

227.

COMPOUND FRACTURE

aa

What chemical compound do these elements make? (6 and 8 letters)

Se + O + Md + Ho + Cd + I + Ru + Li

228.

WORD SEQUENCE

aaa

What nine-letter word comes next in this sequence?

TESTING MINDS MIGHTY LOFTY STRENGTH ?????????

229.

A LEADING QUESTION

a

What same letter can be added to each of the following rows of letters to leave five words going across from left to right?

HO? HAT? HY? HEN? HERE? 96

Puzzles

230.

WE HAVE COG-NITION!

aaa

Rotate the three cogs and replace the question marks with the letters B, O, O and T to leave an appropriate two-word phrase of ten letters reading across from left to right.

231.

EQUATION

aa

Can you complete this equation?

232.

IT’S A DRAG

aa

Add only F to leave a creature with wings.

DRAG

97

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

233.

THE TOP ROW

aaa

Can you type a nine-letter word on this slightly unconventional keyboard on the top row that means surrendered? Each key may be ‘pressed’ any number of times.

234.

MATCH BOXES

aaa

Below are fifteen paper matches arranged to create six nonsquare rectangles. Can you take away just one of these paper matches to leave six fewer non-square rectangles?

98

Puzzles

235.

PERFECT CUBE

aaa

Here is an incomplete three-dimensional view of a cube. Can you rearrange one match to leave a perfect cube?

236.

DOCTOR PUZZLE’S EQUATION

aa

Doctor Puzzle is in his lab scribbling equations on a blackboard. Suddenly, Doctor Puzzle squeals, "Z plus Z equals ?!" See if you can figure out what letter should replace the question mark.

237.

MAGIC ROUNDABOUT

aaa

Around 100 AD two Arabs reinvented a word associated with magic. What is that word?

238.

INSIDER DEALING

aa

Where in a house might there be room for the letter ‘d’?

99

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

239.

ODD ONE OUT

aa

Which is the odd one out?

A Sire B Rail C Nacre D Win E Lo

240.

WORDIE

aaa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (3, 4, 2, 1, 4 and 4 letters)

IN IN IN IN IN

241.

ON TRACK

aa

What might a middle or long distance athlete often run with during a record attempt and yet, conversely, also be unable to run with? (9 letters)

242.

MISSING LETTER

What's the missing letter?

a, c, f, g, i, l, p, t, v, z.

100

aaa

Puzzles

243.

YOUR TURN

aaa

Can you rearrange these letters to form one word? (8 letters)

AN ENIGMA 244.

PEN AND OINK DRAWING

aa

This pig is in a pen with just three sides. Without adding or changing anything around the pig, can you somehow leave it completely penned in?

245.

CHARACTER BUILDING

a

Alice and the Dormouse are sitting at one end of a tea table sipping endless cups of tea. At the other end is this broken alarm clock, which has only one hand. If the clock’s two rings are at two and ten o’clock, which Alice in Wonderland character appears?

101

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

246.

WORD SEQUENCE

aa

Can you fill in the two missing letters?

MY, VIEW, MOJO, STUD, ?A?

247.

ASSOCIATION

aaa

Find the common association between the three things on the left and then fill in the missing letter on the right.

IOIO, APPLE, 7

248.

Æ

THE RUIN

SWATS?

aaa

By the side of a lake are the ruins of an old castle. See if you can rearrange just one of the four remaining sections of its surrounding wall so that the word ‘ruin’ might possibly be read from left to right from the opposite side of the lake, but without using a mirror.

102

Puzzles

249.

PATCHWORK

aa

One day Twitchet the rabbit was feeling especially hungry, so he broke into a farmer’s vegetable patch and _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ until it was almost coming out of his long floppy ears. The farmer was less than pleased! What are the two missing words? Clue: 8 letters.

250.

OQ TEST

aaa

Fill in the missing letters to leave a five-letter word reading down.

OQOOOOOOO=? OOQOOOOOO=E OOOOOOOQO=N OOOOOOQOO=? OOOOOQOOO=?

251.

CAN YOU SPOT IT?

a

Can you fill in the missing spot?

103

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

252.

MISSING LETTER

aaa

Can you fill in the missing letter?

253.

ODD ONE OUT

Which is the odd one out?

104

aaa

Puzzles

254

THE NAME OF THE GAME

aaa

By moving like a chess knight from square to square, see if you can spell out an eight-letter game. Do not visit a square twice.

255.

MATHS PUZZLE

aaa

What is the missing boy’s name?

256.

LETTER GRID

aaa

Can you place the letter Z in the following grid so that every letter of the alphabet appears only once?

105

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

257.

ANALOGY

aaa

What three-digit number completes the following?

2 : 1 :: 4935 : ???

258

DISCOVERY

aa

An archaeologist unearths a piece of lime wood from an axe that is more than 100 years old. Can you explain why this discovery might be said to be a bit of an anticlimax?

259.

NOW AND THEN

aaa

Sally arranges eleven matches on a table in a certain way. She then rearranges five of them so that, amazingly, what was once two, is now six. How were they arranged originally?

260.

GIVE IT A BREAK!

aa

How can you break a matchstick into three pieces of different lengths so that the resulting sound is majestic? (5, 1 and 4 letters)

106

Puzzles

261.

DOTS AND DASHES

aaa

Can you complete this series?

262.

ODD ONE OUT

aa

Which is the odd one out?

A 263.

B

C

SHIP AHOY!

D

aa

What single thing is physically impossible in this picture of a pirate ship?

107

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

264.

SOMETHING IN COMMON

aaa

Can you figure out what all of these words in particular have in common?

VEIN, LOFT, SEW, ANY, TALL, SIN.

265.

WORDIE

aa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (4, 2, 3, 6 and 4 letters)

SINE

266.

HUE AND CRY

What letter should replace the question mark below?

HICEWT ULBOE REALNOG RONEGE UPNKI AEUMRV RY?GE

108

aaa

Puzzles

267.

WORDIE

aa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (4, 3 and 5 letters)

AND AND AND DNA

268.

LEAPFROG

aaa

At the moment this frog is sitting beside a pond. Move one match and take away another to leave it disappearing from view.

269.

LETTER SEQUENCE

aaa

What is the missing letter: B, J, L, P, S or W?

A?DFGHJKL 109

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

270.

WORDIE

aaa

What word does the following represent? (10 letters)

EGDIRB 271.

MISSING LETTER

aaa

What is the missing letter?

LIEUTENANT : EL ANT : ? 272.

THIS WORD GAME

aaa

Can you fill in the rest of the letters in this word game?

273.

IN THE PICTURE

aa

Les is admiring the portrait of a famous English monarch. The king’s two large eyes follow him closely behind a strange looking arch. Can you figure out which king is in the portrait?

110

Puzzles

274.

MENTAL ACROBATICS

aa

Below are six men, who are acrobats. Take away three straight lines and three circles to leave three famous prudent men.

275.

IT’LL COME TO NOTHING

aaa

What comes after the number 7 in this sequence?

1 SEQUENCE 2 PUZZLER 3 THAT 4 WILL 5 BUG 6 YOU 7

276.

SYMBOLISM

aa

Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden. If Eve is a little cross over nothing, can you draw what Adam is?

111

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

277.

PLANETS

aaa

Here are five newly discovered planets observed orbiting a distant star. What is the name of the fifth planet: Andros, Boronia, Calaro, Dulata or Eya?

278.

SEQUENCE

aaa

What is the missing letter?

1M 2ULAN 3E 4RIV 5R?

279.

ANALOGY

aaa

What word completes this analogy?

LETTER SPOTTED : DEFLECT :: CENTRE RUINED : ? 112

Puzzles

280.

GAS

aa

Which one of the following is a gas?

C5L12O H25D18O7E14 M5N4 S9L9C15N S5E4 281.

DO YOU DIG IT?

a

As you can see, Biscuit the clown is wearing a very snazzy suit. His favourite party trick is to change out of it into another suit at the drop of a hat. What does this other suit look like?

282.

NEXT, PLEASE!

aa

What number comes immediately after the following? Hint: It contains seventeen digits!

12,215,308,523,345,916 113

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

283.

DISAGREE TO AGREE

aaa

Can you take away two straight lines to make both sides of this equation agree?

CI = 2I 284.

MATCH TRICK

aaa

Take away eight of the matchsticks below and yet leave one matchstick behind. There are no hidden matchsticks.

285.

TOWER BLOCK

In which city is this tower found?

114

aa

Puzzles

286.

GOLDEN BLAST

aa

Which pair of letters does not belong in the following?

AI UG US CT 287.

THE TEMPLE OF GLOOM

aa

Nebraska Jones finds an empty wooden crate in a chamber deep inside the crumbling ruins of the Temple of Gloom. Yet again his dastardly rival, Dacoit, has beaten him to the treasure! Can you figure out which priceless ancient artifact is missing from the crate? (3, 3, 2, 3 and 8 letters)

288.

WORDIE

aaa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (6, 2, 2, 3 and 3 letters)

115

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

289.

PAIRING OFF

aaa

Which pair of letters are the odd ones out?

N a 290.

P b

D c

C d

RED FACES

F e aaa

You have a solid figure with flat faces of the same size and shape. Each of its faces is painted either green or red, with each green one being called 'odd' and each red one being called 'even'. If you redo red on each 'odd', how many red faces will the resultant figure have?

291.

UNDER LOCK AND KEY

aa

You are in a prison cell which has just two access points, a window and a door that is locked. Can you rearrange the match and one of the eight toothpicks to enable you to escape?

116

Puzzles

292.

OH NO!

aaa

What should replace the question marks in this series? 40,1O,41,2O,42,2O,43,1O,44,2O,45,1O,46,1O,47,1O,48,1O,49,1O,??,??

293.

LADY IN RED

aa

Here is an owl standing beneath the moon and a cluster of six brightly shining stars. Can you rearrange the moon, four of the stars and four of the owl’s six L-shaped toes to leave a picture of a female bird?

294.

IT SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED!

aa

What seven-letter word can be seen in the middle of this graffiti covered wall?

117

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

295.

CLUB TOGETHER

aa

Which card must you turn over to be certain of leaving just one club showing?

296.

QUADRI-LATERAL

aaaa

Sanju rearranged these six quadrilateral shapes to leave three possible views of three separate cubes with individual sides of just one colour. Every part of the six shapes formed part of the three cubes formed and none of the six quadrilaterals overlapped. How did he do it?

297.

MATCH TEASE

aa

Can you rearrange two of these eight matches to leave forty?

118

Puzzles

298.

MANY MOONS

aaa

As Luke looked up at the clear night sky from the planet Orpheus, he was able to see its six orbiting moons, Aoo, Iruti, Onoo, Tonuo, Tokali and Upidoe. Can you see which one of the moons is inhabited?

299.

EQUATION

aa

Rearrange one of the symbols or digits below so that both sides of this equation are still equal.

119

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

300.

ON THE TILES

aaa

Below are some square tiles with various shapes in them. Two of the tiles are unfinished. Can you complete them by correctly filling in the missing shape?

301.

DARK HUMOUR

aaa

What letter replaces the question mark below: A, B, C, D or E?

AIR,DOOR, A,DATE, BLACK,? 302.

GOING ROUND IN CIRCLES

aaa

Which number on the last clock should the missing minute hand point to?

120

Puzzles

303.

PICTURE PUZZLE

aaa

Which one of the following is missing from the table below: M, N, O, P or Q?

304.

ADD A LINE

aa

Add a line to leave nine.

305.

MISSING NUMBER

aa

What is the missing number: 415, 612, 717, 812 or 915?

DEJA = 121 NOSE = 119 JUDE = ? 121

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

306.

WORDIE

aa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (2, 4, 3, 2 and 5 letters)

THE THREE MUSKE

307.

UNKNOWN QUANTITY

aaa

All the little folk, who dwell in Amy’s garden, are either Trooth Fairies, who never tell the truth, or Storytellers, who always tell the truth. One summery afternoon, Amy notices a group of little folk sitting under a shady toadstool at the end of her garden. After gently introducing herself, she asks one of the males in the group how many of those gathered under the toadstool are Trooth Fairies. He thinks for a moment and then replies, “None”. Realising that this approach probably won’t get her very far, she asks her good friend Barney the owl, who is sitting in the apple tree nearby and who she knows to be completely truthful, if he can tell her how many Trooth Fairies there are under the toadstool. “Oh yes!” he chirps, “There is...” Unfortunately, the number he gives at the end of this three-word sentence is drowned out by Amy’s dog Cacophony, who suddenly arrives on the scene barking wildly, causing a very startled Barney to fly away. As a result, Amy still doesn’t know the answer to her question. Can you figure out how many Trooth Fairies there are under the toadstool?

122

Puzzles

308.

NUMBER SEQUENCE

aa

What digit completes this sequence?

? 309.

WORDIE

aa

What word does the following represent? (8 letters)

sent 310.

LOSE HAIR

aaa

Can you find a five-letter word amongst these eight jumbled up letters that describes what the other three letters are?

311.

SEQUENCE

aaa

What comes next?

NFR, DFR, JEY, FFY, MCH, ACL, ? 123

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

312.

ATLANTIC CROSSING

aa

It is 11.50am and a Jumbo jet bound for Heathrow airport in London has just taken off from John F. Kennedy airport in New York. The co-pilot looks at the clock on their instrument panel and says to the pilot: “We’ll be able to see the approximate shape of the British Isles in about 8 minutes.” Baffled, the pilot looks at him and says: “But that’s impossible!” What does the co-pilot mean?

313.

WORDIE

aaa

What familiar phrase does the following represent? (3, 3, 2, 3, 6, 2, 3 and 3 letters)

314.

a

b

a

b

c

d

c d

a

b

d

SETTING A PRESIDENT

aa

The US president, who is buried in St Ginna. What is his name?

124

Puzzles

315.

FRACTION

aa

Can you move one line to leave a ninth?

316.

TRUTH DETECTOR

aaa

A man is shot dead in a New York alley. Shortly after the police arrest a man fitting a witness’s description of the gunman seen fleeing the crime scene. They also recover the murder weapon, a revolver, several blocks away in a trash can. Unfortunately, the fingerprints on its handle are not quite clear enough to identify the murderer. During the suspect’s interrogation the interviewing officer asks him if he has ever shot anyone and to write down his answer. Naturally, he writes ‘no’. Surprisingly, the officer is then fairly certain that he is not the culprit. How come?

317.

UNDERHANDED

aa

Below are two pictures of an actual alarm clock. Given that it is possible, can you determine which of the two hands the alarm hand is under in diagram ‘B’?

A

B 125

ANSWERS

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

1. A MAGIC SPELL VOODOO. The wizard’s head, eyes, nose, mouth and hat are made up of the letters in ‘VOODOO’. 2. CAT AND MOUSE Theresa. Replace the question mark in ‘? ATE HER’ with the letter S to get ‘S ATE HER’, which is an anagram of ‘THERESA’. 3. SHAKEN AND STIRRED ? He is talking to his famous gadget man “Q”. The completed question “Is neat rum ok, Q?” is an anagram of ‘QUESTION MARK’. This is hinted at in the puzzle’s title ‘SHAKEN AND STIRRED ?’. 4. THE SIX TOWERS Add the two lines to the second tower from the left to complete the ‘X’ in the inverted letter sequence U, V, W, X, Y that forms the towers’ roofs.

5. PICTURE IMPERFECT A large club symbol. The picture is made up from the various elements on a four of clubs playing card.

6. GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION Mr. Ever because ‘ever’ can be placed after ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘how’ and ‘where’ to form new words. 128

Answers

7. SITTING ROOM Take away C to leave ‘H-AIR’ which sounds like “a chair”. 8. GUESS WHO The missing name is Tim. Samantha said “I guesstimate 20 sweets in all!” so she ate approximately 20 sweets. 9. THE DISAPPEARING PARROT TRICK At the bottom of the cage where there is a polygon (Polly gone). The fish is a perch. 10. THE FOURTH DIMENSION He is in a lift. The second character of the word ‘Iift’ is not a complete ‘I’ and so ‘lift’ is fractionally less than ‘IIft’. 11. THE SWORD IN THE LAKE The Isle of Avalon forms the top half of a sword lying on its side. 12. ANALOGY J. The analogy is:

PETER is to PAN as CAPTAIN is to HOOK. 13. CAR CHASE MOTOR VEHICLE. 14. THE FRENCH CONNECTION

15. THE ODD COUPLE HÈGT and WEÊLT. Whereas these two groups of letters are anagrams of even numbers, the rest are anagrams of odd numbers. 16. LEAN AND MEAN 22. The series is ‘16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22’. The ones have been rotated to look like sevens.

129

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

17. A CHANGE OF DIRECTION Add a line to the ‘N’ to make a ‘W’ and move the vertical line on the right side of the ‘S’ to the left to make an ‘E’ so that the arrow is then pointing from east to west.

18. BULLY FOR YOU! Move the bull’s back leg to the position shown below to create a sitting bull. “Sitting Bull” was a famous Native American Indian chief.

19. ON THE ROCKS Add ‘ICE’ to ‘LDOAT’ (the letters in the diagram) and then rearrange them to get ‘DIET COLA’. 20. REVERSE LOGIC The diagram of the ‘bus’ is really an overhead view showing the bus pulling out in front of Tess. The ‘wheels’ are just for disguise.

130

Answers

21. THINK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN The password is ‘Tutankhamen’, which sounds like “two-ten come in”. 22. THE UNDERDOG Place the letter D between the letters G and O to leave ‘GDO’, which represents ‘DinGO’. 23. YAKETY-YAK Take away the six matches to leave the letter K. ‘KAY’ is ‘YAK’ going in the opposite direction.

24. TAKE A BREAK Replace each asterisk with ‘ASTERISK’ as follows :

EVERY YEAR AT EASTER I SKI IN THE FRENCH ALPS AND THE FASTER I SKI THE MORE FUN I HAVE! 25. GO FULL CIRCLE The missing letters are O, E and M. Treat the Cs as incomplete Os to get:

ABODE = HOME BODE = FORETELL ODE = POEM 26. WITNESS Ron. The question mark is positioned over the cauldron so the thief is “called Ron”. 27. THERE BE A SEA MONSTER HERE! Starting at the letter G, navigate around the 7 Cs (seas) from right (east) to left (west) to find GIANT SQUID:

D IU Q ST N A I G 131

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

28. BOUGHT TWO BOOK Sense and Sensibility (“cents and cents, a bill eighty”). 29. BUBBLE CAR Take away the two circles and the rectangle to leave the arc, which is a sort of car. 30. SCIENTIFIC FIGURE ABSOLUTE ZERO IN DEGREES CENTIGRADE. 1543 – 1816 = –273, which is absolute zero in degrees centigrade. 31. LETTER OF INTRODUCTION The ‘letter’ is the letter B. Decoded, the Morse code reads ‘DASH DOT DOT DOT’, i.e. a dash followed by three dots, which is the letter B. 32. MEN OF LETTERS L. Each figure of a man is constructed from the four letters surrounding it. 33. ANIMAL MAGIC A horse.

34. TEMPERATURE READING Cool. The outlines of the fingers and thumb in the diagram spell ‘COOL’.

132

Answers

35. THE HAPPENING P. Substitute each number ‘1’ in the sequence for ‘ONE’ to spell PHENOMENON going backwards. 36. A DRINKING PROBLEM The horse is a ‘pinto’ (half a pint of beer), which has patchy markings of white and another colour, usually brown or black. 37. IT’S A KIND OF MAGIC Remove the letters A, C and E from the phrase ‘A DECK’ in the diagram to leave the letter D, which looks like a bow, and the letter K. “Bow-K” sounds like ‘bouquet’.

38. GET A LIFT

39. HOVER CRAFT The 16th cube is the number 729 (9x9x9), which is formed by the cubes’ darker sides.

133

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

40. EQUATION Place the addition sign under the O to form ♀, the symbol for female, to get the equation ‘X X = ♀’ with XX being the normal female chromosome pattern. 41. ANIMAL FARMER The farmer said, “THE PIGLET IS SOLD”. Since the missing vowels are ‘EIEIO’, the farmer must be Old MacDonald. 42. STAR-CROSSED ASTERISK. 43. CHANGEOVER ‘A teepee’, which sounds like “80p”, the amount of money she leaves the shop with. 44. COUNTER-FIT The 25th ‘counter’ is the word ABACUS, created by rotating the counter with the letter D on it 90° counter-clockwise.

45. CLOCKWISE The alarm hand. 46. THE EQUALISER Place the seven underneath the two ones on the right side of the equation to create a number four like this:

134

Answers

47. CLIFFHANGER Take away the six lines that make up the pussycat’s eyes and ears to leave a lighthouse radiating light.

48. LION TAMING Take away the two curved lines forming the van’s wheels to turn it into a letter. The lion then appears to be about the same size as a mouse.

49. WORDIE Work overseas.

W O R K SEESAWS 50. ????????? ?????????. The answer is given in the title! Just add the nine question marks to the end of ‘?6?5’ to get ‘?6?5?????????’ so that in each group of characters the sum of the digits is equal to the number of question marks in it.

135

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

51. THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST The Loch Ness Monster. Robbie’s sketch shows the monster with its reflection in the loch’s waters.

52. KICKSELF They are countries shown backwards without their first letters. The missing letters are K, I, C, K, S, E, L and F.

AERO(K) ► KOREA QAR(I) ► IRAQ ANIH(C) ►CHINA AYNE(K) ► KENYA AOMA(S) ►SAMOA TPYG(E) ► EGYPT AYBI(L) ► LIBYA ECNAR(F) ► FRANCE 53. GHOST BRAINBUSTER! ‘ENTER’ plus the letter ‘t’, formed by the shape of the ghost, sounds like “entity”. 54. SUNDOWN S, E and T. The underlined letters in each row can be placed after SUN to form a new word.

SUN SUN SUN SUN SUN

136

M V E M J S U N P = SUNS B N L F K P N W X = SUNK T G P J U W F L C = SUNG P N W F A Y B L R = SUNNY F O S K M E C T H = SUNSET

Answers

55. SHEEP DIP Each fish is made up of three arrowheads. In the fish in the bottom left corner of the tank they point East, West, East or EWE.

56. PLAIN SAILING PLANE + T = VENUS. 57. NINE Take away three lines to leave the remaining ones indicating 9 o’clock.

58. DON’T OVERSTEP THE MARK c. Replace the ‘?’ with ‘QUESTION MARK’ to leave a continuous sequence in which each consecutive row contains one more letter than the previous one. 59. MATCH PLAY

137

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

60. GOLDFISH Take away the eight lines to leave this front view of a fish looking to your left.

61. THIS WILL DRIVE YOU DOTTY The face opposite the one she is looking at is her face and, being a teenager, it, not surprisingly, has 2 spots on it. 62. TOP SECRET Upper. The words ‘TOP SECRET’ are in upper-case letters. 63. THE PHANTOM MENACE At midnight when the second hand points straight up between the X and II of twelve to make XIII.

64. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX 4. Each number equals the number of feet on the bottom of the letters in the preceding word. 138

Answers

65. BUBBLE, BUBBLE, LOVE AND ? War. The flasks contain the nine planets and their moons. 66. MAKING A SPLASH Insert the letters W, F and U to get ‘HTWOSOFOUR’, which is H2SO4, i.e. sulphuric acid. 67. PURPLEBEARD’S TREASURE X. Rearrange the letters on the map to get the phrase ‘X MARKS THE SPOT’. The year, 1534, gives the number of letters in each word in the answer. 68. LETTER QUEST 3. The lettered shapes can be arranged to form:

69. SPACEMAN Rearrange the letters in ‘STAR’ and ‘TUNA’ around ‘O’ to get ‘ASTR-O-NAUT’. 70. TO CATCH A THIEF SUSAN. The capital letters in the puzzle spell out the phrase ‘SUSAN STOLE IT’: 71. WHAT’S COOKING? Mushrooms. Invert each ‘flask’ and add a short curved line to get these two mushrooms:

72. MISS-DIRECTION SEEN. Each ‘direction’ is a number on a clock face minus those letters that are not directions, i.e. N, E, W and S. 139

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

73. QUESTION TIME RVFTUJPO. BOTXFS is obtained by advancing one letter in the alphabet from each letter in ANSWER. Therefore, RVFTUJPO is obtained from QUESTION in the same way. 74. WATER INTO WINE Move one line like this to leave w-in-e:

75. THE RIDDLE IN THE STONE The Holy Grail. The letters ‘00IC’ can be arranged to form this picture of The Holy Grail (anagram of ‘Oh Early Light’):

76. THEY’LL BE BACK! The missing word is TERM. The top row equals PAL-IN-DROME and the bottom row equals TERM-IN-ATORS. 77. AN INSIDE JOB Rotate the dials to get the phrase ‘OPEN SESAME’ going across.

140

Answers

78. SPANISH TREASURE Pieces of eight. The ‘coins’ in the treasure chest are really pieces of the number 8. 79. OUT OF AFRICA . If you treat each small circle as a letter ‘o’, you will see that each row of figures is actually an anagram of a word. In the top row the word is ‘monsoon’, in the middle row it is ‘zoology’ and in the bottom row it is ‘Morocco’. 80. NO END IN SIGHT A sugar cube.

81. FINISHING TOUCH Add a letter C to leave AITCH. 82. LIGHTS OUT The undamaged headlights and radiator grills spell ‘TARA’ in Morse code.

T

A

R

A

83. THE PIE-EYED PIRATE Iron pyrite (eye on pie right). 84. TAKE IT AWAY! Take away the line in the division symbol so that the left side of the equation becomes ‘7:30’, which is the time indicated by the two lines forming the ‘1’ on the right side of the equation.

141

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

85. BIG MISTAKE! If you ignore the spots, you will see that the lines forming the cubes spell ‘BOOB’.

86. CRYPTIC The underlined words below sound like the letters in ‘CRYPTIC’.

Hidden in these lines for all to see Are seven letters, concealed by me. First ask yourself why this is so odd Each one contained like the pea in the pod. Next sit yourself down and sip some tea And let your keen eye meander playfully. Then see the answer jump out on elastic And have the pleasure of solving this cryptic! 87. DOWNTOWN Chicago.

▼ ▼▼▼▼▼▼ C H I C A G O

142

Answers

88. AHA! A. Replace the question mark with ‘ASKED’ and the letter ‘A’ given below it to form the word ‘EUREKA’ going down.

GUESS SOUND CARAT TREAT ASKED A 89. CROSSBONES ISLAND ‘A STRING OF PEARLS’ can be found by following the island’s outline in a clockwise direction.

90. SHAPE SHIFTER Move one line to the right to leave C1, which spells ‘CONE’:

91. IN-SIGHT! Invisible! If you treat the 3 space lines as letter Is, you’ll be able to find all the letters in ‘INVISIBLE’.

143

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

92. HEADS AND TAILS Add the two match heads to the arrangement like this to get ‘PANAMA CANAL’ in Morse code:

93. PICTURE PUZZLE Owl. It’s a picture of an owl on its side.

94. SLEIGHT OF HAND The missing word is digit because ‘pressed a digit 8’ sounds like ‘prestidigitate’. 95. AHARRRRR! Take away the two coins on the right end of the row of five coins to leave ‘five coins, a cross and three coins going down’. I fell into his trap and misinterpreted what he was actually asking me to do.

96. GOING THROUGH A PHRASE FAR OUT. Take out the 6th, 7th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 8th letters in the phrase ROUGH FATE. 144

Answers

97. OUT WITH THE OLD Rearrange the last two houses so that the three houses or arrows then point N, E and W like this:

98. TIME PLEASE! Five o’clock. The diagram is constructed from the letters in ‘FIVE O’CLOCK’. 100. CLOSE ENCOUNTER a. The rest are found in the phrase ‘Unidentified Flying Object’. 101. MATCHMAKING Add the two headless matches to leave this 3D representation of a headless match.

102. ROUND TRIP OWES. Every seventh letter is an ‘O’. 103. ANALOGY BINGO. ‘SMALL CREATURES’ minus ‘L’ is an anagram of ‘SCREAM A RESULT’. Similarly, ‘GOBLIN’ minus ‘L’ is an anagram of ‘BINGO’.

145

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

104. TRICK OR TREAT? Arise, Sir Boris. Trick meant turn the piece of paper upside down so that the number can be viewed from the other side. The number then appears like this:

105. FILLING IN THE BLANKS FLOW. The spaces between the words on the left side of the sums coincide with the positions of the answers’ letters in the alphabet.

ONE(D)PLUS(I)SIX(M)MINUS(S)FIFTEEN = DIMS EIGHT(F)ADDED(L)TO(O)SEVENTY(W)TWO = FLOW 106. THE MISSING TIARA Terry. The title is a hint that the letters ‘T’, ‘R’ and ‘R’, which sound just like “tiara”, are the ones missing from the thief’s name in the note. 107. THE CHIPS ARE DOWN More. Each zero represents the word ‘potato’ in this famous children’s rhyme:

One potato, two potato, three potato, four. Five potato, six potato, seven potato more. 108. FOOD FOR THOUGHT

HOT CROSS BUNS! HOT CROSS BUNS! ONE A PENNY, TWO A PENNY, HOT CROSS BUNS!

146

Answers

109. THE GHOST PIRATE Blackbeard was the owner of the chest and the items of jewellery are rings. If you remove the six Os (rings) from the address on the chest, you are left with an anagram of ‘BLACKBEARD’. 110. MAGIC SHAPE A pentangle because it’s a ‘pen tangle’. 111. FAMILIARITY BREEDS CONTEMPT Take away the letters CEFGHJ to leave the letters ABDI, which, when read out loud one after the other, sound like the phrase ‘a beady eye’. 112. TRAFFIC JAM A caravan (A CAR, A VAN). 113. I WENT NEXT Replace the question marks with the letters in the phrase ‘I WENT NEXT’ to get: 1, ONE 2, TWO 6, SIX 10, TEN. 114. SECRET RENDEZVOUS Amsterdam. Twice ‘am’ around a new arrangement of ‘Red St’. 115. WOOLLY THINKING Add the letter ‘U’ as shown below and rotate the whole arrangement 90° clockwise to create ‘FLEECE’. A

S

E

O H

P

C

S

V

B

R

. K

X U

.

147

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

116. A NEW ADDITION Add the line to the 7 like this to leave the equation 5 x 8 = “4T” (40):

117. DESIGNER SPACE GEAR Move the T to the end to leave ‘A(space)SUIT’. 118. ON TO CAR The title is an anagram of ‘CARTOON’.

119. CREATE A CREATURE CATERPILLAR. As you can see below, the brackets and the lines between each pair of brackets also resemble a caterpillar. ACT (__) PUN LOG (__) HAT DOT (__) FLY RED (__) CAT WAG (__) ORB HUG (__) MAP IRK (__) YEN LEG (__) BOA HEN (__) PAL BUG (__) ASK FOX (_) CAR 120. A TALL STOREY The ‘Eiffel Tower’, which is an anagram of ‘if feet lower’.

148

Answers

121. CIRCULAR REASONING The missing letters are I, S and H. Substitute the letter ‘O’ in each word on the left for the word ‘RING’ to get:

F-RING-E = PERIPHERY DU-RING = CONCURRENTLY HER-RING = FISH 122. GOLD DIGGERS If it takes them 10 “miners” 8 minutes to dig two holes, it will therefore take them 10 “miners” 4 minutes to dig one hole. 123. CONDUCTOR The conductor is electricity.

a

‘LIGHTNING

ROD’,

which

conducts

124. LATERAL THINKING PUZZLE “Later, Al. I’m thinking”. His son’s name is Al. 125. ONE HUMP OR TWO? Two. A new ‘TRAIN’ plus ‘ABC’, the ‘capitals’ of Beirut, Amman and Cairo, can be arranged to create ‘BACTRIAN’, which is the name for a two-humped camel. 126. MISSING NUMBERS 60, 60, 60. ‘RAT’, ‘IT’ and ‘ET’ stand for ‘Right Angle Triangle’, ‘Isosceles Triangle’ and ‘Equilateral Triangle’ respectively. The numbers represent the possible number of degrees in their angles. In an equilateral triangle all of the angles are always 60°. 127. DECODE BRILLIANT. De-code the message by removing the word CODE.

BCR ILOLI ADNET 128. CONTINENTAL DRIFT Ant. The word ANT is removed from ANTARCTIC and added to ARCTIC to get ANTARCTIC.

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129. CODE WORD First convert the letters to Morse code and write the resulting sequence of dots and dashes on a piece of paper. Then turn the piece of paper upside down so that the sequence spells ‘INVERTED’. 130. LETTER PYRAMID A. Treat each letter G as a letter C attached to a small letter T to find the words A, ACT, PACT, OCTET, FACTOR, FRACTAL and CATARACT reading across as follows:

A A CT P A CT O CT E T F A CT O R F R A CT A L C A T A R A CT 131. WORDIE Age before beauty (aitch before booty). 132. MISSING WORD WHAT is the missing word! The sequence of words comprises the jumbled up phrase “WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN”. 133. IT’S A GAS! Argon because the ‘R’ has gone from ‘HYDROGEN’. 134. WORDIE Elementary (L-M-N-tree). “U” sounds like yew, which is a type of tree. 135. HORSING AROUND

136. NOTHING TO IT NINE – I + 0 = N0NE. 150

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137. IT’S A MIST-ERY Frogs. All around ‘Are’ (R) thick mists (fogs), i.e. fRogs. 138. THE PYRAMID TEMPLE Link the dots in each figure to create the word pagoda, which means a pyramid-shaped temple.

139. SHORT AND SWEET 10 sure.

4n (fore-short-en) = 10 for sure (rearrange to get ‘for-sure-10’) n (short-en) = 10 sure (rearrange to get ‘sure-10’) 140. A STRANGE CONCOCTION T. Add the letter T as shown below and then rotate the whole arrangement 90° clockwise to find the word ‘CONCOCTION’ going downwards with the brackets and the lines inside them forming Cs.

141. TWISTER Rotate each circle 90° clockwise to get ‘CROP CIRCLES’ going downwards from left to right:

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

142. THE F PLAN Rearrange the two lines to create a shadow F like this:

143. THE BOTTOM LINE Option D. It completes the word ‘INVENTORY’, which is a synonym for ‘list’.

144. UPPER CANINE P and G. Treat the small circles as letter Os and you’ll be able to see ‘HOT ROD’, ‘COOK BOOK’ and ‘TOP DOG’ going downwards.

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145. CARD SHARP The phrase ‘KING OF HEARTS’ can be formed by rearranging the 12 letters of the alphabet missing from the arrangement of cards. 146. WORDIE Everyone has a cross to bear. 147. LARD JUMBLE UMBRELLA. The two remaining letters, J and D, form an umbrella.

148. X MARKS THE TREASURE The treasure is GOLD and the country it is found in is Kuwait, i.e. square “Q8”.

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

149. ABOUT FACE

150. A LATERAL LEAP By standing where he is shown in the picture, Windlestraw divides the castle wall into a lower case ‘C’ and ‘T’. When said one after the other, these two letters sound like ‘city’. 151. SOUNDS A LITTLE FISHY Stick ‘L’ back (stickleback). 152. THE WITCH’S SPELL A mouse. The cat is made up from the letters M, O, U, S and E.

153. MISSING LETTERS THE UNITED STATES. ‘LA’ represents Los Angeles and ‘NY’ represents New York. 154. WORDIE Paddle steamer. 154

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155. CAN YOU CRACK IT? Turn the pointer, which looks like a pen, 90 degrees clockwise to form ‘O-PEN’. 156. WORDIE Bermuda Triangle. Look closely and you’ll see that one of the tree shapes is actually an arrow pointing to a triangle. 157. THE TRUTH WILL OUT Forty-one candles, 41 and the letter ‘n’. ‘Florence’s ? today’ is an anagram of ‘forty-one candles’ minus the letter ‘n’. 158. COSMIC, MAN! Add the objects like this to create a snowman:

159. SAUSAGE DOG Take away the 4 lines to leave a pencil, which has a lead, like this:

160. WORDIE A Room With A View. 161. MONSTER DIAMONDS C because it is made up of three diamond shapes. 155

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

162. HUNTER-KILLER Replace the three stars with ‘ETL’ to leave an anagram of ‘ORION’S BELT’. Three stars are what the belt is generally considered to be made up of. In Greek mythology Orion was a giant famed as a great hunter. 163. MATCHING PIGS

164. CAPITALISE The second H is formed by the space between the shapes.

165. THINK AHEAD C and E. This sequence is based on the title of H. G. Wells’ novel The Shape of Things to Come. The shapes contain the initial letters of the words in the title and the number of sides in each shape equals the number of letters in each word in the title. 166. SERIES Nine. The initial letters of the words in the series (o, t, t, f, f, s, s, e, n) mimic those in the series one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

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167. OVERTAKING MANOEUVRE Put the four ‘headlights’ on top of the ‘wheels’ like this:

168. CANINE CONUNDRUM In the doghouse. In the picture of a dog there is a house. 169. MISSION TO MARS Remove the lines with spots to get:

170. WORD LIST EUREKA. Each word contains the same middle letters as one other word in the list, but arranged in a different order. Also, each word has the same first and last letters as one other word in the list, but with their positions reversed. 171. MISSING LETTERS RACEHORSE. The two Cs at the front and back are horseshoes.

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

172. COCKTAIL Move the line forming the stem of the glass to leave a ‘COCK’ tail, i.e. ‘OCK’.

173. HYBRID Manx cat. 174. FALLING ON HARD TIMES At ‘X’, i.e. times. 175. PHRASE THiS iS A SiLLY TRiCK. Just invert the exclamation marks and correct the spacing. 176. NAME AND NUMBER VENUS 55766. Each ‘target’ is a diagram of the solar system showing the nine planets and their orbits around the sun. The bullet holes represent the planets and the bull’s eye represents the sun. The shooters’ names and scores are made up of the initial letters of the planets represented by the black bullet holes and the number of letters in each of their names. 177. WORDIE Expiring (“x-pi-r-ring”).

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178. NINE LINES Move the line at the bottom of the small square like this to leave n-in-e:

179. THE SPY WHO PUZZLED YOU Pair of specs (specks). 180. MONKEY PUZZLE The negative spaces between the shapes say ‘BABOON’.

181. ANALOGY The ‘ ’ and the ‘ ’ are the Roman numerals IX (9) and LI (51) joined together and then rotated 45° clockwise.

182. THE KISS The missing circle is option E. The circles are like portholes through which a school of fish can be seen.

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

183. IN A WORD

184. JUST A MINUTE The ‘second hand’ mentioned in the second sentence refers to the second hand mentioned in the first sentence, i.e. the minute hand. 185. CROSSWORDS C. Substitute each ‘X’ for ‘IO’ to leave RADIO, ONION, LIONS and IONIC going across. 186. WORDIE High wire act. 187. OUT OF SHAPE The rectangle because it’s a sort of ‘gentle arc’. 188. CUBE Although it is impossible to create a three-dimensional cube, you can create the cube number eight.

189. RIVER CROSSING Mississippi. The diagram of the river is actually the word ‘mississippi’ on its side. 190. DIGIT 5. The question marks form the shape of a ‘5’.

??? ? ??? ? ??? 160

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191. A POINTLESS EXERCISE SWINGERS and WESTERNS. Replace the question marks with the four points of the compass. 192. SERIES E. This series is based on the series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. The right ends of the middle horizontal lines in these numbers alternate between the bottom and top of the numbers. 193. SOLVE IT! The answer is SOLUTION. ‘SUN 8 LIT’ contains the letters in ‘SoLUTIoN’. 194. PHRASE SEARCH THE MARY CELESTE. This is the infamous ship found drifting at sea with full provisions and perfectly intact, but, strangely, with no sign of its passengers and crew. The diagram is a picture of a sailing ship. 195. ODD ONE OUT B. All of the other boxes contain mathematical symbols. 196. GAMESMANSHIP Move the ‘0’ to the left side of the equation to leave two dominoes with a total of two spots on them.

197. ODD ONE OUT g (cougar). The rest are anagrams of birds: macaw, blackbird, cuckoo, duck, curlew and falcon. 198. WALKABOUT A drunk. ‘IOº NN’ is an anagram of ‘ONION’ (a vegetable), ‘Iº NSE’ is an anagram of ‘NOISE’ (a sound) and ‘Iº NW’ is an anagram of ‘WINO’ (a drunk). 161

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

199. TURN OVER Turn over the three cards indicated below to create a picture of a garden spade like this:

200. LOW-KEY M. The ‘keys’ are an incomplete set of keyboard keys. 201. AROUND THE TABLE G. ‘B faced G’ gives the order in which the knights A to G were arranged around the table, i.e. B-F-A-C-E-D-G. 202. BARNSTORMER

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203. TOAD IN THE WHOLE Take away two matches and their reflections to leave a toad like this:

204. MAKE THE CONNECTION Substitute each number in the sequence for the corresponding letter in the alphabet to get ‘CASSO’ and then connect it to ‘PI’ to get ‘PICASSO’. 205. GET THE LO DOWN Place ‘AHA’ around ‘LO’, which sounds like ‘hello’, to get ‘ALOHA’, a Hawaiian word for hello. 206. WORDIE Sitting duck. 207. EASY TIGER! Taiga. 208. SIGNS S. Treat the mathematical signs as Morse code and substitute them for letters to get ‘THERMOMETERS’. 209. AN INSECT Add ‘T’ to leave ‘AN IN-SECT’. 210. IN A JAM The three missing ingredients are the letters f, j and j. If you add these to ‘damson jam’, you then have the initial letters of all twelve months. The name ‘Jan’ is a clue. 163

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

211. WORDIE A jack of all (“a fool”) trades. 212. STATELY HOME UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (anagram). 213. ANGEL FISH Since ‘fishes’ can be a synonym for ‘angles’, the eleven right angles in the diagram are, in a sense, ‘fishes’. ‘Angel’ is an anagram of ‘angle’. 214. PICTURE ALBUM Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’. 215. PARLEZ-VOUS FRANÇAIS? In French, ‘chat’ means cat, so just raise the glass in the picture to create this cat:

216. WORDIE More or less (oarless). 217. BRAIN TWISTER Brain Twister (BRA IN TORNADO/TWISTER). 218. ODD ONE OUT C. Each of the others is formed from these two elements:

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219. SERIES Fill in the missing letters like this to leave ‘SERIES’ spelt out in Greek letters:

SIGMA EPSILON RHO IOTA EPSILON SIGMA 220. EQUATION Invert the ‘T’ and place it on the ‘V’ to form an arrow pointing south (S).

221. WORDIE Seize the day (Cs third A). 222. DRIVER Montoya. ‘MA’ plus ‘NY’ plus ‘TOO’, the three letters forming the ‘car’. 223. MISSING LETTER P. Place it in front of ‘RE-EMPT’ to leave ‘PRE-EMPT’. 224. ANAGRAM Arrange them like this to create the letters ‘A’ and ‘N’ in Morse code to get ‘ANAgrAm’.

225. ODD ONE OUT The odd one out is number 2, which is an anagram of ‘SOLUTION’. The others are anagrams of animals: DORMOUSE, MONGOOSE, PORPOISE and KANGAROO.

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

226. VULGAR FRACTION Add an eighth line to the arrangement to form the fraction for a ninth.

227. PACEMAKER Sodium chloride (Anagram). 228. WORD SEQUENCE STRENGTHS. The sequence is one consonant, one vowel, two consonants, one vowel, three consonants, one vowel, and so on. 229. A LEADING QUESTION W to get WHO?, WHAT?, WHY?, WHEN?, and WHERE?. 230. WE HAVE COG-NITION! ORION’S BELT. 231. EQUATION s + glass = sandglass. 232. IT’S A DRAG DRAGONFLY. ‘DRAG’ plus ‘ONLY F’. 233. THE TOP ROW FORFEITED. ‘Press’ the keys above those in the second row that spell out ‘THE TOP ROW’.

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234. MATCH BOXES Take away a match as shown below to leave five fewer rectangles as created by the actual arrangement of matches and one less rectangle as formed by the paper part of the matches themselves.

235. PERFECT CUBE Move the match like this to leave the number 64, which is a perfect cube, i.e. 4x4x4.

236. DOCTOR PUZZLE’S EQUATION E. Rearrange (Doctor) the letters in ‘Puzzle squeals’ to get ‘Z plus Z equals E!’. 237. MAGIC ROUNDABOUT Abracadabra. Two ARABs are rearranged and placed around ‘CAD’, where C represents100. 238. INSIDER DEALING In the bedroom. Place the letter ‘d’ between ‘be’ and ‘room’ in the question. 167

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

239. ODD ONE OUT D or WinD. The rest are anagrams of star signs: ArieS, liBRa, caNCer and LEo. 240. WORDIE The last in a long line. 241. ON TRACK A pacemaker. 242. MISSING LETTER i. It is missing from the question ‘What’s the missing letter?’, having been replaced by an apostrophe. 243. YOUR TURN MAGAZINE. Turn one of the N’s 90° to make a Z. 244. PEN AND OINK DRAWING Fill in the pig with an ink pen so that it is completely ‘penned’ in. 245. CHARACTER BUILDING The Cheshire Cat.

246. WORD SEQUENCE N and P. Alternate letters are the initial letters of the nine planets: MY, VIEW, MOJO, STUD, NAP. 247. ASSOCIATION Walt Disney’s film of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the initial letters of which are ‘SWATSD’ so the missing letter is D. ‘IOIO’ alludes phonetically to the film’s famous song ‘Hi ho, hi ho’.

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248. THE RUIN Invert the ‘r’ so that the ruin’s reflection in the lake spells ‘ruin’.

249. PATCHWORK The missing words are ‘ate lettuce’, which sound like ‘8 letters’. 250. OQ TEST The five-letter word is ‘VENUS’. Each row of nine circles represents the nine planets. The circle with a line resembling a letter ‘Q’ in each row indicates which planet’s initial letter goes at the end of the row. 251. CAN YOU SPOT IT? The boxes contain pictures of a bird, a cat, a dog and a fish with spots representing their eyes. The pictures of the bird, dog and fish are side views and so only one spot or eye is in each of those. However, the picture of the cat in the second box is a front view and so another spot should be in that one.

252. MISSING LETTER S. The letters directly above the triangles spell out ‘PYRAMIDS’. 253. ODD ONE OUT PoHoWo. The others are words: RoCoCo, HoBo, KoMoDo, LoGo, PoLo and DoDo. 254. THE NAME OF THE GAME The game is ‘MONOPOLY’. It does say ‘Do not visit a square twice’, i.e. do not visit the letters in ‘SQUARE TWICE’. 169

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

255. MATHS PUZZLE DAN. In each row treat the equals sign as two capital Is to find ‘MULTIPLICATION’, ‘DIVISION’ and ‘ADDITION’. 256. LETTER GRID Place Z in the grid as shown below so that the empty squares form the other omitted letter, which is T.

257. ANALOGY 495. Substitute the digits in ‘4935’ and ‘495’ for the corresponding letters in the alphabet to get ‘DICE’ and ‘DIE’ so that the complete analogy becomes 2 : 1 :: DICE : DIE. 258. DISCOVERY Because it is a bit of an ‘antique lime axe’. 259. NOW AND THEN They were arranged like this to say ‘once two’.

260. GIVE IT A BREAK! MATCH-S-TICK. 261. DOTS AND DASHES . The dots and dashes represent the vowels and consonants in the question respectively. 170

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262. ODD ONE OUT B. The spot is in the same position in each of the other boxes. 263. SHIP AHOY! The flag is blowing the wrong way! 264. SOMETHING IN COMMON They are all contained in the question! 265. WORDIE Sign on the dotted line. 266. HUE AND CRY S. Each group of letters contains a jumbled up colour plus one other letter. The colours are WHITE, BLUE, ORANGE, GREEN, PINK, MAUVE and GREY and the unused letters spell ‘COLOURS’ going down. 267. WORDIE Back and forth. 268. LEAPFROG

269. LETTER SEQUENCE S. The sequence is the middle row of letters on a keyboard. 270. WORDIE Drawbridge (back-WARD BRIDGE equals DRAWBRIDGE). 171

Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

271. MISSING LETTER Y. ‘LIEUTENANT COLON-EL’ and ‘ANT COLON-Y’. 272. THIS WORD GAME Fill in the rest of the letters in ‘THIS WORD GAME’, placing them in alphabetical order going down from left to right in keeping with the letters already positioned in the grid.

273. IN THE FRAME Charles II. A strange looking ‘ARCH’, i.e. ‘CHAR’, plus ‘LES’ followed by two large eyes (Is). 274. MENTAL ACROBATICS Take away the three straight lines and three circles to leave ‘Three Wise (Ys) Men’.

275. IT’LL COME TO NOTHING Nothing! Add the number of letters in the numbers in each row to the number of letters in the following words to get a sequence in which each row contains one less letter than the previous one. 276. SYMBOLISM If Eve is ‘a little cross over nothing’, i.e. ♀ (a little cross, over nothing), Adam must be ♂.

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277. PLANETS Andros. The dots and dashes give the initial letters of the planets’ names in Morse code. 278. SEQUENCE S. Substitute the numbers for the corresponding letters in the alphabet to get ‘AMBULANCE DRIVERS’, going down from left to right. 279. ANALOGY Correct. LETTER SPOTTED : “D FLECKED” :: CENTRE RUINED : “CORE WRECKED”. 280. GAS H25D18O7E14. Substitute the numbers for the corresponding letters in the alphabet to get ‘HYDROGEN’. 281. DO YOU DIG IT? As you can see, it looks like the spade suit symbol found on playing cards.

282. NEXT, PLEASE! 12,215,308,523,345,917. Just add one to the rather large whole number! 283. DISAGREE TO AGREE Take away the two lines in the equals sign to leave ‘CI 2I’, which represents the phrase ‘see eye to eye’, i.e. agree.

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

284. MATCH TRICK If you look very carefully, you will see that there are actually two matchsticks underneath the other seven so you can take away any eight matchsticks to leave one matchstick behind.

285. TOWER BLOCK Paris. View the diagram at an angle from below to see ‘EIFFEL’. 286. GOLDEN BLAST I and C (I see). If you remove this pair of letters, you are left with ‘AUGUST’. 287. THE TEMPLE OF GLOOM The Ark (arc) of the Covenant. 288. WORDIE Spring is in the air (spring is in the YEAH). 289. PAIRING OFF Dc. The others, Na, Pb, Cd and Fe, are all chemical symbols. 290. RED FACES Twelve. Redo (rearrange) the letters in the phrase ‘red on each odd’ to get ‘dodecahedron’, a solid figure having twelve plain faces. 291. UNDER LOCK AND KEY

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292. OH NO! 50, 0O. Each number in the series 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50 is followed by a digit and a letter ‘O’ giving the number of Os in the preceding number when spelt out. 293. LADY IN RED Arrange them something like this to create a ladybird.

294. IT SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED! The white lines in the brickwork spell ‘ILLICIT’. 295. CLUB TOGETHER Turn over the eight of clubs, which is already correctly positioned for you, so that the exposed parts of the cards lying face up spell ‘club’.

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

296. QUADRI-LATERAL He arranged them like this to create views with only two faces of each cube showing. ‘Sanju rearranged’ is Janus, the Roman god of doorways and passages who is depicted with two faces on opposite sides of his head. ‘Quadri-Lateral’ is based on ‘Cubic Hexagon’ by Barry R. Clarke.

297. MATCH TEASE Rearrange them like this to leave “four T”.

298. MANY MOONS UPIDOE. Add the two Cs that make up the shape of each moon to the adjacent group of letters to create the words COCOA, COCONUT, CIRCUIT, COCOON, COCKTAIL and OCCUPIED. Since ‘occupied’ (UPIDOE + CC) can mean ‘inhabited’, UPIDOE must be the one. 299. EQUATION

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300. ON THE TILES When the tiles are rotated 90 degrees clockwise, three fourletter words formed by the lines and shapes in the nine square tiles can be seen going down in the columns. As the shapes in each box are the same, just add a white triangle in the position indicated below to complete both the word ‘TILE’ in the first column and, also, the bottom left square tile. The words in the second and third columns are ‘FLIT’ and ‘JILT’.

301. DARK HUMOUR D. AIR COMMA-DOOR (COMMODORE), A-COMMA-DATE (ACCOMMODATE) and BLACK COMMA-D (COMEDY). 302. GOING ROUND IN CIRCLES 3. The hour and minutes hands point alternately to the first ten digits of Pi (3.141592653). 303. PICTURE PUZZLE O. The picture is an overhead view of a table tennis table with two table tennis bats. The ‘O’ represents the ball. 304. ADD A LINE Add a line like this so that the sum spells ‘NINE’ when rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise.

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Amazing “Aha!” Puzzles

305. MISSING NUMBER 612. Each word is made up from the initial two letters of two months placed one after the other and the numbers that follow them correspond to those months’ positions in the year. 306. WORDIE It will end in tears (teers). 307. UNKNOWN QUANTITY There is one Trooth Fairy. The reply “None” must have been made by a Storyteller because it would be logically impossible for a Trooth Fairy to say there were no Trooth Fairies. Consequently, there must be at least one Trooth Fairy in the group and, because Barney says “There is” rather than “There are”, he must have ended his sentence with ‘one’. 308. NUMBER SEQUENCE Add ‘3’ so that the sequence spells the number eight upside down. 309. WORDIE Sentinel (sent-in-L) 310. LOSE HAIR Horse. The three remaining letters, ‘A’, ‘I’ and ‘L’, form a horse.

311. SEQUENCE MAY. This puzzle is based on the sequence of months from November to May. Each group of three letters comprises the first and last letters of one of these months, between which is a letter, the alphabetical position of which corresponds with the number of letters found between them in that particular month. 178

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312. ATLANTIC CROSSING He means that the ends of the hands on the clock will resemble the shape of the British Isles then.

313. WORDIE See out of the corner of one eye. 314. SETTING A PRESIDENT Washington (‘WHO’ is buried in ‘ST GINNA’). 315. FRACTION Move one of the denominator lines like this to leave the word ‘NINTH’ when the fraction is rotated 90 degrees clockwise.

316. TRUTH DETECTOR The suspect writes with the opposite hand to the one the finger prints on the revolver are from. 317. UNDERHANDED It’s under both of them! Look at an alarm clock and you will see that the alarm hand is positioned below the other hands on the spindle. 179