And Mint Sauce Puzzle - Solution
The Puzzle:
How many wolves will be needed to catch sixty lambs in sixty minutes?
No, the answer is not sixty. Try again!
Our Solution:I should also have said that the answer was not 10 either! That is a popular answer, but I'm afraid it is not correct. The right answer was SIX WOLVES.
Let's see why:
In the original amount of time: 6 wolves catch 6 lambs in 6 minutes.
With 10 times as long: The same 6 wolves catch 60 lambs in 60 minutes.
(Give them 10 times as long and they'll catch 10 times as many lambs, assuming they don't get tired!)
Another way of seeing the answer is to note that each wolf catches 1 lamb in six minutes. So in 60 minutes each wolf will catch 10 lambs (ten times as many). With 6 wolves, six times as many lambs will be caught.
Now they have caught all those lambs, where are they going to put them?
Let's see why:
In the original amount of time: 6 wolves catch 6 lambs in 6 minutes.
With 10 times as long: The same 6 wolves catch 60 lambs in 60 minutes.
(Give them 10 times as long and they'll catch 10 times as many lambs, assuming they don't get tired!)
Another way of seeing the answer is to note that each wolf catches 1 lamb in six minutes. So in 60 minutes each wolf will catch 10 lambs (ten times as many). With 6 wolves, six times as many lambs will be caught.
Now they have caught all those lambs, where are they going to put them?
Puzzle Author: Stephen Froggatt