Test Your Brain Power

You have two 10-gallon containers that are full of water and a 5-gallon and 4-gallon container each of which is empty.  There are no markings on them and no other measuring instruments. You have no other source of water. How do you end up with exactly 3 gallons in each of the small containers in the fewest number of steps?

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Stumped?  Here’s a hint to get you started:

Fill the 4-gallon container from one of the 10-gallon containers and then transfer the 4 gallons of water to the 5-gallon container.

Here’s the solution:

. . … ..10 10  0  0
1st:   6   10  0  4  Fill the 4-gallon from the 10-gallon
2nd: 6   10  4  0  Pour from the 4-gallon into the 5-gallon
3rd:  2   10  4  4  Fill the 4-gallon from the same 10-gallon
4th:  2   10  5  3  Fill the 5-gallon from the 4-gallon
5th:   7   10  0  3  Pour the 5-gallon into the 10-gallon
6th:   7    9  0  4  Fill the 4-gallon from the other 10-gallon
7th:    7   9  4  0  Pour the 4-gallon into the 5-gallon
8th:   3   9  4  4  Fill the 4-gallon from the first 10-gallon
9th:   3   9  5  3  Fill the 5-gallon from the 4-gallon
10th: 8   9  0  3  Pour the 5-gallon into the first 10-gallon
11th:  8   4  5  3  Fill the 5-gallon from the second 10-gallon
12th: 10  4  3  3  Fill the first 10-gallon from the 5-gallon

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Across:

1. learned; scholarly
3. establish by evidence; verify; support
4. standard used in judging
8. not harmonious; conflicting
10. habitually silent; talking little
14. artistic; dealing with or capable of appreciation of the beautiful
15. honor the memory of
16. arrangement by rank or standing; authoritarian body divided into ranks
17. stingy; mean
19. brief; terse; compact

Down:

2. persuade; bring about
5. practicing self denial; austere
6. unchangeable
7. overwhelm;flood; submerge
9. one who believes that pleasure is the sole aim in life
11. excessive zeal; extreme devotion to a belief or cause
12. unwillingness
13. individual who sacrifices principles for expediency by taking advantage of circumstances
18. stealthy; sneaky
20. contradict; give a false impression

Click here for the solution.

The answer is the room full of lions that haven’t eaten in three years.

If the lions have not eaten in 3 years, then they will have starved to death and therefor not pose a threat to anyone.

Highlight below each box for the answer.

Barefoot on the beach

Falling leaves

A cut above the rest

Waiting in line

Top secret

Five siblings, Carla, Evan, Joan, Mark, and Sarah, are coming to their parents’ house for Thanksgiving dinner.  They are each bringing a different side dish and each has a different favorite Thanksgiving dessert.  From the clues below, can you determine what time each sibling arrived, what side dish they brought, and what their favorite dessert is?

3×5 Grid

1. The arrival times are 10am, 11 am, 12 pm, 1 pm, and 2 pm.
2. The five siblings are Evan, the sister that brought sweet potatoes, the brother that brought tossed salad, the sibling that arrived at 10 am, and Carla.
3. Joan, who did not bring mashed potatoes, arrived an hour before the sibling whose favorite dessert is pumpkin pie.
4. The sibling whose favorite dessert is apple pie did not bring the cranberry sauce or arrive at 12 pm.
5. Of Mark and the sibling whose favorite dessert is chocolate cake, one arrived at 2 pm and the other brought mashed potatoes.
6. Sarah arrived before the sibling whose favorite dessert is mincemeat pie, neither of which brought the green bean casserole.
7. Joan, whose favorite dessert is pecan pie, did not bring the sweet potatoes or the green bean casserole.
8. The sibling whose favorite dessert is mincemeat pie arrived last.
9. Carla, whose favorite dessert is pumpkin pie, did not bring mashed potatoes.

Click here for the solution.

Top-Down processing is one way to make sense of information.  With top-down processing, the large picture is considered and used to make sense of the smaller components that make up the larger picture.  An important component of using top-down processing as an educational tool is activating prior knowledge.  The big picture we use to make sense of new information is made up of the things we already know and have experienced.  When we activate prior knowledge before introducing a new concept, it makes it easier to make sense of new information and work it into the framework of what we already know.

Here is an example of using prior knowledge.  Look at one of the two slide shows below.  Look at only one.  Then look at the image below the slide shows.

Slide Show 1

Slide Show 2

Now that you have looked at one of the slide shows, look at the image below:

What do you see?

If you looked at Slide Show 1, you probably said a duck.  If you looked at Slide Show 2, you probably said a rabbit.

Slide Show 1 activated prior knowledge about ducks, Slide Show 2 activated prior knowledge about rabbits.  The activated prior knowledge was brought to the front of your mind, which influenced the way you interpreted the final image.

In education, top-down processing depends on the activation of prior knowledge as well as the presentation of the big picture before the introduction of new information and concepts.  In reading instruction this means exposing children to whole literature, reading stories aloud while children look at their own copies of the text.  The theory is that they will develop an overall understanding of how literature works.  That stories are made of paragraphs, which are made of sentences, which are made of words, which are made of phonemes, which are made of letters.  The more they read, the better they will understand how literature works and they will eventually learn to read on their own.  In science, the students participate in or watch experiments being done in class.  As they experience more and more experiments they will develop an understanding of the scientific method as well as certain scientific principles.

When people jump to conclusions, they are making an error based on top-down processing.  They are making big picture, ignoring any holes or inconsistencies.  This often happens when we are tired, distracted, or rushed.  When we cannot use all our brains’ resources to focus on something, the brain takes a top-down short cut and saves us time by creating answers or information.

Read the text in the triangle below:

Did you read “A bird in the bush?”  If so, read again, pointing to each word.  The word “the” appears twice in the triangle.  Due to a common top-down processing error, we ignore the duplication and read a sentence that makes sense.

Move 3 toothpicks to make 5 triangles.

Stumped?  Here’s a hint!

The solution:

The object of the puzzle is to connect the different points on the grid with paths.

Rules:

1. Each point contains a number - this is how many paths can connect to this point
2. Every point should be able to be reached from any other point
3. No more than 2 paths can connect any two points
4. Paths may go horizontally or vertically, not diagonally
5. Paths may not cross each other

Click on the puzzle for a printer-friendly version.

Click here for the solution.

Click on the puzzle for a printer-friendly version.

Click here for the solution.