A. two degrees. You can do an experiment right now to prove it. Focus on a single letter in the middle of a sentence. Keep your head and eyes absolutely steady. You will be able to clearly read only a few letters on either side of the letter you focused on. If you see more, it’s only because our brains are constantly stitching together images based on rapid eye movements that we are unaware of and can hardly control.

B. 27348. This is a number substitution puzzle with a little twist. The letter S has two values, 6 or 8, depending on which position it occupies in the word. Since ACRES has the S in the terminal position, it takes a value of 8.  

A. The balloon moves forward. We’ve all experienced objects flying backward off the dashboard when we accelerate. Why doesn’t inertia cause the balloon to be pushed backward, too? Because the air in the passenger compartment will be pushed toward the rear of the car, creating a low-pressure zone at the front of the car, into which the balloon moves.

B. It takes longer on the downward journey. Energy of motion (kinetic energy) is constantly being lost because of air resistance. Hence there is less energy on the way down, and the maximum speed attained will be less. The density of the air matters to the speed of the downward journey but will not matter to the answer.

B. 23 people. Most people are astounded that only 23 people are required to have a 50% chance that there will be a shared birthday within the group. That’s because the number of pairs of people who share birthdays is large even for small groups.

C. The level would go down slightly. A floating object displaces a volume of water equal to its weight. A submerged object displaces a volume of water equal to its volume. Since the anchor is denser than water, it displaces a larger quantity of water when it is floating within the boat than when it is submerged.

D. Forever. The real puzzle is to realize that the ship and the rope ladder act as a unit. The rope ladder, being attached to the ship, rises with the boat in the rising water. If a rung is not submerged now, it will never be submerged no matter how high the water rises.

B. The hole increases in size. When a piece of metal is heated or cooled, it expands or contracts uniformly. The effect is just the same as if the whole washer were scaled up or scaled down. The iron washer would expand when heated, as would the hole in it.

C. One caller is in western Florida; the other is in eastern Oregon. Florida (a state that borders the Atlantic) has a western area that is in the Central time zone. Oregon (a state that borders the Pacific) has an eastern area that is in the Mountain time zone. Mountain time is one hour earlier than Central time.

C.  Separate the coins into two piles of 5 and 5 coins. Turn over all 5 coins in one of the piles.  Each of the piles will have the same number of coins showing heads. Can the solution be this simple? The best way to see for yourself is try it. Get 10 coins and do an experiment.