Just for Fun 2019 - Questions and Answers

1  The Dress - July 2019

Q.   What colour is the dress?

          a) White & Gold

          b) Black & Blue

          c) Other colours

A.   The actual colour is Black and Blue.

70 members responded to our survey,  54 U3A colleagues saw this dress as White & Gold, 13 as Black & Blue and 3 as another colour combination.

Select or click here for more information.

2 The Picture - August 2019

Q.    What is wrong with this photo? 

A.    The Duchess of Cambridge isn’t married to Prince Harry. Too obvious? But how many thought it was to do with the crest?Thanks to Neil Stevens for the picture. He explains he added the coat of arms in as a blinder -it’s actually the new Middleton Coat of Arms created for Kate.

3  U3A Lunch Group - September 2019

Q.  Ilkley U3A Lunch Group arrive at the pub.  The first 3 members order fish & chips at the bar for £30, splitting the bill so each paid £10.  Whilst waiting for their meal, one of the group realises that fish & chips are todays special:  3 portions of fish & chips for £25.

After some discussion, one member goes to the bar and asks for the discount and returns to the table with a satisfied grin and five £1 coins.  The group decide to keep £1 each and leave a tip for the waitress of £2.

Initially each member paid £10, receives a £1 refund and eventually pays £9.  A total of £27.  The waitress gets a tip of £2.   So where did the extra £1 go? 

A.  Responses/Answer to September “Just for Fun” mathematical teaser

To quote that veteran comic Frank Carson It's the way I tell 'em'. The text conflates the two transactions. A case of crafty wording that is mixing terms or concepts.

Version one
Contrary to what the puzzle misleadingly states, the eventual £27 total paid by the group included the tip,
i.e. £25 for food plus £2 for the waitress. The £27 plus the three £1 refunds adds up to the original £30.
In terms of what happened to the original £30:

• £25 went into the till

• £3 was returned to the U3A members (£1 each)

• £2 went to the waitress
  

Total £30 hence nothing missing.

Version two
The group voided the initial sale and received a full refund of £30. Therefore they didn't receive any further change and no money is missing nor unaccounted for. They then made a fresh transaction which comprised:

• £25 payment, being for three meals

• £3 cash returned, being £1 per person

• £2 for the waitress, being a rather mean tip.

£30 in total.

A few of the more light hearted explanations:

• I suspect that the "extra £1" was melted down to produce a hundred mushy Ps. :-)

• They tossed for it.

• I hope that the meal included plenty of bread & butter and tea to keep them going while they were chewing over the problem.
  

Thanks to Sue Grimley, Brian Ablett, Sally Hammond, Martin Plumb and Peter Higginbotham for their
thoughts and contributions.

4 Handmade Contraption - October 2019

Q.  What is this handmade contraption, powered by a bicycle chain?

During research for a Science & Technology Group visit, this handmade  contraption was spotted in the back store of the Science & Media Museum in Bradford.

Take a guess why it is held in this museum.

Want a clue? It led to the birth of a whole new media phenomena.

A.  Answer to October “Just for Fun” quiz question

This is part of the equipment used to film the promotional video for "Bohemian Rhapsody", which became Queen's most popular song and is considered one of the greatest rock songs. The video is considered to be ground-breaking, practically inventing the music video seven years before MTV went on the air and ensuring videos would henceforth be a mandatory tool in the marketing of music.

The curator at the Science & Media Museum in Bradford explained that the video was produced so that the band could avoid the use of Pan’s People dancing to their song on Top of the Pops.

It was recorded in just four hours on 10th November 1975, at a cost of £4,500.

All of the special effects were achieved during the recording, rather than editing. The honeycomb illusion was created using a shaped lens and it is the mounting for this that can be seen in the picture. The use of a bicycle chain to rotate the lens is particularly innovative!

Photo of Queen taken from the photo sessions of their second album, which
would inspire the look of the music video for "Bohemian Rhapsody".

Select or click here to watch the video:

The equipment pictured is used from 3mins 10 seconds into the song

5 Height of the Table - November 2019

Q. Look at this picture and work out the height of the table.

A.There are two ways to solve this:

1. Via an algebraic equation

Make an equation for each picture and then add the two equations together.

The first picture: cat + table - turtle = 170 cm.

The second picture: turtle + table - cat = 130 cm.

Now you can cross out the cats and the turtles. You will have 2 tables that equal 300 cm.

Divide by 2 and you will get the correct answer - 150 cm!

 

2. Through visualisation

If the maths does not work for you, there's a visual way.  Stack one table on top of the other, and cross out the animals once again.

See the image below:

 

If you are still confused, watch this video below from YouTube.  Just ignore the adverts and the US influences!

Click on the "Play" button in the centre:

 

6 Christmas Quiz