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A quick puzzle about speed and distance: While in San Francisco some time back, I hired a car to drive over the Golden Gate bridge. I started in the afternoon when there was no traffic rush. So I could drive at a speed of 40 miles an hour. While returning, however, I got caught in the traffic rush and I could only manage to drive at a speed of 25 miles an hour. What was my average speed for the round trip? Check your answer here .

A quick puzzle to freshen you up – here it goes: While visiting a small town in the United States, I lost my overcoat in a bus. When I reported the matter to the bus company I was asked the number of the bus. Though I did not remember the exact number I did remember that the bus number had a certain peculiarity about it. The number plate showed the bus number was a perfect square and also if the plate was turned upside down, the number would still be a perfect square – of course it was not? I came to know from the bus company they had only five hundred buses numbered from 1 to 500. From this I was able to deduce the bus number. Can you tell what was the number? Follow this link to get the answer.

Lets begin the new year with an old puzzle: While walking down the street, one morning, I found a hundred dollar bill on the footpath. I picked it up, noted the number and took it home. In the afternoon the plumber called on me to collect his bill. As I had no other money at home, I settled his account with the hundred dollar bill I had found. Later I came to know that the plumber paid the bill to his milkman to settle his monthly account, who paid it to his tailor for the garments he had made. The tailor in turn used the money to buy an old sewing machine, from a woman who lives in my neighborhood. This woman incidentally, had borrowed hundred dollars from me sometime back to buy a pressure cooker, remembering that she owed me hundred dollars, came and paid the debt. I recognized the bill as the one I had found on the footpath, and on careful examination I discovered that the bill was counterfeit. How much was lost in the whole transaction and by whom? Answer here .