Friday Maths Assessment

On Friday's Mr.Arkins assesses our knowledge of what we've done in maths during the week.
To accommodate this we work in small groups. While one group is being assessed the three other groups partake in maths games and logic puzzles, ranging from chess to rock/paper/scissors. Here are today's logic puzzles;

Lateral thinking problems that are based on fact.

1. A man walks into a bar and asks for a drink of water. The bartender gives the man a drink of water, but the man says the water is no good. The bartender thinks for a minute, pulls out a gun and points it at him. The man says, "Thank you," and walks out.

2. There was once a recluse who never left his home. The only time anyone ever visited him was when his food and supplies were delivered, but they never came inside. Then, one storm winter night when an icy gale was blowing, he had a nervous breakdown. He went upstairs, turned off all the lights and went to bed. Next morning, he had caused the deaths of several hundred people. How?

3. Many shops have prices set just under a round figure, e.g. $9.99 instead of $10.00 or $99.95 instead of $100.00 . It is assumed that this is done because the price seems lower to the consumer. But this is not the reason the practice started. What was the original reason for this pricing method?