BRAINTENANCE QUIZ 1/21/09

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Dear Friends:

It is a scientifically documented fact that the exercise of freely associating words (i.e., connecting words that are in some way related -- either as synonyms, opposites, parts of each other, complements of each other, sounds in common, used in the same industry, commonly used in association with other words as part of a phrase) helps increase cognitive function, opens up new neural pathways, builds up greater n-dimensional reasoning, and strengthens memory. Try to find unusual associations, as well as the traditional ones:

1. disgruntled

2. contemplating

3. stainless

4. winding

5. summer

6. animal

7. testing

8. innoculation

9. locomotive

10. trailer

Enjoy these. and remember that there are no right or wrong answers. come up with as many associations for each word as possible -- and bear in mind that each association will have its own underlying rationale. These associations give you a special opportunity to examine the workings of how you think!

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

Solutions to earlier quizzes follow:

Given: You have the bottles. One of them is a 2-gallon bottle filled with a 40% solution of hxdroxyidiotic acid (I have invented this substance); one is a 2-gallon bottle filled with water; one is a 4-gallon bottle, which is empty. You have access to additional water at a nearby pump.

Find:

1. How would you create 4 gallons of a 20% solution of hydroxyidiotic acid? Simply pour the contents of the first container and the second container into the third container.

2. How would you create 2 gallons of a 20% solution of hydroxyidiotic acid? Take the mixture created in #1, above, and fill one of the empty 2 gallon bottles with it. Fill the second bottle as well...why waste? what if there were an hydroxyidiotic acid shortage?

3. How would you create 1 gallon of a 20% solution of hydroxyidiotic acid? Due to your limited materials, the easiest (albeit imprecise) way of accomplishing this would be to pour half of the contents of either bottle #1 or #2 into bottle #3. The end result would be 1 gallon of 20% hydroxyidiotic acid in the container used (assume that you used container #1), 2 gallons of 20% hydroxyidiotic acid in bottle#2, and 1 gallon of 20% hydroxyidiotic acid in bottle #3.

4. How would you create 2 gallons of a 10% solution of hydroxyidiotic acid? Fill the balance of bottle #1 with water to cut double the dilution (or halve the strength) to 10%.

5. How would you create 1 gallon of a 10% solution of hydroxyidiotic acid? Due to your limited materials, you could simply pour half of the contents of bottle #1 into bottle #3. Bottle #1 would then contain 1 gallon (approximately) of 10% hydroxyidiotic acid.

Question: What would the amount and the dilution be of hyroxyidiotic acid be in bottle #3 at the end of this process?

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How many 5-letter combinations can you make of the name OBAMA, where none of those combinations started with an "O"? The computation is simple (but with a twist): for the first letter slot you have 4 possible letters; for the second, 4; for the third, 3: for the fourth, 2; and for the fifth, 1 --- by multiplying 4x4x3x2x1, we get 96 arrangements of letters that do not begin with the letter "O". But what about the arrangements that are redundant because they have two "A"s in them....Hmmm....perhaps you need a bit more time.