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#136 Narrowing the spectrum

Marie: “What’s your favourite colour of the rainbow?”

Lise: “That would be telling… its name is made up only of letters that occur in the names of the other six colours of the rainbow.”

Marie: “But there is more than one colour that rule works for!”

Lise: “Ah, but if you just look at the colours that fit that rule, it is the only one that can’t be made from the letters in the other members of that set!”

What colour is it?

#135 You don’t know jackpot

Solution

The jackpot setting is Cherry, 7, Cherry. Playing five times means the woman spent $2.50. Since she says that the “house always wins”, we know she didn’t win any more than $2. We also know the new jackpot setting doesn’t end in a seven or have two or more sevens, since I didn’t win anything when I got three sevens. Every remaining jackpot setting would have won $3 or more, except Cherry, 7, Cherry, which would have only won $2.