Saturday 10 May 2008

A Grand Day Out (33)


We had such a lovely day yesterday, when we visited Brighton to see our younger son. Although it was overcast at the beginning of the day the sun soon shone through and the second part of the day was glorious. We started off at Waterstones Book Shop for coffee, but were saved (sadly) from purchasing any books as No 2 son arrived earlier than expected - he's a DJ in Brighton and had been giving a lesson. We had lunch in a splendid, cool, elegant Cuban restaurant and then strolled down to the sea front. While DH dozed in a deck chair No 2 son and I had great fun lobbing pebbles into the sea, and devising all sorts of games - there isn't any sand at Brighton, just pebbles - I love the sound the sea makes as it swooshes over them. 

Here are some pictures of the 
three of us debating a puzzle that No 2 son had - if a bottle of wine costs £10 and the wine costs £9 more than the bottle how much does the wine itself cost? We also had fun trying to work this one out - a frog has fallen down a well that is 20 bricks deep. It starts to climb up at the rate of three bricks forward a day, but also falls back two bricks each day. How many days will it take for the frog to get out of the well? No prizes, but I'll try to remember to post the solutions tomorrow.

After a walk along the sea front to the pier we sadly had to call it a day and drop No 2 son back at his flat to get ready for his DJ work in the evening. I hate the business of saying goodbye to him!

2 comments:

Amy said...

What a relaxing day! Good for you...and I'm assuming you're feeling back to your healthy self?

Thanks for sharing the puzzles....you touched on my passion! :0) I've heard and shared the "frog" one with my students in the past, but I know it as a "snail." But the wine one is new---naturally I'll probably alter it to dollars and not pounds.
So, let's see if I can recall the frog....most students think the "net gain" is 1 brick per day, so many say 20 days. However, they forget to remember that he GAINS the three before losing the two.....so.....**math don't fail me now**
day 1 results in 1 brick gain, day 2 in 2, etc. At day 15, the net gain is still 15, at day 16, net gain is 16. The magic day I believe is day 17. If they frog gains three bricks on day 17, he's achieved victory BEFORE falling the two bricks. So....Day 17!???!

The wine.....again, most people would probably jump to a simple conclusion that the wine alone costs 1 pound....no wait. I mean 9 pounds...ummm....okay. Lost my train of thought.....okay, here comes the Algebra! (HEY! you posted this----so bear with the Alg teacher..)
w + b = 10
w = b + 9
so using substitution:
(b + 9) + b = 10
2b + 9 = 10
2b = 1
b = 1/2
So, if the bottle = 1/2, the wine must be 1/2 + 9, which is 9 1/2 pounds!!!

If I'm wrong, I will suspend my own teacher license :0)
Thanks again and have a great weekend. Tell me, Amanda, do you celebrate Mother's Day in England? If so (and even if not), Happy Mother's Day tomorrow.
-Amy

Kay said...

What a lovely day for all of you. I know just how you feel leaving your son. I always feel the same way when we say goodbye to our son who lives in New Mexico.