Thread: Thebigspendurs Weekly Shaving Brainbuster #10

Good morning shaving fiends

This week’s brainbuster is a special edition. It will test your powers of quantitative thinking and through deductive reasoning tell you something about my family.

Last weekend I went over to my relative’s ranch and once again Uncle Jethro was doing what he likes to do best, catching field mice and throwing them into boiling water just to hear them squeal. I’ve warned him about that type of behavior before but I just got done replacing the tires on my station wagon and didn’t want to have to do it again so I suggested we all pile into the Apache and go into town to look for some new razors in the antique markets around town. Cousin Cletus and Cousin Festus and Uncle Jethro thought that was a great idea so off we went.

First we went into one of those old general stores, the kind that sells everything and we saw two old 7 day sets which Jethro bought. Festus had us stop at Green’s feed. He saw a goat for sale and had an eye out for her so he bought her and spent the rest of the afternoon with her in the park and in the back of the pickup getting to know her (if you know what I mean).

Jethro stopped at pet city to buy some mice leaving Cletus and me to check the antique markets. At Sue’s house of the dead I got a Duble Duck Napoleon still in its wrapper unopened and a Grim reaper also never opened still in a sealed case. Sue wouldn’t bargain with me so I had to pay $20 for both. Then we went to Clyde’s where Cletus got a seven day set and four Friodurs. On the way to pick up the rest of the gang I stopped by the post office and got a package waiting for me containing 8 Eboy specials and Cletus got one with 10 Eboy specials. Not a bad haul eh?

So we headed back and that darn goat chewed up the scales on 4 of the razors and Festus threw them out the side of the truck. By the time we stopped to fill the gas tank the darn mice got out and chewed up the scales on twice the number of razors that the goat had chewed up and Festus threw those out of the truck too. Then we stopped at the supermarket and someone broke into the truck and stole half the number of razors that the mice and goat chewed on minus 4 razors.

When we pulled into the driveway at the ranch Auntie Beulah was waiting and took after Jethro for spending money on razors and mice. She let all the mice go which was twice the number of razors we had originally accumulated minus 10% of the number the goat chewed on minus 18% the number the mice chewed on.

So, the question for this week’s shaving brainbuster is this, how many razors did we finally end up with and how many mice did Jethro originally buy? Optional is to show how you came up with the answer. If you do this Cletus tells me you will acquire an astounding bargain on Eboy in the next 30 days (he can tell the future you know).

Also, what have you learned about my family and what kind of person would keep coming up with this material?

Be sure to check back on Wednesday for the answer. Of course I only completed 6th grade so I might be hard pressed to come up with a solution to this myself. Oh and no more entries to Grand Central Station. Ben and Willard were so overwhelmed they have enough to eat for months now.

Oh and just to add a little sauce to the goose the first person to answer ALL questions correctly and show his solution will earn a free secret prize.

You bought 45 razors. The mice chewed 8 and the goat 4, total of 12. The number stolen was either 2 or 4, depending on how you read the ambiguous statement:
"stole half the number of razors that the mice and goat chewed on minus 4 razors". That's either (12/2 - 4) = 2 or (12 - 4) / 2 = 4.

So you came home with either 29 or 31 razors.

As you wrote it the mice bought are 45 x 2 - 0.4 - 1.44 = 88.16 mice.

If you had said 20% instead of 18%, the mice bought would be
45 x 2 - 0.4 - 1.6 = 88 mice, which sounds more reasonable to me.

I haven't learned anything at all about you or your family from this.

Damn! You had me laughing at Uncle Jethro! OK, working backwards...

As far as the family, seems like a perfectly normal group, much like my own royal bloodline. ...well, with the possible exception of my Uncle Ed. He tends toward gathering roadkill with an eye to using the fur as hackle for tying fishing flies - or so he says. ...I'll avoid the stew if he's collected fresh kill in the last week. But to your question, I've learned that your bloodline is normal and possibly royal, ergo, the person that comes up with this stuff is a seriously twisted intellectual with issues. But since those twists come from an upbringing that allows wild creativity one would expect significant aberrant behaviors. I include myself in that category.

Jethro didn't buy any mice. Since you weren't at the pet store he simply led you to believe that he did. He intended that you mention to Auntie Beulah that he'd bought mice so that he'd have money stashed for new copper tubing to replace the corroded tubing on the still in the barn. If you had looked closely you'd have noticed that all the mice had burn dressings and bandages over most of their bodies. Naturally there were a few tiny ones that weren't bandaged but that was simply the result of breeding between the time you left his place and then left town - fast breeding due to the mice's sure knowledge that they'd be dead by nightfall. So all calculations involving mice and razors are a ruse to throw us off course.

The number of razor remaining after all the excitement was the same number that had been purchased plus one. That number was calculated by using advanced cyphering techniques and the limiting factor of having only 29 bodily items with which to accomplish said cyphering (3 you don't want to see). The process used is as follows:

Since Jethro didn't buy any mice, and, since the existing mice were too badly scalded to have an appetite they would have just laid still in the box and tried to breed. Therefore, they never chewed any razors. While the goat did indeed think about chewing some scales to get some strange taste out of it's mouth, it also was too tired and in too much pain to actually get to the razors.

The actual number of razors remaining was one more than the number bought. That number is achieved as follows:

- At the General store he bought 4 razors (his 7 day set consists of 2 razors rotated daily). Sum now at 4.
- At Green's Feed Festus quietly bought a rusted old 1/2 inch razor to use to "pretty up" the goat but didn't mention it to anyone. He kept it quiet out of respect for the goat (he's like that, always sensitive to his goat's feelings). Sum now at 5.
- The visit to Sue's House of the Dead yielded 2 razors. The $20 seems a bit high for the pair of unopened razors but since Sue and cousin Cletus have a thing going it may simply have been that an amount was added to cover some past debt to her. Most likely it involved a corpse that the couple "prepared" for burial together and involved copious amounts of moonshine and sub-par "smokes". Sum now at 7.
- At Clydes the 7 Day Set involved 3 razors since Clydes is a more upscale merchant. The Friodurs did amount to 4 so there were 7 picked up there. Sum now at 11.
- At the Post Office there were indeed 18 razors picked up but two of them were so badly rusted that the blades literally turned to dust when Cletus bit down on them to test the sharpness and metal quality. On the other hand, one other razor in the package was a rather imaginative special that had 2 blades soldered together at the mid point of the shank with a little plastic wrapped around the solder point - so it counts as 2 razors. Sum now at 29.

At points where Festus appeared to have thrown out razors, he was really simply putting them into the hole in the door panel. Remembering that the mice purchase was a ruse to set aside money for copper tubing, the entire story about razors being chewed up was also a ruse. The razors stashed in the door will eventually be returned to the vendors for a refund large enough to buy the copper he needs (when added to the amount supposedly used for mice).

When the party returned home and Auntie Beulah lit out after Jethro it was really for leaving the outhouse seat up. It seems that after the group set off, Auntie Beulah went in for "a bit of reading" and while her girth prevented her from completely falling into the outhouse hole, she did manage to get stuck for a while. She was still seething when Jethro returned and in all the confusion, Festus managed to extract the razors from the hole in door and get them moved into the barn for return to the store later.

So, as a wrap up. There were no mice purchased and after all was over there were 29 razors either in someone's possession or hidden in the barn.

you ended up with 13 razors,

Jethro bought 52 mice.

Your family is crazy.

Total Razors Purchased:
2(7) + 2 + 7 + 4 + 8 + 10 = 45

Total Razors Destroyed/Stolen
4 + 4(2) + [.5(12) - 4)] = 14

Total Razors You came home with:
45 - 14 = 31

Number of Mice:
2(45) - [.1(4) - .18(8)] = 91.04 or 91

Also seen as:
90 - (-1.04) = 91.04

The result from the subtraction of the percentage of razors destroyed by the mice from the percentage of razors destroyed by the goats produces a negative number, which then subtracted from the total number of razors originally purchased times two adds to it producing a total, rounded down logically, of 91 mice (can't have a fraction of a mouse).

Perhaps the .04 is mice droppings or the tail of a mouse already killed and then the number could be 92 mice, but my answer is 91.

What I learned about your family:
1) They own a ranch
2) Jethro enjoys boiling live field mice
3) Festus was either determining the character or characteristics (blemishes etc. after all he lives on a ranch) of the goat 'getting to know her' or was doing something I'd rather not say
4) Beulah, Jethro's wife, doesn't like Jethro buying mice or razors

Person coming up with material:
My guess is you're someone with a bit of a twisted sense of humor who enjoys brain teasers, though you don't have a high level of formal school education at schools since you stated you only finished 6th grade. Yet must have money from your handle 'thebigspendur' so I'd guess a rancher.

Though my original thought was an engineer I revised this due to the statement that you only finished 6th grade. Perhaps that explains the .04 on the mice calculation.

This one was a freaking blast.

you ended the day having acquired 45 razors, lost 0 to a thief, and only 31 of which had their scales survive the trip home.

cletus somehow purchased 91.04 mice. But seeing as we are talking blades, I will choose to go the arrakean method and cut off the incomplete mouse, since its unlikely to squeal when you toss it in the pot. 91 mices.

and finally, your family needs to have its tree branch out a little more, but keep the material coming.

2 * 7 day = 14
Grim + Double Duck = 2
another 7 day + four = 11
8 eboy + 10 eboy = 18
14+2+11+18 = 45 razors.

goat chewed four scales.
mice chewed double goat = 4 *2 = 8
theif stole half mice (4) - 4 razors = 0
45 razors, 31 having scales.

Mice = double razors = 90.
90 minus (10% of 4goat snacked - 18% of 8 mice snaked.)
90 minus (.1 * 4 - .18 * 8)
90 minus (0.4- 1.44)
90 minus (-1.04)
91.04

Well as I calculate and I had to have Cletus and festus help me with this the number of razors we wound up with is 31.

The number of mice is about 88.

I'll bet you didn't know Cletus had a Phd and he keeps reminding me he paid enough for it. He says some of you used something called algebra and thought two minus's was like a plus so you added when you should have subtracted.

I will give air colorado an honorable mention for really thinking on his feet and festus says he can join our family.

I'm still mulling the results over since Fritz got the math right but he didn't learn anything about our family and that made auntie really mad so I'm inclined to not award any prize for this. However if anyone wants to argue otherwise I will entertain all appeals.

Lacking any appeals be sure to check back next week for another in the amazing adventures of the shaving brainbuster.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

I'm still mulling the results over since Fritz got the math right but he didn't learn anything about our family and that made auntie really mad so I'm inclined to not award any prize for this. However if anyone wants to argue otherwise I will entertain all appeals.

I humbly appeal. I answered the question correctly. I majored in physics and math, not in abnormal psychology. I didn't learn anything at all about you or your family. (Unless you are counting the trivial things like their names and relationship to you, which was mentioned in the story, and I'm not sure that qualifies as "learning" in the sense of making deductions from the facts presented.) Now, if the prize is a 2-week vacation with Festus, then I respectfully decline.

Well here is what we did, we got old General Beauregard my prize steer and asked him whether he wanted an extra meal or would rather visit the ladies and if he would rather visit the ladies Fritz would be the winner and he passed up the meal for the ladies so your the winner. PM me your address and the General will send you your prize.

That's all too funny! Thanks for coming up with this TBS!