What's new

The full fruit bowl brainteaser

By , 24 July 2019

There are three types of fruit in the fruit bowl:

  • All pieces of fruit are bananas, except for three of them.
  • All pieces of fruit are apples, except for four of them.
  • All pieces of fruit are oranges, except for five of them.

Can you work out how many pieces of each fruit are in the bowl?


Scroll down for the answer!

 

brain icon

 

Brainteaser answer

Comparing the last two statements, there is one more apple than orange (as the number of bananas won’t change). From the first statement, there are three non-banana fruits. So the number of apples and oranges must add up to three. That means there is one orange and two apples.

If there is one orange, and five non-oranges (from the last statement), there must be six pieces of fruit in total. And if there are two apples, and one orange, that means the other three are bananas.

There’s another answer, but it’s quite tricky. Can you work it out?

For more brainteasers and puzzles for kids, subscribe to Double Helix magazine!

Subscribe now! button

2 comments

  1. What a great double puzzle! Obtaining the second answer by a deductive process is an excellent challenge.

      Reply
  2. I know right lol

      Reply

Leave a Reply

By posting a comment you are agreeing to the Double Helix commenting guidelines.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Double helix cover

Double Helix

If you're after more activities for kids sign up today!