Daily Math Puzzle: 2026-07-12
Sharpen your mathematical thinking with fresh puzzles delivered daily.
🧩 New Puzzle Every Day — Free
2026-07-12
Two volunteers, Alex and Bella, are rescuing birds after a storm. Alex can rescue 6 birds per hour, but after rescuing his first 18 birds his speed drops to 3 birds per hour for the rest of the day. Bella rescues at a steady 4 birds per hour. There are exactly 70 birds to rescue, and both volunteers start at the same time. What is the minimum time required to rescue all the birds?
🔥 Build your streak — solve daily in the app
Solution
9 hours — First, calculate how long it takes Alex to rescue his first 18 birds. At 6 birds per hour, that takes 18 ÷ 6 = 3 hours. During those same 3 hours Bella rescues 4 × 3 = 12 birds.
So after 3 hours, a total of 18 (Alex) + 12 (Bella) = 30 birds have been rescued. There are 70 – 30 = 40 birds left.
From now on Alex’s rate is 3 birds/hour and Bella’s rate stays at 4 birds/hour, giving a combined rate of 3 + 4 = 7 birds per hour. To finish the remaining 40 birds they need 40 ÷ 7 ≈ 5.71 hours.
Total time = initial 3 hours + 5.71 hours ≈ 8.71 hours, which means they will need just under 9 hours. Since we can’t have a fraction of a whole hour in the answer choices, the smallest whole‑hour option that guarantees all birds are rescued is **9 hours**. Thus the correct choice is the second one (index 1).
Never Miss a Daily Puzzle
Download TestPrepMagic and get push notifications for each day's puzzle. Build daily streaks and track your improvement.
Download Free AppRelated Puzzles
Math Puzzle: 2026-07-11
A deep-space probe, 'Cosmic Weaver', transmits a sequence of numbers representing unique stellar event signatures it detects. Analyzing the raw data, mission control observes a peculiar, repeating pattern. The sequence received so far is: 1, 2, 3, 5, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, 16, ? What is the next number in this sequence?
Math Puzzle: 2026-07-10
The Dizzy Dasher ride features a track laid out as a perfect square with side length 100 meters. A cart starts at one corner (Corner A) and travels clockwise along the outer edge of the square. A special laser emitter is mounted on the cart, always pointing directly from the cart's current position towards the *geometric center* of the square. As the cart travels along the first side, from Corner A to Corner B (the next corner clockwise), what is the total angle, in degrees, that the laser beam rotates?
Math Puzzle: 2026-07-09
A tattered parchment, found within a hidden treasure chest, contains the final clue to the legendary Lost Doubloon. It reads: 'To discover the precise location, you must count every single occurrence of the two-letter sequence 'IS' within this very riddle. However, there's a crucial condition: You must ONLY count 'IS' if it appears as part of a larger word (e.g., as in 'h**IS**sing' or 'th**IS**'). Do NOT count 'IS' when it stands alone as a complete word. The total numerical count will reveal the exact number of paces North from the Skull Rock.' What is the correct count?