ERJ Brainteaser December 2019

The ERJ Brainiac of the Year Awards 2019 have been decided using advanced algorithms in which points were awarded for each correct answer, special mention and helpful and/or amusing email sent in during the year, with extra bonus points going to our Brainiac of the Month winners. Based on this highly complicated (and only slightly arbitrary) system, the regional champions (excluding the overall winner) are:

EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

Andrew Knox, Rubbond International, The Netherlands (5940 points)

ASIA AND REST OF THE WORLD

Ramasubramanian P, Larsen & Toubro Ltd, India  (5130 points)

AMERICAS

Jose Padron, Waterville TG Inc., Canada (4995 points)

And then, huge congratulations to all above and to our overall champion:

MICHELE GIRARDI, Scame Mastaf Spa, Italy (6615 points)

our new ERJ BRAINIAC OF THE YEAR

Wishing all our readers a Merry Christmas and a successful and Happy New Year!

Question 3: Ahead of doing his Christmas rounds, Santa is painting his sleigh – a job he always does on his own in six hours exactly. However, due to his age, this year he is required by local health & safety regulations to employ three elves to help him. If each elf works half as fast as Santa, how long will it take the four of them to paint the sleigh?
 

Answer: Such a busy time of year, so we kept our final teaser for 2019 quite straightforward – and festive. And as David Mann explained: Santa can paint at 2/12 of a sleigh per hour and the 3 elves 3/12 per hour, the team can now paint at 5/12 per hour. So they can paint the sleigh in 2 hours 24 minutes.

Well done, in order of reply, to: Stephan Paischer, head of product management special products, Semperit AG Holding, Vienna, Austria; Michael Easton, sales & marketing director, Globus Group, Manchester, UK; David Mann, Polymer Business Development, France; Michele Girardi, Scame Mastaf Spa, Suisio, Italy; Andrew Knox, Rubbond International, Ohé en Laak, The Netherlands; Paul Knutson, textile engineer, Timken Belts, Springfield, Missouri, USA; France Veillette, chef environnement, Usine de Joliette, Bridgestone Canada Inc., Canada; Jose Padron, material development specialist, Waterville TG Inc., Waterville, Québec, Canada; John Bowen, consultant, Bromsgrove, UK; Karl-Erik Lember, Motoral Eesti AS, Estonia; and two new readers (only names supplied) Panos Tomaras and Otto Trujillo.

Question 2: New York 21, London 2, Paris 3, Munich 3, Moscow ?, Tokyo 11,

Answer: Not about Olympics or World Cups etc but simply to do with time differences, making the answer 5 – Moscow being three hours ahead of London. Well done, in order of reply, to: Stephan Paischer, head of product management special products, Semperit AG Holding, Vienna, Austria; Michele Girardi, Scame Mastaf Spa, Suisio, Italy; Jose Padron, material development specialist, Waterville TG Inc., Waterville, Québec, Canada; Yuichi (Joe) Sano, Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd, Itami, Japan; David Mann, manager rubber technology, SI Group, Béthune, France; Andrew Knox, Rubbond International, Ohé en Laak, The Netherlands.

Question 1: You cannot be series 3!

Complete this series
1/1 = O, 2/2 = W, 3/3 = R,

Answer: It took a while for the penny to drop, but a select group of our top Brainiacs eventually worked out that letter 1 of one is O, letter 2 of two is W, letter 3 of three is R, so that our answer was that the fourth letter of four is R, ie 4/4 = R – or as Michele Girardi neatly explained One, tWo, three, fouR. A special mention also to Jose Padron for noting that the series finishes at this point: there is no 5/5 for five etc. 

Very well done, so, to: Stephan Paischer, head of product management special products, Semperit AG Holding, Vienna, Austria; Jose Padron, material development specialist, Waterville TG Inc., Waterville, Québec, Canada; Yuichi (Joe) Sano, Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd, Itami, Japan; David Mann, Polymer Business Development, France; Michele Girardi, Scame Mastaf Spa, Suisio, Italy.