ERJ Brainteaser: August

What links the following countries?

Colombia, Brazil, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Indonesia

Answer: These are all countries through which the equator passes. Very well done to: John Bowen, rubber industry consultant, Bromsgrove, Worcs, UK; Stephan Paischer, head of product management special products, Semperit AG Holding, Vienna, Austria; David Mann, key account manager, SPC Rubber Compounding, UK; Rohit Kalé, distribution strategy manager, AMN/V/B2C/DIS, Michelin North America Inc.: Andrew Knox, Rubbond International, Ohé en Laak, The Netherlands; Hans-Bernd Lüchtefeld, marketing manager – automotive safety, Indorama Mobility Group, PHP Fibers GmbH, Obernburg, Germany; Jose Padron, material development specialist, Waterville TG Inc. Waterville, Québec, Canada.

Shedding extra light on the subject:

Rohit Kalé
All these countries are connected by the Equator.  It is a latitude line that bisects the globe at its widest point, and where the days and nights equal throughout the year.  Apart from these six countries, Equator also passes through 7 other countries: Ecuador, Sao Tome & Principe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, , Maldives, and Kiribati.

Jose Padron
There are 13 countries lying on the Equator line. Colombia, Brazil, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Indonesia are some of them. The list is completed with; São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Maldives, Kiribati and Ecuador (of course). 

11 of these countries are in direct contact with the equator. The landmasses of Maldives and Kiribati, however, do not touch the equator itself. Instead, the equator passes through water belonging to these islands. 
 

New teaser on Tuesday.

What is the missing number in this series?

100, 500, 1, ?, 1000, 5, 10

Question 3: Mind the gap III

What is the missing number in this series?

100, 500, 1, ?, 1000, 5, 10

Answer: As Rohit Kalé of Michelin neatly explained: These are Roman numerals, and when they arranged in alphabetical order – C (100), D (500), I (1), L (50), M (1000), V (5) and then X (10). Also, the series has numbers starting with 1 and 5 used alternatively. Extremely well done, in order of reply, to: John Bowen, rubber industry consultant, Bromsgrove, Worcs, UK; David Mann, key account manager, SPC Rubber Compounding, UK; Rohit Kalé, distribution strategy manager, AMN/V/B2C/DIS, Michelin North America Inc.; and everyone else who had a go.

New teaser on Monday.

In total, how many stars appear on the official flags of the countries (below) that finished in the top 10 of the medal table at the Tokyo Olympics?      

USA, China, Japan, Great Britain, ROC, Australia, Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy.

Answer: This week’s gold medal goes to John Bowen, rubber industry consultant, Bromsgrove, Worcs, UK;, who correctly identified the flags with stars as: USA , 50; China, 5; Japan  1,  [this is our Sun, which is our nearest star, representing The Land of the Rising Sun]; and Australia  6 – making the total is 62. Silver and bronze went to close runners-up, Andrew Knox, Rubbond International, Ohé en Laak, The Netherlands; and Jose Padron, material development specialist, Waterville TG Inc. Waterville, Québec, Canada. Well done to all and everyone else who had a go.

Bonus question

Due to the quite small number of correct replies, Quesion 1 was rolled on as a bonus question, with this week's.

New teaser on Monday

As a promotion, cards featuring the world's top 10 football players are randomly included - one per pack - inside boxes of a leading brand of cereal. How many cereal boxes would a fan probably have to buy to get the full collection of cards?

Answer: There were some different interpretations but, as explained by Michel Girardi, quality manager at Scame-Mastaf SpA, Suisio, Italy: The probability to get a useful card in the first box is 1; going on, the probability to get a different card is 9/10, i.e. we will need on average 10/9 box purchases. To get 10 different cards, we need the result of the sum 1+10/9+10/8+...+10/2+10/1, that is 29.3. So 30 boxes.