Riddle Me This: The Safecracker’s Dilemma
Test your skills of deduction with the March 2025 edition of Riddle Me This: The Safecracker’s Dilemma
You are tasked with opening a high-security safe. The safe has three dials, each with the numbers 1 to 9. A digital assistant gives you clues about the correct combination:
- “The sum of the numbers on the dials is 13.”
- “The second dial’s number is twice the number on the first dial.”
- “The third dial’s number is one greater than the number on the first dial.”
What is the combination to the safe?
Click to Reveal Answer
Sometimes a brute force approach can produce the answer faster than cranking out the algebra:
“The sum of the numbers on the dials is 13.”
“The second dial’s number is twice the number on the first dial.”
This means “the first digit is an integer of a number equal to or less than 13 which is
divisible by three.”
“The third dial’s number is one greater than the number on the first dial.”
This now means that the first number is one-third of a number equal to or less than 12.
12/3 = 4, so try 4 in your head: 4, 8, 5, but that sum exceeds 13.
Decrement by 1 and try 3 in your head: 3,6,4 – Got it!
Much too simple!