Brainteaser!!

I was flummoxed by a certain word in English, a very tricky one. Here it is...

Question: There is a common English word that is nine letters long. Each time you remove a letter from it, it still remains an English word - from nine letters right down to a single letter. What is the original word, and what are the words that it becomes after removing one letter at a time?

Try to figure it out. Check the solution here.

Puzzle 2: Who shouts first?

4 criminals are caught and are to be punished. The Judge allows them to be freed if they can solve a puzzle. If they do not, they will be hanged. They agreed.


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The 4 criminals are lined up on some steps (shown in picture). They are all facing in the same direction. A wall separates the fourth man from the other three.

So to summarize:-
Man 1 can see men 2 and 3.
Man 2 can see man 3.
Man 3 can see none of the others.
Man 4 can see none of the others.

The criminals are wearing hats. They are told that there are two white hats and two black hats. The men initially don't know what color hat they are wearing. They are told to shout out the color of the hat that they are wearing as soon as they know for certain what color it is.

They are not allowed to turn round or move.
They are not allowed to talk to each other.
They are not allowed to take their hats off.

Who is the first person to shout out and why?

Check out the solution here.

Puzzle 1: What's the sum?

I stumbled across this puzzle and felt it is worth sharing. 

The sums of the shapes are at the end of each row and column, except for one column. What is the missing sum?

Solving this in 2-3 minutes should mean you are quite sharp :)

Check the solution here.