Each number in this list is smaller than the one before: 9, 3, 1, one third.
What number comes next?
The answer is 1/9. Each term is the one before divided by 3. A third divided by 3 is a ninth, and the sequence never reaches zero.
Divide each term by the one before it and see whether the same ratio holds.
There are 5 cookies on the plate and you take 3 of them.
How many cookies do you have?
The answer is Three. You took three, so three are yours. The question follows the cookies in your hands, and nothing was eaten.
Read the question again and see whose cookies it is asking about.
Your fund drops 50 percent in March.
By what percent does it have to rise to get back to where it started?
The answer is 100 percent. Halving takes 100 down to 50. Climbing from 50 back to 100 is a gain of 50 on a base of 50, and that is 100 percent.
Put a number on the fund, halve it, and ask what the climb back is worth against that.
The counter offers one 16 inch pizza or two 10 inch pizzas for the same money.
Which order gives you more pizza?
The answer is The 16 inch one. Area grows with the square of the width. One 16 inch circle is 201 square inches, and two 10 inch circles together come to 157.
Pizza is sold by area, so compare the circles rather than the widths.
Two players are all in before the flop: a pair of twos against ace king of different suits.
Which hand wins more often?
The answer is The pair of twos. The twos are already a pair, and ace king has to pair up to pass them. Over every board the twos take it about 52 times in 100.
Ask which hand is already made and which one still has to catch a card.