A mathematician was out fishing one day and he caught a trout. He decided to send a text message to his wife to let her know he’d be bringing a fish home for supper.

She was a mathematician too and so he thought he’d have some fun and see if she would be able to work out the weight of the fish, from just a few clues, before he got home.

In the text message he told her that the trout’s tail weighed eight pounds. Its head weighed as much as the tail plus half of the body combined. Giving her one final clue he told her that the body weighed as much as the tail plus the head. Can you work out the weight of the whole trout? The mathematician’s wife did.

We’ve got a few copies of a 200-page dictionary on the terminology used in electrical drive technology, worth £14.99, to give away to the first correct answers we receive. Send your solutions to puzzle@motec.co.uk, and don’t forget to include your address if you would like a copy of the dictionary.

Good luck! We’ll publish the answer with an explanation of how it can be worked out in the next issue of Motor Technology News.