How can you cut a round cake three times to make eight equal slices?
Cut #1 – Down the center of the cake (vertically) leaving two equal halves.
Cut #1 – Down the center of the cake (vertically) leaving two equal halves.
What can you catch but not throw?
Your breath or an illness (a cold, virus, the flu etc).
Your breath or an illness (a cold, virus, the flu etc).
Why can’t a man living in Okeechobee, Florida be buried west of the Mississippi River?
Because the man would surely object to being buried since he’s living in Okeechobee.
Because the man would surely object to being buried since he’s living in Okeechobee.
You have a single match and are in a pitch black room with a candle, an oil lamp and a gas stove. Which do you light first?
The match.
Some months have 30 days and some have 31 days. How many months have 28 days?
All of them. Every month has a day 28, even though some continue on after reaching 28.
All of them. Every month has a day 28, even though some continue on after reaching 28.
Your doctor gives you three pills and tells you to take one every half hour. How much time will have passed by the time you’ve taken all three pills?
One hour. You take the first pill, then wait a half hour and take the second pill, then at the hour mark you take the third and last pill.
One hour. You take the first pill, then wait a half hour and take the second pill, then at the hour mark you take the third and last pill.
If you choose an answer to this question at random, what is the chance that you will be correct?
a) 25%
I consider this paradox, because it’s self-referential. Both A and D would be correct if there were four unique answers, but since A and D are the same answer, the chance that you would choose a correct answer is 50%, which makes B correct. But if there’s only one correct answer, the odds of choosing the correct one at random goes back to 25%. And around and round you go.
There’s a lot of discussion at Richard Wiseman’s blog and more at Lifehacker , where I first saw this.
I consider this paradox, because it’s self-referential. Both A and D would be correct if there were four unique answers, but since A and D are the same answer, the chance that you would choose a correct answer is 50%, which makes B correct. But if there’s only one correct answer, the odds of choosing the correct one at random goes back to 25%. And around and round you go.
There’s a lot of discussion at Richard Wiseman’s blog and more at Lifehacker , where I first saw this.
This equation is incomplete: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = 100
One way to make it accurate is by adding seven plus and minus signs, like so.
1 + 2 + 3 – 4 + 5 + 6 + 78 + 9 = 100
How can you do it using only 3 plus or minus signs?
123 – 45 – 67 + 89 = 100
What has three feet but no head?
A yard stick (it’s 3 feet long).
A yard stick (it’s 3 feet long).
What runs around the yard without moving?
A fence.