The Potato Paradox

Fred brings home 100 pounds of potatoes, which (being purely mathematical potatoes) consist of 99 percent water. He then leaves them outside overnight so that they consist of 98 percent water. What is their new weight?

50 pounds.

100 lb of potatoes with 99% water weight means there’s 99 lb of water and 1 lb of solids, a 1:99 ratio.

If the water decreases to 98%, then the solids account for 2% of the weight. The 2:98 ratio reduces to 1:49. Since the solids still weigh 1 lb, the water must weigh 49 lb for a total of 50 lbs for the answer.

Read more at the Potato Paradox wikipedia page.

Posted in Brain Teasers

He And She Both Have One Each

He and she both have one each, but every person has two. A citizen has three and a human being has four. A personality has five and an inhabitant of earth has six. What are they?

Syllables.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Remove Six Letters

Remove six letters from this sequence to reveal a familiar English word.

BSAINXLEATNTEARS

The familiar English word that remains is BANANA after removing the phrase “SIX LETTERS”.

Posted in Riddles

A Treasure to Many

A necessity to some, a treasure to many,
I’m best enjoyed among pleasant company.
Some like me hot, some like me cold.
Some prefer mild, some like me bold.

What am I?

Coffee.

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The Longest Double Letter Word

What is the longest unscientific English word that uses every letter in the word exactly twice? For example, noon has two Ns and two Os, but it’s not nearly long enough.

Happenchance. There are two Hs, two As, and so on for all the letters in the word. The longest scientific word with the same property is probably esophagographers.

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Lillian’s Shower

Lillian gets in the shower, but her long, flowing hair is not wet when she gets out again. How is this possible?

She didn’t turn the water on, she wore a shower cap or it was a baby shower.

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Tortoise, Onion and Tomato

What is three-eighths tortoise, two-fifths onion and two-sixths tomato?

Toronto

3/8 tortoise = TOR (the first three letters)
2/5 onion = ON (the first two letters)
2/6 tomato = TO (the first two letters)

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What Looks Like Food

What looks like food, tastes like food, smells like food, sounds like food when you cook it, is grown in dirt like food, fills up your stomach like food, but is not food?

A poisonous mushroom. Since some types of mushrooms are edible, it can be very hard to distinguish between a safe mushroom and one that will kill you. Food is defined as a substance consumed to provide nutrition, therefore a poisonous mushroom that kills you doesn’t qualify as food, even though it shares all of the traits of a regular mushroom.

Other valid answers include anything that’s edible, resembles food, but is poisonous.

Posted in Riddles

The Snooze Button

Why is it very common to have a 9 minute snooze interval on alarm clocks, why not 10 instead?

By setting the snooze time to 9 minutes, the alarm clock only needs to watch the last digit of the time. So, if you hit snooze at 6.45, the alarm goes off again when the last digit equals 4. They couldn’t make it 10 minutes, otherwise the alarm would go off right away, or it would take more circuitry.

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Twice the Sum of Its Digits

What number is twice the sum of it’s digits?

18.

1 + 8 = 9
2 × 9 = 18

Posted in Brain Teasers