Brain Teasers Category

Why This Particular Order?

Why are these letters grouped in this particular order?

1) DFGHLPRU
2) KSTV
3) CO
4) AIW
8) MN

The letters are grouped by the number of U.S. States beginning with that letter. M and N are tied for each starting eight states.

Posted in Brain Teasers

What Letter Comes Next?

The letters in this series are ones that don’t begin something. Figure out what that something is, and what letter comes next.

B E J ?

Show the answer »

Q. The thing they don’t begin is states in the United States of America. The final three letters in the series are X, Y and Z.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Groups of Creatures

These are names given to groups of creatures or things, but they have been scrambled. What is the correct arrangement?

Colony of Birds
Horde of Spiders
Den of Wild Pigs
Clutter of Crows
Nest of Snakes
Park of Elks
Doylt of Ferrets
Gang of Machine Guns
Business of Swine
Volery of Artillery
Hover of Gnats
Drift of Frogs

Show the answer »

Colony of Frogs
Horde of Gnats
Den of Snakes
Clutter of Spiders
Nest of Machine Guns
Park of Artillery
Doylt of Swine
Gang of Elks
Business of Ferrets
Volery of Birds
Hover of Crows
Drift of Wild Pigs

Posted in Brain Teasers

Books By Charles Dickens

Pair these words to make nine titles of books by Charles Dickens:

A LITTLE    1 RUDGE
B PICKWICK  2 COPPERFIELD
C EDWIN     3 TIMES
D BARNABY   4 CHUZZLEWIT
E NICHOLAS  5 PAPERS
F HARD      6 HOUSE
G BLEAK     7 DROOD
H DAVID     8 DORRIT
I MARTIN    9 NICKLEBY

Show the answer »

A 8 = LITTLE DORRIT
B 5 = PICKWICK PAPERS
C 7 = EDWIN DROOD
D 1 = BARNABY RUDGE
E 9 = NICHOLAS NICKLEBY
F 3 = HARD TIMES
G 6 = BLEAK HOUSE
H 2 = DAVID COPPERFIELD
I 4 = MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT

Posted in Brain Teasers

Complete the Word Square

A word square is a combination of words that can be spelled horizontally and vertically.

The most well known is called the Sator Square (in Latin):

S A T O R
A R E P O
T E N E T
O P E R A
R O T A S

What five words complete this word square?

I T C H E S
T _ _ _ _ _
C _ _ _ _ _
H _ _ _ _ _
E _ _ _ _ _
S _ _ _ _ _

Show the answer »

Thrust, Crisco, Hussar, Escape and Stores.Making this lovely word square below:I T C H E S T H R U S T C R I S C O H U S S A R E S C A P E S T O R E S

Thrust, Crisco, Hussar, Escape and Stores.

Making this lovely word square below:

I T C H E S
T H R U S T
C R I S C O
H U S S A R
E S C A P E
S T O R E S

Posted in Brain Teasers

What is the secret to this?

A1
C1
E3
H3

What comes next?

Show the answer »

I2.Each entry is a letter, in alphabetical order starting with A, followed by the number of occurrences of that letter in the phrase “What is the secret to this”.There’s one ‘a’, thus we get A1. There are no ‘b’s so it doesn’t appear, then there’s one ‘c’, and so on.

I2.

Each entry is a letter, in alphabetical order starting with A, followed by the number of occurrences of that letter in the phrase “What is the secret to this”.

There’s one ‘a’, thus we get A1. There are no ‘b’s so it doesn’t appear, then there’s one ‘c’, and so on.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Wily Winifred and the Case of the Odd Numbers

Mrs. Shine was having a rough day and wanted a break. So she asked her class to calculate the sum of the first 50 odd numbers. In a few moments, Winifred was at her desk with the correct answer of 2,500. Stunned, Mrs. Shine figured she must have gotten lucky, and sent precocious Winifred back to her seat with the task of finding the sum of the first 75 odd numbers. Again, Winifred returned in seconds with the correct answer (5,625).

How did Winifred find the answer so quickly?

Show the answer »

Winifred, being the precocious child she is, realized there was a pattern when computing smaller sums of odd numbers.First 3: 1 + 3 + 5 = 9
First 4: 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 16
First 5: 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 9 = 25Do you see the pattern like our dear friend Winnie?For the first n odd numbers, the sum is equal to n². Thus the first 50 is 50², or 2,500, and the first 75 is 75², or 5,625.

Winifred, being the precocious child she is, realized there was a pattern when computing smaller sums of odd numbers.

First 3: 1 + 3 + 5 = 9
First 4: 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 16
First 5: 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 9 = 25

Do you see the pattern like our dear friend Winnie?

For the first n odd numbers, the sum is equal to n². Thus the first 50 is 50², or 2,500, and the first 75 is 75², or 5,625.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Show Your Work

Solve this one carefully!

230 – 220 x 0.5 = ?

You probably won’t believe it, but the answer is 5! How can this be true?

Show the answer »

The answer is 120, and 5! = 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 120Credit to John May for this one.

The answer is 120, and 5! = 5 × 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 120

Credit to John May for this one.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Dirty Rebus

What does this represent?

    D
    I
D I R T Y
    T
    Y

Show the answer »

Dirty double crosser. (Thanks to Ian for the answer)

Posted in Brain Teasers

Tagged with rebus

Apples Rebus

What does this represent?

APPLE
APPLE
APPLE
aPPLe
APPLE

Show the answer »

I haven’t figured this out yet. Bad apple doesn’t really fit with the lowercase letters. They’re both vowels, but I don’t know if that’s relevant. The fourth one looks kind of like a hill, could it be apple hill?

Posted in Brain Teasers

Tagged with rebus, Unsolved