Today Before Yesterday
I am a rare case where today comes before yesterday. What am I?
A dictionary
Aft to Fore and Fore to Aft
I run fore to aft on one side of a ship and aft to fore on the other. What am I?
The name of the ship.
B C D E I K O X Series
What other letter fits in the following series
B C D E I K O X ?
The letter H. It completes the list of letters that are vertically symmetrical. In other words, you can fold the top half of the letter over the bottom half and everything lines up.
A Family of Seven
I’m a family of seven,
Two are bitter and harsh,
Four are twins,
The last is the warmest of all.
What family am I?
The Seven Seas. The first two are bitter and harsh, the north and south ones are the twins, and the Indian Ocean is the warmest of the bunch.
- Arctic Ocean
- Antarctic Ocean
- North Atlantic Ocean
- South Atlantic Ocean
- North Pacific Ocean
- South Pacific Ocean
- Indian Ocean
How Old Is The Shepherd?
There are 125 sheep and 5 dogs in a flock.
How old is the shepherd?
You can’t determine the answer.
I debated adding this riddle because it is less of a riddle and more of an illustration of how kids are (or are not) being taught to think for themselves. But after reading how kids feel the need to make up an answer without understanding why, I thought this could be a good reminder for all of us to exercise our critical thinking skills.
(via Student Voices)
I Can Kill People
I can kill people, or cause great pain.
You eat me.
I can mean you’re crazy.
I hold things together.
I help climbers stay safe.
I can replace a swear.
And I’m on a violin.
What am I?
Nuts.
People with nut allergies can die from eating nuts. Being hit in the nuts hurts (I speak from experience. Painful, painful experience). You eat nuts (unless you’re allergic, in which case you should run away). If someone says you’re nuts, it doesn’t mean you’re a peanut or an almond. Nuts and bolts hold things together. A climber’s nut or chock wedges into a rock. Instead of swearing, you can say, “Aww nuts!”. And finally, the nut on a violin is a small piece of hard material that supports the strings.
Ancient Arabic
I’m Arabic, but if you speak English, you probably use me every day.
What am I?
The Arabic numerals, 1, 2, 3, etc.
I Am Worthless
I am worthless, yet when added to others I add worth.
I confounded the ancient Greeks, yet I changed men’s understanding.
What am I?
0 (Zero).
Zero is nothing, yet when you add zeroes to a number like 1, it becomes 10, 100 or 1,000.
The ancient Greeks did not have a name for zero and did not use a placeholder. They seemed unsure about the status of zero as a number, philosophizing about how nothing could be something. Once zero was added, it allowed for more mathematical understanding.
Measured But Not Seen
What can be measured but not seen?
Time. Or my toes when I’ve had one too many donuts…