Longest AIOTS word

What is the longest word you can find using only the letters AIOTS (each letter can be used any number of times)?

Tattooists, which has 10 letters.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Once a Minute, Twice in a Moment

What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment but not once in a thousand years?

The letter “m”.

Posted in Riddles

Two Bodies Joined in One

Two bodies have I, though both joined in one,
The more I stand still the faster I run.

What am I?

An hourglass.

Posted in Riddles

I Can Cry Without Eyes

I can cry but I have no eyes.
I can fly but I have no wings.
Wherever I go, darkness follows me.

What am I?

A cloud. Crying is rain, they fly in the sky and darkness follows because they block the sun.

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I Am, In Truth, A Yellow Fork

I am, in truth, a yellow fork
From tables in the sky
By inadvertent fingers dropped
The awful cutlery.
Of mansions never quite disclosed
And never quite concealed
The apparatus of the dark
To ignorance revealed.

— Emily Dickenson

Lightning.

Posted in Riddles

The Mystery Six-Digit Number

Find a six-digit number containing no zeros and no repeated digits that satisfies the following conditions:

1. The first and fourth digits sum to the last digit, as do the third and fifth digits.
2. The first and second digits when read as a two-digit number equal one quarter the fourth and fifth digits.
3. The last digit is four times the third digit.

192768.

If you call the number ABCDEF, then you get the following equations.

1. A + D = F and C + E = F
2. AB = DE / 4
3. F = 4 × C

The only numbers that work for C and E are 2 and 6 or 4 and 8, and in order to make F a single-digit number, we can deduce that C = 2, E = 6 and F = 8.

So far, our number is AB2D68.

We know A + D = 8 so A and D are both odd numbers. The only odd number less than 8 that we can use for D to make one-quarter of two-digit number D6 also be a two-digit number is 7, so D = 7 and A is 1. This makes the two-digit number AB 19.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Debbie’s Dragster

Debbie starts driving her dragster from rest and constantly accelerates to 60 mph in 10 seconds. How far does she travel in those 10 seconds?

1/12 mile

Ten seconds is 1/6 of a minute and 1 minute is 1/60 of an hour, so 10 seconds is 1/360 of an hour.

If you graph her trip with the speed on the y-axis and the time on the x-axis, you get a triangle with height of 60 mph and width of 1/360 of an hour. To calculate the area of the triangle, you multiply 1/2 × 1/360 × 60 = 1/12.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Hilda’s Age

When Randolph asked Hilda how old she was, Hilda replied that in two years she would be twice as old as she was five years ago. How old is Hilda?

Aside from the potential response that it’s rude to ask the age of a lady, the answer can be worked out mathematically.

x + 2 = 2(x – 5)
x + 2 = 2x – 10
x + 12 = 2x
12 = x
In two years she’ll be 14, which is twice her age 5 years ago (7).

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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Two Hours Ago

If two hours ago it was as long after one o’clock in the afternoon as it was before one o’clock in the morning, what time is it right now?

9pm (or 21:00). There are 12 hours between 1pm and 1am, so 6 hours after 1am is halfway. 6 hours + 1pm equals 7pm. In order for 7pm to be 2 hours behind the current time, it must be 9pm.

Posted in Brain Teasers