A Circular Island

A circular island with a diameter of 30 feet has a 30 foot tree stands at the center. A man cuts the tree down with his chainsaw, making the cut a foot up from the ground. The tree comes crashing down and hits the water but doesn’t splash. Why not?

It’s winter and the water is frozen.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Placed On the Table But Never Eaten

What is placed on the table, cut and passed but never eaten?

A deck of cards. You play card games on a table, cut the deck, then deal (or pass out) the cards, but you only eat the snacks.

Posted in Riddles

Downward Grows the Root

Downward grows the root.
Outward grows the skin.
Upward grows the shoot.
What way blows the wind?

Wayward.

By Sef Daystrom

Posted in Riddles

Asks But Never Answers

What asks but never answers?

An owl.

Posted in Riddles
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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

Half of Eight

What is half of 8?

Hint: It’s not 4

3 (if you slice vertically) or 0 (if you slice horizontally)

Posted in Brain Teasers

It Scares Animals

A seven letter word that has T as the second letter, A as the fourth letter and S as the sixth letter. Girls love it, boys use it, parents hate it and it scares animals. Hint: It’s a German word.

A persistent puzzle solver will discover that no English word satisfies the letter requirements, to say nothing of the loving, using, hating or being scared requirements. I found three German words that work:

1) strafst
2) strapse
3) strauss

1 and 3 mean punish and bouquet respectively. I couldn’t find a definition for strapse. Punish is the likely answer. Girls love to punish boys, boys use punishment as well, a good parent hates to use punishment and animals are scared of it. I don’t know of any animals that are scared of a bouquet, though a bouquet fits as something girls love and boys use.

Posted in Riddles

At Night They Come

At night they come without being fetched. By day they are lost without being stolen. What are they?

The stars.

Posted in Riddles

So Simple I Only Point

I’m so simple I only point,
Yet I guide people all over the world.

What am I?

A compass.

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Rebellious Randall

You’re waiting to board your flight at the airport with 99 other passengers, each with an assigned seat. All but one of the passengers will gladly sit in their designated seat. The only exception is Randall, a scoundrel who refuses to follow the rules. When he boards, he will choose a random, unoccupied seat.

If a rule-following passenger finds someone in their spot, they will choose another one at a random from the remaining unoccupied seats.

What is the probability that the last person to board the plane will sit in their proper seat?

The randomness stops as soon as someone else sits in Randall’s assigned seat. The chances of this happening range from 1 out of 99 to 1 out of 1 (when only one seat remains).

Thus, the probability of the last person sitting in their own seat can be calculated as 1/99 plus the sum of 2 to 98 of the formula 1 / n × (n + 1), which works out to 0.5, or 50%.

So there’s a 50% chance the last passenger will sit in their own seat thanks to Randall for screwing up order and procedure when boarding an aircraft.

Posted in Brain Teasers