I Won’t Break If Thrown

I won’t break if thrown from the highest building, but I will break if placed in the ocean. What am I?

Tissue.

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Money Is Right Above My Reach

Money is right above my reach, I’m barely staying out of The Emergency Room (It is right below me), Room #3 is to my left, Room #5 is to my right with a 5% interest rate.

What am I?

The number 4 key on a QWERTY keyboard. $ is money, ER (an abbreviation for Emergency Room) are the two letters immediately below the number 4 key, the #/3 key is to the left and the 5/% key is to the right.

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Apples and Lies

During lunch hour a group of boys from Mr. Bryant’s homeroom visited a nearby grocery store. One of the five took an apple.

Jim said, “It was Hank or Tom”.
Hank said, “Neither Eddie nor I did it.”
Tom said, “Both of you are lying.”
Don said, “No, one of them is lying, the other is speaking the truth.”
Eddie said, “No, Don, that is not true.”
When Mr. Bryant was consulted, he said, “Three of these boys are always truthful but two will lie every time.”

Who took the apple?

Tom took the apple
Jim was telling the truth
Hank was telling the truth
Tom was lying
Don was lying
Eddie was telling the truth
(three telling the truth and two lying)

Posted in Brain Teasers

Counterfeit Accounting

Early one morning Hal, the owner of a hardware store, sells a mailbox for $25 to Courtney that cost him $20 wholesale. Courtney pays with a $100 bill and Hal discovers he doesn’t have enough change. He runs to the jewelry shop next door, where Jack, the owner, gives him change in exchange for the $100. Later that afternoon, Jack discovers the $100 bill is a counterfeit and Hal pays him $100 to make it right.

What was Hal’s total loss?

The total loss was $95.
-$20 = The wholesale cost of the mailbox
$100 = The money from Jack
-$75 = The change paid to Courtney
-$100 = To pay Jack back
-$20 + $100 – $75 – $100 = -$95

It’s easy to think Hal lost $195 but that fails to account for the $100 used to make the change, which came from Jack, not Hal. Jack paid $100 in exchange for a worthless piece of paper, so the $100 was initially Jack’s loss. Hal had made a $5 profit until Jack’s discovery. If you guessed $100, that’s arguably correct, but not making $5 in profit isn’t a loss in the strictest sense of the word.

Posted in Brain Teasers

I Will Stomp You If You Get In My Way

I roam through the land hoping to rescue my love. I search high and low and will stomp on you if you get in my way. What am I?

Mario, from Super Mario Brothers video game by Nintendo. He roams the land searching for the princess and his primary method of getting rid of folks is to stomp on them.

Thanks to Rowan for figuring this out.

Posted in Riddles

Snail Up The Wall

A snail creeps 10 feet up a wall during the daytime, then falls asleep. It wakes up the next morning and discovers it slipped down 6 feet. If this happens each day, how many days will it take to reach the top of a 20 foot wall?

Four days.

Day 1: up to 10, down to 4
Day 2: up to 14, down to 8
Day 3: up to 18, down to 12
Day 4: up to 22 (20 really) and done

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Third of the Way But Only Halfway There

You’ve traveled a third of the way, yet you’re only halfway there.

Where are you going?

Hint: The answer applies in the US but not in Europe.

You’re in a build headed to the fourth floor. When you reach the second floor, you’ve gone one floor and have two more floors left, so you’re 1/3 of the way. But at the same time, you’re on the 2nd floor and have two more floors to get to the 4th floor, thus you’re halfway there.

This doesn’t work in Europe, because they typically refer to the “first floor” as the ground floor, and the first floor is one story up.

Thanks to Danny Llinas for submitting this.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Break, Light, May

What word can be added before or after these words to make a new word or phrase?

Break, Light, May

Day. Daybreak, daylight, may day.

Posted in Riddles

The Thinner It Grows

You use me from your head to your toes.
The more you use the thinner it grows.
For years I was not often used,
Not using me now is not excused.

Soap.

Posted in Riddles

Bank Wait Times

Suppose a small bank has one teller and customer transactions take 10 minutes on average. With 5.8 customers arriving per hour, what is the expected wait time? What would it be if you added a second teller?

With one teller, customers will wait nearly five hours on average. But adding a second teller makes the wait go down to 3 minutes.

Thanks to John D. Cook for this one.

Posted in Brain Teasers