Arms and Legs But No Head

What has arms and legs but no head?

A chair.

Posted in Riddles

Four Gallons From Two Buckets

You have two buckets. One holds exactly five gallons and the other three gallons. How can you measure exactly four gallons of water into the five gallon bucket?

Assume you have an unlimited supply of water and that there are no measurement markings of any kind on the buckets.

  1. Fill the 3-gallon bucket.
  2. Pour the 3 gallons of water into the 5-gallon bucket
  3. Fill the 3-gallon bucket again.
  4. Fill up the 5-gallon bucket with the 3-gallon bucket, leaving you with 1 gallon left in the 3-gallon bucket.
  5. Empty out the 5-gallon bucket.
  6. Pour the remaining 1 gallon of water from the 3-gallon bucket into the 5-gallon bucket.
  7. Fill the 3-gallon bucket.
  8. Pour the 3 gallons of water from the 3-gallon bucket into the 5-gallon bucket leaving you with 4 gallons of water in the 5-gallon bucket.

Alternate solution:

  1. Fill up the 5 gallon bucket
  2. Pour it into 3 gallon bucket, leaving 2 gallons
  3. Empty out the 3 gallon bucket
  4. Pour the 2 gallons in the 5 gallon bucket into the 3 gallon bucket
  5. Fill up the 5 gallon bucket and pour it into the 3 gallon bucket until it’s full, leaving 4 gallons in the 5 gallon bucket.
Posted in Brain Teasers

Asleep, Parts, Ideals Trianagrams

Rearrange the letters of the first word to form a new one, then rearrange the letters of the new word to form a third.

ASLEEP _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
PARTS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
IDEALS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

1. ASLEEP, PLEASE, ELAPSE
2. PARTS, TRAPS, STRAP (TARPS or SPRAT also work)
3. IDEALS, SAILED, LADIES

Posted in Brain Teasers

Same Forward, Backward and Upside Down

What word is the same written forward, backward and upside down?

NOON. The word needs to be a palindrome and made up of only these letters that look the same upside down:

H I N O S X Z

For instance, SOON doesn’t work, because even though each letter looks the same upside down, it reads NOOS.

Posted in Riddles

Little Miss Eticote

Little Miss Eticote
In her white petticoat
And her red nose
The longer she stands
The shorter she grows

A candle.

Posted in Riddles

Lighter Than a Feather

I’m lighter than a feather but even the world’s strongest man can’t hold me for more than a few minutes. What am I?

Breath. Air is light, but even Stig Severinsen, the world record holder can only hold his breath for 22 minutes. The world’s strongest man can’t beat that, but you can have the pleasure of telling him to his face.

Posted in Riddles

I Can Always Go Up, Never Down

I can always go up, never down,
I can always turn left, never right,
I am always hot when I’m cold

A ski lift.

Posted in Riddles

Two Fuses

You have a lighter and two fuses that take exactly one hour to burn, but they don’t burn at a steady rate. For example, one fuse could take 59 minutes to burn the first inch and then burn the rest of the fuse in the last minute.

How would you use these two fuses to measure 45 minutes?

Light the first fuse on both ends and the second fuse at only one end. When the first fuse burns out you know 30 minutes have passed. Light the other end of the second fuse and when it burns out, 45 minutes have passed.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Big Family Photo

A family photo has the following:
1 grandfather, 1 grandmother
2 fathers, 2 mothers
6 children, 4 grandchildren
2 brothers, 2 sisters
3 sons, 3 daughters
1 father-in-law, 1 mother-in-law
1 daughter-in-law

It could show 29 different people, but what is the smallest number of people if could have?

Eight. 4 children, their mother and father and one set of grandparents.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Has Teeth But Can’t Bite

What has teeth but can’t bite?

A comb. Other inanimate objects with teeth like a saw, zipper or a gear can “bite” you. Many people can affirm from painful experience in regards to zippers and saws, and the unfortunate factory worker who is missing a finger can attest to gears. It’s a rare event that anyone would be injured by a comb.

Another grim option is a dead animal or person.

Posted in Riddles
Tagged with