Alternating Empties

Six glasses are all in a row in front of you, the first three are full of grape juice and the last three are empty. Moving only one glass, how can you make all six alternate between full and empty?

Pour the contents of the second glass into the fifth glass.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Word of Weather

Find this eight-letter word.

The first four letters are a variation of the weather.
The third through seventh letters give support but also could used when someone is executed.
And the last three letters forms the name of a person.

What’s the word?

Mistaken.

Mist = Variation of weather.
Stake = a tent stake or when someone is burned at the stake.
Ken = a person’s name.

Posted in Riddles

Alphonso and Sadie

Alphonso and his sister Sadie are entering the airport to meet their mother when Sadie gasps in surprise and says to her brother, “You see that man in the crowd over there?”

Alphonso replies, “It’s Bernie. I don’t believe it. Let’s go introduce ourselves.”

Neither of them had ever met Bernie before. They’d never seen a picture or painting of him, nor was he a famous celebrity.

How was this possible?

Alphonso was born as a twin, but he was separated from his twin brother at birth. Bernie is Alphonso’s identical twin, which is how Sadie was able to recognize him in the crowd.

This is kind of a cheat, because there are probably other possible explanations. But we can’t have everything :)

Posted in Brain Teasers

Next in the Sequence

Here is a series of numbers. What is the next number in the sequence?

1
11
21
1211
111221
312211

13112221

The next number in the series counts the previous numbers. Thus the first number is 1, which is one 1, or 11. To describe 11, you have two 1’s, or 21. Now you have one 2 and one 1, so the next number is 1211. The solution is to continue describing the previous number using only numbers.

Posted in Brain Teasers
Tagged with

The Case of Wesley and the Broken Window

Wesley’s mom discovered a broken window in the living room and went to ask Wesley about it. Wesley told her he had been playing Monopoly with his friend Cindy. She asked him what his last roll had been and he said, “A one”. She immediately knew he was lying.

How?

Monopoly has two dice, and the lowest number two dice can roll is 2. The window repair came out of Wesley’s allowance and he stopped throwing his baseball in the house.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Take It And You Will Lose

Take it and you will lose or gain more than all others.

Risk.

(found in The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare)

Posted in Riddles

Paris to Roye

Hans made a meandering journey from Paris to Roye. On the first day, he went half of the distance. On the second day, he went one third of the remaining distance. On the third day he went three quarters of the remaining distance. The next day he traveled half of the remaining distance and was left with 5 kilometers to get to Roye. How far was the entire journey?

120 kilometers.

Hans’ trip went like this:

Day 1 – 60 km (60 km remaining)
Day 2 – 20 km (40 km remaining)
Day 3 – 30 km (10 km remaining)
Day 4 – 5 km (5 km remaining)
Day 5 – 5 km (arrives in Roye)

Posted in Brain Teasers

Life Is Funny

“Life’s funny”, said an old friend when I bumped into him the other day.
“Listen to this, I was born in March, yet I celebrate my birthday in August, and last February I married my mother”.

How is this possible?

He was born in the month of August in a town named March, became a priest and married his widowed mother to her second husband in February (the month).

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Date With No Numbers

How can you write a date in 5 letters without using any numbers?

The most popular answer for this teaser is ‘today’. Of course this only works if you’re reading it on that particular date or if the date is not specified. Another option is to respond literally with ‘a date’. Lastly, certain dates could be squeezed into letters using Roman numerals if you abbreviate the year to 2 numerals. For example, January 20th, 2011 would be I XX XI.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Three Digits in a Row

On a regular 12-hour digital clock how many times would the same three digits in a row be displayed (e.g. 1:11, 11:12, 12:22) in one day?

34 times. These 17 instances will be visible twice in a 24 hour period.

1:11
2:22
3:33
4:44
5:55
10:00
11:10
11:11
11:12
11:13
11:14
11:15
11:16
11:17
11:18
11:19
12:22

Posted in Brain Teasers