Wolves and Owls

You are in the woods with owls and wolves. There are 22 eyes and 32 legs. How many owls and wolves are there?

5 owls and 5 wolves, (not 6 owls because 2 of the eyes and legs are yours).

2 * owls + 2 * wolves = 20 eyes
2 * owls + 4 * wolves = 30 legs
owls + wolves = 10 eyes → owls = 10 – wolves
owls + 2 * wolves = 15 → 10 – wolves + 2 * wolves = 15 → wolves = 5
owls + 5 = 10 → owls = 5

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Square and a Cube

What two-digit number is the square of one number and the cube of another?

64

82 = 64
43 = 64

Posted in Brain Teasers

Al and Fred’s Car Wash

Al washes a car in 6 minutes. Fred washes the same car in 8 minutes. How long will it take them to wash the car together?

There isn’t enough information, thus there’s no one, right answer. (As frustrating as that may be)

This is from the TV show Boy Meets World, season 1 episode 12.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Flora Not Fauna

I am flora, not fauna,
I am foliage, not trees,
I am shrubbery, not grass,

What am I?

A bush.

Posted in Riddles

Four of Us In Your Field

Four of us are in your field
But our differences keep us at yield

First, a one that is no fool
Though he resembles a gardener’s tool

Next, one difficult to split in two
And a girl once had one as big as her shoe

Then, to the mind, one’s a lovely bonder
And truancy makes it grow fonder

Last, a stem connecting dots of three
Knowing all this, what are we?

The four suits in a deck of standard playing cards

The Spade is a gardener’s tool.

The Diamond is the hardest gem to break. “Little Girl and Queen” is a Mother Goose rhyme, in which the Queen gave the girl a large diamond for picking the Queen some roses.

The Heart bonds with the mind to form love. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

The Club, or Clover, is three dots connected around a stem.

Posted in Riddles

Not a Burden For Its Weight

Not a burden for its weight and daily carried out,
He who takes it wishes it had never come about.

Punishment.

By Sef Daystrom

Posted in Riddles

Snakes and Mice

On a remote (imaginary) island, there are 11 snakes and a single mouse. As you’d expect, snakes eat the mice. But contrary to what you’d expect, when a snake eats a mouse, it turns into one.

The snakes live by only two rules:

1. Don’t get eaten.
2. Eat mice as long as rule #1 isn’t violated.

How many snakes and mice will there be left on the island?

10 snakes, 1 mouse.

If there were only a single snake and mouse, the snake could eat the mouse, then turn into one, leaving a single mouse.

If there were two snakes and a single mouse, rule 2 would keep either of the snakes from eating the mouse to avoid being eaten themselves.

With three snakes and one mouse, one of the snakes could eat a mouse and be safe as a mouse thanks to rule 2.

This pattern continues. With an even number of snakes, nothing happens. With an odd number of snakes, one snake can eat the mouse.

Thus, with 11 snakes, one snake would eat the mouse, turn into one and leave 10 snakes and 1 mouse.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Cowboy Corral

Two cowboys live next door to each other and both have a corral for their cows in the back. One day they meet at the back of their homes, standing next to a wall dividing their corrals. The first cowboy gets to thinking and asks his neighbor for a cow so he can double his herd. The other cowboys replies, “That’s fine by me partner, cuz then we’ll have the same number of cows?” How many cows does each cowboy own?

We’ll use A to represent the first cowboy and B for the second cowboy.

A + 1 = 2A, so A = 1.
A + 1 = B – 1, so B = 3.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Lighter Than What I’m Made Of

Lighter than what
I am made of,
More of me is hidden
Than is seen.

An Iceberg.

Posted in Riddles

Turning the Years Upside Down

What years from the 1900s and 1800s are the same year when read upside down?

1961 and 1881.

Posted in Brain Teasers