Look at My Face

If you look at my face you won’t see 13 in any place. What am I?

A clock face. It only has the numbers 1 through 12.

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A Bridge to Switzerland

During WWII, there was a bridge connecting Germany and Switzerland, and on the German side, there was a sentry tower with a guard in it. He would come out every three minutes to check on the bridge, and he had orders to turn back anyone who tried to get into Germany, and shoot anyone trying to escape without a pass. There was a woman who desperately needed to get into Switzerland, and she knew she didn’t have time to get a pass. It would take her at least six minutes to cross the bridge, but she managed to do it. How?

She walked on the bridge towards Switzerland for 3 minutes and just as the guard was about to come out, she turned around walking back to Germany. The guard saw her and asked for her pass but she didn’t have one and was sent back (or what the guard thought was back) to Switzerland. In her case it was the very country she wanted to go to.

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Presidents and Parents

How could the 22nd and the 24th U.S. Presidents have the same parents, but not be brothers?

The 22nd and 24th U.S. presidents were both the same person – Grover Cleveland.

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Making Lots of Shirts

In a textile factory, 5 machines take exactly 5 minutes to make 5 shirts. How many minutes will it take 100 machines to produce 100 shirts?

5 minutes. It takes each machine 5 minutes to make a shirt, so if you have all 100 machines running at the same time, they’ll produce the 100 shirts in 5 minutes.

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Sever Bones and Marrow

My first is in wield, sever bones and marrow.
My second is in blade, forged in cold steel.
My third is in arbalest, and also in arrows.
My fourth is in power, plunged through a shield.
My fifth is in honor, and also in vows
My last will put an end to it all.

What am I?

Weapon

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A Hidden Message

44 33 555 555 666 9 666 777 555 3

What is the message in this code?

Pressing these digits in sequence will produce HELLO WORLD on a cell phone (for an SMS text message).

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The Answer Isn’t 6

What goes in place of the question mark?

1 3 5
2 4 ?

(It’s not 6)

R. It’s a representation of a stick shift, where 1-5 are gears and R represents reverse.

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I Move Quickly

Physicists have built devices to make me move quickly. My last eight letters can be commonly found in newspapers, magazines, and journals.

What am I?

Particles. Physicists use particle accelerators and newspapers, magazines and journals have articles.

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Word Party

You watch a group of words going to a party. A word either enters through one of two doors or is turned away by the guards. ‘HIM’ goes through door number one and ‘BUG’ goes through door number two. ‘HER’ is turned away. ‘MINT’ and ‘WEAVE’ go in through door one, ‘DOOR’ and ‘CORD’ take door two and ‘THIS’ and ‘That’ aren’t allowed in.

What determines whether a word can enter and which door they must use?

Door number one is for words composed entirely of capital letters written using only straight lines, such as A, E, F, H, and I. The entire set of letters allowed through door number one are AEFHIKLMNTVWXYZ. Door number two, as might be expected, is for words with capital letters that have a curve, including BCDGJOPQRSU. Any words composed of both straight and curved letters (or lowercase letters) are not allowed in. The word ‘THAT’ would have been sent through door number one, if the letters had been capitalized.

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The Barber of Seville

The Barber of Seville shaves all men living in Seville.
No man living in Seville is allowed to shave himself.
The Barber of Seville lives in Seville.

Who shaves the Barber of Seville?

Nobody. The Barber of Seville is a woman. Female barbers are rare, but they exist.

And for more fun with barbers, check out the Barber paradox.

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