Fifty Quarters

You have fifty quarters on the table in front of you. You are blindfolded and cannot discern whether a coin is heads up or tails up by feeling it. You are told that x coins are heads up, where 0 < x < 50. You are asked to separate the coins into two piles in such a way that the number of heads up coins in both piles is the same at the end. You may flip any coin over as many times as you want.

How can you do it?

Take x coins, flip all of them and put them in one pile. The rest of the coins form the second pile.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Fruity Series

What is the next letter in this fruity series?

a a a p p ?

Y.

The series consists of the letters of papaya in alphabetical order.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Cheap To Make, Easy To Define

I’m cheap to make and easy to define.
A riverbank could populate the line.

What am I?

A boundary.

By Sef Daystrom

Posted in Riddles

A Family of Seven

I’m a family of seven,
Two are bitter and harsh,
Four are twins,
The last is the warmest of all.

What family am I?

The Seven Seas. The first two are bitter and harsh, the north and south ones are the twins, and the Indian Ocean is the warmest of the bunch.

  1. Arctic Ocean
  2. Antarctic Ocean
  3. North Atlantic Ocean
  4. South Atlantic Ocean
  5. North Pacific Ocean
  6. South Pacific Ocean
  7. Indian Ocean
Posted in Riddles
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Nearly A Victory, Quickly I Pass

Nearly a victory,
Quickly I pass,
A request of the chair,
I’m silver, not brass.

What am I?

Second. Second place is next to winning. Seconds, the measure of time, pass quickly. Seconding a motion is requested by the chair of the body in Parliament. And the second place finisher in many sporting events such as the Olympics is awarded the silver medal.

And as for why the unit of time is called a second, it goes back to the days of Ptolemy. A second of time is the second small part, or pars minuta secunda, of an hour. (Thanks to Tim J for researching it).

Posted in Riddles

Buying Chickens

You must buy 100 chickens for exactly $100, and purchase at least one chicken from each store. The first store charges 5 cents/chicken, the second charges $1/chicken and the third charges $5/chicken. How many chickens should you buy from each store?

80 from store 1 = $4
1 from store 2 = $1
19 from store 3 = $95

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Bus Driver

You are the bus driver. At your first stop, you pick up 29 people. On your second stop, 18 of those 29 people get off, and at the same time 10 new passengers arrive. At your next stop, 3 of those 10 passengers get off, and 13 new passengers come on. On your fourth stop 4 of the remaining 10 passengers get off, 6 of those new 13 passengers get off as well, then 17 new passengers get on. What is the color of the bus driver’s eyes?

The eye color of the reader of this problem. The first sentence is the key: “You are the bus driver”.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Nighttime Run

A man is running across a field at night clutching something in his arms as several other men pursue him. He looks back and sees they’re getting closer. In a final burst of effort his pursuers catch up and bring him crashing to the ground. His pursuers stand over him but do not touch him or take what he was carrying. Why not? Who was the running man?

A football player who was tackled.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Crawl on the Earth, Rise on Pillar

I crawl on the earth and rise on a pillar.

What am I?

A shadow.

Posted in Riddles

Captain Mark

Captain Mark is the captain of the ship. The captain of the ship is Captain Mark. The ship has plenty of space.

What is the name of the ship?

The Space Shuttle Endeavour, captained by Mark Kelly.

I received this by email from someone who didn’t know the answer. Thanks to Devon for helping with this answer.

Posted in Riddles