Traveling Colorful Balls

Kevin, Charles, Larry and Alex are in a room that’s about 110 feet long. In front of them are 5 balls which are exactly 100 ft from the exit. The balls are yellow, purple, green, red and blue, respectively. Each man must carry a ball to the exit. After traveling 20 ft a ball will change color twice. The sequence of color changes is always the same: yellow, purple, green, red, and blue.

At 80 ft Kevin’s ball is red.
At 40 ft Larry’s ball is purple.
At 60 ft Charles’ ball is blue
At 100 ft Alex’s ball is purple.

What color ball was left behind?

The remaining ball was blue. Here’s a table of each ball and the color it changes to at 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 ft. Kevin’s started out yellow, Larry’s was green, Charles’ was red and Alex began with a purple ball, leaving blue as the one nobody picked.

 20 ft40 ft60 ft80 ft100 ft
YellowGreenBluePurpleRedYellow
PurpleRedYellowGreenBluePurple
GreenBluePurpleRedYellowGreen
RedYellowGreenBluePurpleRed
BluePurpleRedYellowGreenBlue
Posted in Brain Teasers

Planting Trees on Arbor Day

On Arbor Day the fourth grade class began planting trees. They finished planting five trees before the fifth grade class arrived. But they accidentally planted them on the fifth grade side of the street.

The fourth-graders crossed the street to start over, and the fifth-graders planted the remaining trees. They finished first and felt bad for the fourth-graders, so they crossed the street and planted five trees. They planted another five trees at which point all of the trees had been planted.

By how many trees were the fifth-graders ahead of the fourth-graders?

Ten. The fifth-graders planted five more trees than they were assigned, and the fourth-graders planted five fewer than their assignment.

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A Ship To Ride the Greatest Waves

I am a ship that can be made to ride the greatest waves. I am not built by objects, but built by minds. What am I?

Friendship.

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Sometimes I’m An Insult

Sometimes I’m an insult,
Sometimes I’m a meal,
But if you see me hanging around,
I hope to change how you feel.

A turkey.

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PINE Rebus

 P
INE

Pine cone (pine in the shape of a cone).

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The Beginning of the End

I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space. I am essential to creation, and I surround every place. What am I?

The letter e. End, timE, spacE, Every placE.

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A Silent Z

What word in the English dictionary has a silent z?

The word rendezvous. Even though it’s a French word, it’s in the English dictionary and is pronounced [rahn-duh-voo].

Turns out rendezvous isn’t the only one. Another word is oyez.

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Company, Congregation or Convocation

Some form a parliament,
Others a company, congregation or convocation,
The mob can see a murder, or clamor and wake,
A bouquet is presented when flushed.

What are we?

Birds. These are collective nouns for groups of birds.
parliament – owls
company – parrots
congregation – plovers
convocation – eagles
mob – emus
murder – crows clamor – rooks
wake – buzzards
bouquet – pheasants (when flushed)

Posted in Riddles

What Every Man Has and Gives To Their Wife

What does every man have, some longer or shorter than others and they give it to their wife when they get married?

Note: This may not be appropriate for younger ages.

A last name.

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Three Eyes But One Leg

I have three eyes but only one leg.
I still close one even if you beg.

What am I?

A traffic light. It has three “eyes” (the red, orange and green lights) and the leg is the pole holding it up. Many people beg the light to stay green as they’re approaching.

Posted in Riddles