Three Two Three Sequence

What number belongs at the beginning of this sequence?

?, 3, 2, 3, 9, 2, 4, 8, 4, 3, 7, 6

3 ½.

If you break up the numbers into groups of 4, a,b,c,d, then 2 × |a – d| = |b – c|.

9 2 4 8 → 2 × |9 – 8| = |2 – 4|, or 2 × 1 = 2
4 3 7 6 → 2 × |4 – 6| = |3 – 7|, or 2 × 2 = 4, so
n 3 2 3 → 2 × |3 ½ – 3| = |3 – 2|, or 2 × ½ = 1;

I’m not sure this is the correct solution, but it’s the best I’ve found so far. Email me if you know of a better one.

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All Words From Nine Letters to One

What 9-letter word can have a letter removed to make a new word and repeat the process until a single letter remains?

startling
starting
staring
string
sting
sing
sin
in
i

Posted in Brain Teasers

Decorating With Tiles

You are decorating for spring and you’ve found a bargain. A huge box of beautifully decorated tiles, enough to provide a border in two rooms. You really can’t figure out how to arrange them. If you set a border of two tiles all around, there’s one left over. If you set three tiles all around or four or five or six there’s still one tile left over. Finally you try a block of seven tiles for each corner and you come out even. What is the smallest number of tiles you could have to get this result?

301. This is the smallest number that even divides by 7, but when divided by 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 gives you one left over.

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Turns Everything Around

What turns everything around but doesn’t move?

A mirror.

Posted in Riddles

Five Letters But One Left When Two Removed

What word of five letters has only one left when two letters are removed?

Any 5-letter word with the word ‘one’ somewhere in it. Examples include shone, stone, alone, money, loner, phone or ornery. Note it doesn’t say there is only one letter left, but only ‘one’ left. Tricky tricky.

Posted in Riddles

Speaks Without Words

What is it that speaks without any words?
And can be loudly and distinctly heard?
Will drive away friend, and foe alike.
And is enough to make a stolid man’s face alight?

Flatulence.

Posted in Riddles

I Come in the Form of a Question

I come in the form of a question. If you don’t know the answers, you will think a lot, but when you know or you are being told the answer it sounds simple that you will think everybody can easily know.

A riddle or brain teaser.

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English Word with Three Consecutive Double Letters

What English word has three consecutive double letters?

Bookkeeper (or bookkeeping). An alternate, tricky, answer could be Woollen (where W is a “double u”).

Posted in Riddles

Debbie’s Dragster

Debbie starts driving her dragster from rest and constantly accelerates to 60 mph in 10 seconds. How far does she travel in those 10 seconds?

1/12 mile

Ten seconds is 1/6 of a minute and 1 minute is 1/60 of an hour, so 10 seconds is 1/360 of an hour.

If you graph her trip with the speed on the y-axis and the time on the x-axis, you get a triangle with height of 60 mph and width of 1/360 of an hour. To calculate the area of the triangle, you multiply 1/2 × 1/360 × 60 = 1/12.

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A Four Word Admonition

What four word admonition makes the happy person sad and the sad person happy?

The phrase, “This too shall pass.” According to Wikipedia, the well-known phrase is often attached to a fable of a great king who is humbled by these words, and to someone who is experiencing something wonderful, it can be saddening. But to one who is in the pits of despair, it is a phrase that brings relief and hope.

In other words, if a happy person is told, “This too shall pass” it will make them sad. But to a person on hard times, hearing, “This too shall pass” will cheer them up.

Posted in Riddles