Sum of Consecutives

What is the sum of the numbers in the following list which are consecutive?

15  5 10 28
24  7 18 26
11 21 17 13
22  9  1 20

The consecutive numbers are: 9, 10, 11; 17, 18; and 20, 21, 22.

The sum of those numbers is 128.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Room With No Windows

You are in a room with no windows, doors or any exit. The only items are a mirror and a table. How do you escape?

Hint: This is not a typical brain teaser.

Look in the mirror, then at the wall and back at the mirror to see what you saw. Use the saw to cut the table in half and join the two halves to make a whole. Put the “hole” on the wall and climb out.

I know, it’s lame. I like to have brain teasers that you can realistically guess, but this one’s so popular, I feel an obligation to include it.

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Which Do You Light First?

You have a single match and are in a pitch black room with a candle, an oil lamp and a gas stove. Which do you light first?

The match.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Singular When Adding an S

There are many English words that you can add an “s” to make it plural. But far fewer words become singular when you add an “s”. What are two examples of these much rarer words?

Cares -> Caress
Princes -> Princess

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One Hundred Point Words

The answer to each clue is a single, 100-point word, or a word whose letters add up to 100, with a = 1, b = 2. I wrote this word value calculator so you can easily check your guesses.

i. Peanut butter tastes like this.
ii. The hat a Dad wears.
iii. To fire a chef,
iv. A smart timepiece.
v. Figured it out again.
vi. Where a kid can sleep.
vii. The magical fruit leaves you doing this.
viii. Betrayed for this much silver.
ix. A baked good that is height challenged.
x. A sticky way to neaten your hair.

i. nutty
ii. fatherhood
iii. cookout
iv. clockwise
v. resolved
vi. boycott
vii. tooting
viii. thirty
ix. shortcake
x. honeycomb

Posted in Riddles

Hardware Store Costs

Ralph goes to the hardware store to buy something for his house. He asks the clerk how much one will cost and the clerk looks it up and tells him it will be $3. He asks about buying twelve and is told it will be $6. Two hundred will cost $9.

What is Ralph buying?

Door numbers at $3 each.

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You Twirl My Body

You twirl my body but I keep my head up high.
When I go in I keep things tight.

What am I?

A screw.

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Words Ending in GRY

Think of words ending in -GRY. Angry and hungry are two of them. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses every day. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is.

The riddle states, “There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word?” The third word of the phrase “the English language” is of course “language.” Don’t get angry at me, I didn’t make it up :)

xkcd’s take on this riddle

Posted in Riddles

Two Two Four Sequence

What number comes next?

2, 2, 4, 12, 48, ___

240. To get the number, multiply the previous number in the series by its position. 48 is in the 5th position, so 48 × 5 = 240

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Longest Word in English

What is the longest word in the English dictionary?

Smiles because there is a mile between the two s’s.

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