You Heard Me Before

You heard me before,
Yet you hear me again,
Then I die,
‘Till you call me again.

An echo.

Posted in Riddles

12-Letter Word With All the Vowels

What 12-letter word has each of the vowels in alphabetical order without any repeated vowels?

Abstemiously. It’s 12 letters long and the letter y is considered a vowel in certain cases, and is included. Facetiously is another word that has all the vowels in order, but it’s only 11 letters long.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Part Of The Bird

The part of the bird
that is not in the sky,
which can swim in the ocean
and always stay dry.

What is it?

The bird’s shadow.

Posted in Riddles

What Goes In the Water Red?

What goes in the water red
And comes out black?

Iron

Posted in Riddles

A Medication of Three Parts

I’m a medication with three parts. The first part is the surname of someone who has been a Mary and a Maria. The second part is a vital organ and the last is plentiful in the ocean.

What am I?

Andrews Liver Salts, an antacid. Julie Andrews played the role of Mary Poppins in the movie of the same name, and Maria in the Sound of Music. It’s tough to live without a liver and a taste of the ocean always includes a touch of salt.

Posted in Riddles

Six Nine Twenty-Seven

What is N?

6, 9, 27, 54, N, 2241

675.

The next number in the sequence is n squared minus m or f(n,m) = n2 – m
f(6,9) = 62 – 9 = 27
f(9,27) = 92 – 27 = 54
f(27,54) = 272 – 54 = 675
f(54,675) = 542 – 675 = 2241

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Counterfeit Accounting

Early one morning Hal, the owner of a hardware store, sells a mailbox for $25 to Courtney that cost him $20 wholesale. Courtney pays with a $100 bill and Hal discovers he doesn’t have enough change. He runs to the jewelry shop next door, where Jack, the owner, gives him change in exchange for the $100. Later that afternoon, Jack discovers the $100 bill is a counterfeit and Hal pays him $100 to make it right.

What was Hal’s total loss?

The total loss was $95.
-$20 = The wholesale cost of the mailbox
$100 = The money from Jack
-$75 = The change paid to Courtney
-$100 = To pay Jack back
-$20 + $100 – $75 – $100 = -$95

It’s easy to think Hal lost $195 but that fails to account for the $100 used to make the change, which came from Jack, not Hal. Jack paid $100 in exchange for a worthless piece of paper, so the $100 was initially Jack’s loss. Hal had made a $5 profit until Jack’s discovery. If you guessed $100, that’s arguably correct, but not making $5 in profit isn’t a loss in the strictest sense of the word.

Posted in Brain Teasers

An Oddly Priced Fish Shop

A fish shop with odd pricing sells fish for the following prices: A trout costs $20, a salmon is $19, and a plaice comes in at $16. Using their pricing logic, how much would they charge for a mackerel?

$13. The price is calculated by using the position in the alphabet of the first letter of the name of the fish. An Albacore would be $1, a Bandfish would be $2. Note, I do not recommend using this pricing strategy unless you find yourself with an assortment of cheap Zebrafish.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Turn Nine Into Six

Here is the Roman numeral for nine: IX

By adding only one line or symbol, how can you turn it into six?

SIX.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Poor Sheep

A farmer had 17 sheep. All but 9 died. How many live sheep does he have left?

9. If all but 9 died, there are 9 remaining live sheep.

Posted in Brain Teasers