Odd Start, Even Finish

What three letter English word has an odd start, an even finish and an infinitely long middle?

The word vex. “v” is Roman numeral 5, which is odd. “x” is Roman numeral 10, which is even. “e” is the base of the natural logarithm and is irrational (e = 2.718281828…). Its mantissa (the part to the right of the decimal point) is infinitely long.

Posted in Riddles

Mysterious Math

This problem can be solved by preschool children in five to ten minutes, by programmers in an hour and by people with higher education…well, check it yourself.

8809 = 6
7111 = 0
2172 = 0
6666 = 4
1111 = 0
3213 = 0
7662 = 2
9313 = 1
0000 = 4
2222 = 0
3333 = 0
5555 = 0
8193 = 3
8096 = 5
1012 = 1
7777 = 0
9999 = 4
7756 = 1
6855 = 3
9881 = 5
5531 = 0
2581 = ?

What is the missing number and why?

Two. The number is how many closed circles there are in the 4 digits. 0, 6 and 9 each have one, 8 has 2.

Posted in Brain Teasers

I Am What Remains

I am what remains of what
was once a living whole,
dug in deep, protruding, though,
and unobtainable.

A stump.

By Sef Daystrom

Posted in Riddles
Tagged with

Lying On Certain Days of the Week

Angel lies on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays but tells the truth the rest of the week.

Brenda lies on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, but tells the truth every other day.

Angel says, “Yesterday I was lying.”

Brenda replies, “So was I.”

What day was it?

Thursday.

Putting the information in a table makes it easier to solve. We’ll use A for Angie, B for Brenda, T for truth and F (false) for lying.

 SMTWThFS
ATFFFTTT
BTTTTFFF

To begin with, there aren’t any days where both of them told the truth and lied the day before, so we know one of them must be lying.

So we have two options, either Angel is lying or Brenda is.

Option 1. Angel is lying.

In order for this to be the case, she needs to be lying today and telling the truth yesterday, so we need two days in a row with T F. And if Brenda is telling the truth, she would need two days with F T. That means we’re looking for two days that have

Angie:  T F
Brenda: F T

Option 2. Brenda is lying.

This is just the reverse of the above, so we need to find:

Angie:  F T
Brenda: T F

The only day that matches either of the two options is Thursday, and it’s option 2. Brenda is the liar.

Posted in Brain Teasers

amid eerie nighed won spawn

What phrase do these words sound like when rearranged?

amid eerie nighed won spawn

“Won spawn amid nighed eerie” sounds like, “Once upon a midnight dreary”, from The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe.

Posted in Brain Teasers

An Ancient Invention

What ancient invention allows people to see through walls?

A window.

Posted in Riddles

Aunts and Large Families

Dina comes from a large family and has over 20 cousins. How is it possible that all of her cousins have an aunt who is not her aunt?

The aunt of all of her cousins is Dina’s own mother.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Look at My Face

If you look at my face you won’t see 13 in any place. What am I?

A clock face. It only has the numbers 1 through 12.

Posted in Riddles
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Five Items In a Tennis Court

We’re five little items of an everyday sort. You’ll find us all in a tennis court. What are we?

The vowels. The phrase “a tennis court” contains all five vowels sorted in alphabetic order: a, e, i, o, u.

Posted in Riddles

Living to Six

How can you cross out four letters from the word LIVING to leave six remaining?

Cross out LING, leaving you with VI, or 6 in Roman numerals.

Posted in Brain Teasers