Commonly Forgotten And Sometimes Rotten

I am always with you
But commonly forgotten.
You use me constantly,
And can sometimes be rotten.

What am I?

Air.

Posted in Riddles

Into the House Through the Keyhole

What always comes into the house through the keyhole?

The key.

Posted in Riddles

Jack, George and Anne

Jack is looking at Anne, but Anne is looking at George. Jack is married, but George is not. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person?

A) Yes
B) No
C) Cannot be determined

A. If Anne is married, she’s looking at George, who is unmarried. If Anne is unmarried, Jack is looking at her.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Do Not Begrudge This

Do not begrude this,
For it is the fate of every man.
Yet it is feared,
And shunned in many lands.
Causes problems, and sometimes gaps,
Can hobble the strongest, and make memory laps.
What is this danger we all face?
For being a part – of the human race.

Growing old.

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

A Precious Thing to Most

A precious thing to most,
In order to take it,
You must already have it.

What is it?

Life.

By Sef Daystrom

Posted in Riddles

A Harvest Sown and Reaped

A harvest sown and reaped on the same day
In an unplowed field,
Which increases without growing,
Remains whole though it is eaten
Within and without,
Is useless and yet
The staple of nations.

A war.

Posted in Riddles

What is the Chance That You’ll Be Correct?

If you choose an answer to this question at random, what is the chance that you will be correct?

a) 25%
b) 50%
c) 60%
d) 25%

This is becomes a self-referential paradox. Both A and D would be correct if there were four unique answers, but since A and D are the same answer, the chance that you would choose a correct answer is 50%, which makes B correct. But if there’s only one correct answer, the odds of choosing the correct one at random goes back to 25%. And around and round you go.

There’s a lot of discussion at Richard Wiseman’s blog and more at Lifehacker, where I first saw this.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Same Three Digits with Sum of 800

When Florence and Willie finished playing darts, they proudly announced that their 3-digit scores added up to exactly 800 points. Furthermore, each of their scores shared the same 3 digits, without any repeating digits.

What were their two scores?

364 and 436.

You could figure this out mathematically, but instead, I plugged in digits that added up to 10 for the first column, 9 for the second column (since you carry the 1) and 7 for the third column (again, because you’re carrying the 1).

Posted in Brain Teasers

Amber Knits and Fauna Worry

Find a single letter that replaces the first letter in the two words of each row to make two new words. What word is formed by combining the new letter of each row?

For example: PLANK _ BRISK

The new letter is F, making FLANK and FRISK. And F would be the first letter of the answer.

AMBER _ KNITS
FAUNA _ WORRY
WARNS _ AERIE
FEMUR _ GAILY

1. U – UMBER and UNITS
2. S – SAUNA and SORRY
3. E – EARNS and EERIE
4. D – DEMUR and DAILY

The new word is USED.

Posted in Brain Teasers