Asleep, Parts, Ideals Trianagrams

Rearrange the letters of the first word to form a new one, then rearrange the letters of the new word to form a third.

ASLEEP _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
PARTS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
IDEALS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

1. ASLEEP, PLEASE, ELAPSE
2. PARTS, TRAPS, STRAP (TARPS or SPRAT also work)
3. IDEALS, SAILED, LADIES

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Long Bicycle Ride

Hester goes out for an afternoon bicycle ride. She rides for one hour at five miles an hour, then three hours at four miles an hour and finally two hours at seven miles an hour. How many miles did she ride in total?

31 miles.

1 hour at 5 mph = 5 miles
3 hours at 4 mph = 12 miles
2 hours at 7 mph = 14 miles

5 + 12 + 14 = 31 miles

Posted in Brain Teasers

Next in the Sequence

Here is a series of numbers. What is the next number in the sequence?

1
11
21
1211
111221
312211

13112221

The next number in the series counts the previous numbers. Thus the first number is 1, which is one 1, or 11. To describe 11, you have two 1’s, or 21. Now you have one 2 and one 1, so the next number is 1211. The solution is to continue describing the previous number using only numbers.

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Tagged with

One In China

I am one in China,
Two in Indonesia,
Three in the Philippines,
None in Japan.

What am I?

The letter ‘i’.

Posted in Riddles
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Give Me Drink and I Die

Feed me and I live, give me drink and I die. What am I?

Fire.

Posted in Riddles

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

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

Made of Ten But Two We Make

Made of ten but two we make,
When assembled others quake,
Five apart and we are weak,
Five together havoc wreak.

What are we?

A fist.

Posted in Riddles

Betcha Find a Chocolate

Laura saw that there were three pieces of candy left in a bowl on the kitchen table. She knew they were either chocolates or caramels but didn’t know how many there were of each. What is the probability that there is a piece of chocolate candy in the bowl?

7/8.

The possible combinations are:
1. Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate
2. Caramel Caramel Caramel
3. Chocolate Chocolate Caramel
4. Caramel Caramel Chocolate
5. Chocolate Caramel Caramel
6. Caramel Chocolate Chocolate
7. Chocolate Caramel Chocolate
8. Caramel Chocolate Caramel

Number 2 is the only one that doesn’t have chocolate, thus Laura’s love of chocolate will more than likely be satiated.

Posted in Brain Teasers

An Apparition

Two people were in a house. No one came in or went out, but then there were three people. What happened?

The two people were a husband and an expectant wife, who gave birth to her baby.

Posted in Brain Teasers