Riddles and Brain Teasers

A Slight Inclination of the Cranium

A slight inclination of the cranium is as adequate as a spasmodic movement of one optic to an equine quadruped utterly devoid of any visionary capacity.

Translate this rather strange sentence into one that is more sensible.

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A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Too Much For One

I am too much for one, enough for two, but nothing to three. What am I?

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A secret.

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The problem works out to a set of three equations:
b + c + d = 22
a + c + e = 22
a + b + c + d + e = 30Solving for c = 14, leaving d = 8 – b and e = 8 – a. In other words, c must be 14, but the other two numbers just have to add up to 8. The requirement that they be unique rules out 4 + 4, so you’re left to choose from the following combations for b + d and a + e:
0 + 8
1 + 7
2 + 6
3 + 5

The problem works out to a set of three equations:
b + c + d = 22
a + c + e = 22
a + b + c + d + e = 30

Solving for c = 14, leaving d = 8 – b and e = 8 – a. In other words, c must be 14, but the other two numbers just have to add up to 8. The requirement that they be unique rules out 4 + 4, so you’re left to choose from the following combations for b + d and a + e:
0 + 8
1 + 7
2 + 6
3 + 5

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Head, One Arm and Round Bottom

What has a head, one arm, one leg and a round bottom?

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A handicapped parking sign.

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False Positive HIV Test

Imagine an HIV test that is 95% accurate (false positive rate of 5%) and around 2% of the tested population is infected with HIV. What is the probability that you actually have HIV when your test comes back positive?

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29%

To read more about this, see the False Positive Paradox page on Wikipedia.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Books By Charles Dickens

Pair these words to make nine titles of books by Charles Dickens:

A LITTLE    1 RUDGE
B PICKWICK  2 COPPERFIELD
C EDWIN     3 TIMES
D BARNABY   4 CHUZZLEWIT
E NICHOLAS  5 PAPERS
F HARD      6 HOUSE
G BLEAK     7 DROOD
H DAVID     8 DORRIT
I MARTIN    9 NICKLEBY

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A 8 = LITTLE DORRIT
B 5 = PICKWICK PAPERS
C 7 = EDWIN DROOD
D 1 = BARNABY RUDGE
E 9 = NICHOLAS NICKLEBY
F 3 = HARD TIMES
G 6 = BLEAK HOUSE
H 2 = DAVID COPPERFIELD
I 4 = MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT

Posted in Brain Teasers

Hangs Others

What hangs others yet can unintentionally hang itself?

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A jury.

Posted in Riddles

Long or Short, Grown or Bought

I can be long or short. I can be grown or bought. I can be painted or left bare. My tip can be round or square. What am I?

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Fingernails.

Posted in Riddles

Tagged with What am I?

I Drift Forever With The Current

I drift forever with the current
down these long canals they’ve made
Tame, yet wild, I run elusive
Multitasking to your aid.
Before I came, the world was darker
Colder, sometimes, rougher, true
But though I might make living easy,
I’m good at killing people too.

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Electricity (or lightning).

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The Pet That Stays on the Floor

What kind of pet always stays on the floor?

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A carpet.

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