I Can Kill People

I can kill people, or cause great pain.
You eat me.
I can mean you’re crazy.
I hold things together.
I help climbers stay safe.
I can replace a swear.
And I’m on a violin.

What am I?

Nuts.

People with nut allergies can die from eating nuts. Being hit in the nuts hurts (I speak from experience. Painful, painful experience). You eat nuts (unless you’re allergic, in which case you should run away). If someone says you’re nuts, it doesn’t mean you’re a peanut or an almond. Nuts and bolts hold things together. A climber’s nut or chock wedges into a rock. Instead of swearing, you can say, “Aww nuts!”. And finally, the nut on a violin is a small piece of hard material that supports the strings.

Posted in Riddles
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Two Bodies Joined in One

Two bodies have I, though both joined in one,
The more I stand still the faster I run.

What am I?

An hourglass.

Posted in Riddles

One Am I, Among Six Others

One am I, among six others:
Largest, smallest,
Cold, dark
and two brothers.

Who am I

Europe. Europe is the one among six other continents.

2. North America
3. South America
4. Asia
5. Australia
6. Africa
7. Antarctica

Asia is the largest, Australia is the smallest. Antarctica is cold, Africa is dark-skinned and the Americas are brothers.

This was is said to be written by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, known for writing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Posted in Riddles

How Many Legs?

You walk into a room and see a bed. On the bed there are two dogs, four cats, a giraffe, five cows and a duck. There are also three chickens flying above the bed. How many legs are on the floor?

Since all of the animals are on the bed and no other furniture is mentioned in the room, there are six legs on the floor. Four legs from the bed and your own two legs as you stand in the room, amazed that someone managed to get so many animals onto a bed. And the ceiling must be vaulted to fit a giraffe. Also, who’s on cleanup duty?

Posted in Brain Teasers

Two Eights and Two Threes to Make Twenty Four

Using one or more addition, subtraction, multiplication or division operations, what formula using the numbers 3, 3, 8 and 8 equals 24?

8 ÷ (3 – (8 ÷ 3)) = 24

Posted in Brain Teasers

As Heavy As Man’s Golden Greed

A metal neither black nor red,
As heavy as man’s golden greed.
What you do to stay ahead,
With friend or foe or arrow and steed.

What am I?

Lead. Lead is a metallic gray, is very heavy and in order to stay ahead of someone, you need to be in the lead.

Posted in Riddles

Canaries in the Cage

I am the owner of a pet store. If I put in one canary per cage, I have one bird too many. If I put in two canaries per cage, I have one cage too many. How many cages and canaries do I have?

Four canaries and three cages.

If you put one canary in each cage, you have an extra bird without a cage. However, if you put two canaries in each cage then you have two canaries in the first cage, two canaries in the second cage and an extra cage.

Posted in Brain Teasers

What Can Fill a Bedroom But Fits in Your Pocket

A father gathered his three sons and told them he would die soon and needed to decide which son would inherit his land. He gave them the following test.

“Go to the market and purchase something that is large enough to fill my bedroom, but small enough to fit in your pocket. Based on what you bring I will decide which of you is wisest.”

All three sons went to the market in search of something to satisfy their father’s demands. When they returned the father gathered them in his bedroom.

The first son put down pieces of cloth that he had bought and laid them end to end across the room, but it barely covered any of the floor.

The second son laid down hay but there was only enough to cover part of the floor.

The third son showed his father what he had purchased and the father announced, “You are truly the wisest and will inherit my land.”

What did the third son bring?

A match.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Mother From a Family of Eight

This mother comes from a family of eight,
Supports her children in spite of their weight,
Turns around without being called,
Has held you since the time you crawled.

Who is she?

“Mother” Earth. The family of eight are the eight planets, all of the world’s population is quite a load, the earth is always spinning (or turning around) and unless you’re an alien, you’ve been on earth your whole life.

Posted in Riddles

A Cabin in the Woods

In a small cabin in the woods, two men lay dead. The cabin itself is not burned, but the forest all around is burned to cinders. How did the men die?

It’s the cabin of a plane and the plane crashed.

Posted in Brain Teasers