Wolves and Owls

You are in the woods with owls and wolves. There are 22 eyes and 32 legs. How many owls and wolves are there?

5 owls and 5 wolves, (not 6 owls because 2 of the eyes and legs are yours).

2 * owls + 2 * wolves = 20 eyes
2 * owls + 4 * wolves = 30 legs
owls + wolves = 10 eyes → owls = 10 – wolves
owls + 2 * wolves = 15 → 10 – wolves + 2 * wolves = 15 → wolves = 5
owls + 5 = 10 → owls = 5

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Most Unusual Paragraph

This is an unusual paragraph. I’m curious as to just how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so ordinary and plain that you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is highly unusual though. Study it and think about it. You still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out. Try to do so without any coaching.

The letter “e” is the most common letter in the English language, yet it never appears in the entire paragraph.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Only Useful When Full

I am only useful when I’m full,
Yet I am always full of holes.

What am I?

A sieve, used for straining food like pasta.

Posted in Riddles

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

12-Letter Word With All the Vowels

What 12-letter word has each of the vowels in alphabetical order without any repeated vowels?

Abstemiously. It’s 12 letters long and the letter y is considered a vowel in certain cases, and is included. Facetiously is another word that has all the vowels in order, but it’s only 11 letters long.

Posted in Brain Teasers

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

By Odin’s Beard

Some came from the Sun and Moon,
Others from Thor and his hammer are hewn,

By Odin’s beard, and Frigg and Tiw,
The last is Saturn, from which we grew.

What are we?

They are the origins of the names of each day of the week.

Sunday – Sun day.
Monday – Moon day.
Tuesday – Tiw’s or Týr’s day, the god of single combat, son of Odin.
Wednesday – Woden’s or Odin’s day, god of poetry and of the dead.
Thursday – Thor’s day, god of thunder, son of Odin.
Friday – Frigg’s day, goddess of the clouds, wife of Odin.
Saturday – Saturn’s day, god of fertility and agriculture.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Longest AIOTS word

What is the longest word you can find using only the letters AIOTS (each letter can be used any number of times)?

Tattooists, which has 10 letters.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Jump Dog Jump

A man says his dog can jump over his house. No one believes him but he is right. How is that possible?

The dog can jump over his dog house.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Fill in the Blank and Discover the Event

Fill in the missing words to make a phrase with both the left and right hand sides. For instance, if you were given GRAPE __________ FLY, the missing word could be FRUIT, making GRAPEFRUIT and FRUIT FLY.

1. TOP __________ AGENT
2. PROXY __________ OF NO CONFIDENCE
3. SECOND-HAND __________ DETECTOR
4. THE SACK OF __________ APPLE
5. ST. LOUIS __________ SIN

Once you have the words, what event does it represent?

1. SECRET
2. VOTE
3. SMOKE
4. ROME
5. CARDINAL

The event is a Papal conclave, when a new Pope is chosen.

Posted in Brain Teasers