A Third As Old

Barry is 67 years old. His daughter is 43. When was she 1/3 as old as him?

31 years ago.

Here’s one way to solve it.

Let x = how many years ago

We get this equation: 67 – x = 3 × (43 – x)

Solving for x gives us 31.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Cannot Be Seen, Captured or Held

All about, but cannot be seen,
Can be captured, cannot be held,
No throat, but can be heard.

The wind.

Posted in Riddles

Seasons, Seconds, Centuries and Minutes

What is in seasons, seconds, centuries and minutes but not in decades, years or days?

The letter “n”.

Posted in Riddles

Thin, Bold, Sick And Cold

One thin, one bold,
One sick, one cold.
The earth we span,
To prey upon man.

Who are we?

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Posted in Riddles

Stocking the Shelves

Alfred and Bill are clerks at the local grocery store. Alfred can stock a shelf in 20 minutes, but Bill is new and takes 30 minutes. How long would it take for them to stock a shelf together?

Working together they can stock a shelf at a rate of 1/20 + 1/30 (or 5/60) per minute. They’ll finish in 12 minutes

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Blank Old Woman

Fill in the blanks with the same 4 letters to make 5 different words.

A ____ old woman on ____ bent, picked up her ____ and away she went. “____ my son” she was heard to say, “what shall we do to ____ today?”

A vile old woman on evil bent, picked up her veil and away she went. “Levi my son” she was heard to say, “what shall we do to live today?”

Posted in Brain Teasers

Five Three Two

What is the answer to the last equation?

5 3 2 = 151012
9 2 4 = 183662
8 6 3 = 482466
5 4 5 = 202504
7 2 5 = ?

10000 × (x × y) + 100 × (x × z) + transpose_digits(x × y + y × z)

transpose_digits() just swaps the digits

Posted in Brain Teasers

Shorter Than My Four Siblings

Shorter than my four siblings,
but easily the strongest,
sometimes I wear a funny hat.

A Thumb.

By Sef Daystrom

Posted in Riddles

A Woman Without All Her Fingers On One Hand

What do you call a woman who doesn’t have all her fingers on one hand?

Normal. Women (and men for that matter) have half of their fingers on one hand and half of them on the other.

Posted in Riddles

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.

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

Posted in Brain Teasers