Add Two To Eleven To Get One

When can you add two to eleven and get one as the correct answer?

When you add two hours to eleven o’clock to get one o’clock.

Posted in Riddles

4 Is Cosmic

1 is 3,
3 is 5,
5 is 4,
4 is cosmic.

What is 6? And what is meant by cosmic?

6 is 3 of course. Because six has three letters.

One = three letters
Three = five letters
Five = four letters
Four = four letters

Cosmic is a number that has the same number of letters as the value. Four is the only number I’m aware of that has this property.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Brandon at the Carnival

Brandon was walking around at the carnival. A man called out from a booth and said, “If I can write your exact weight on this piece of paper, you have to pay me $50. If I can’t do it, I’ll pay you $50.”

Brandon checked the booth for a scale but saw nothing. He agreed. Since your weight can fluctuate by a pound or two, he decided that no matter what number the man wrote, he would just say he weighed a pound more or less. In the end, the man in the booth won the $50. How did he do it?

The man in the booth wrote the words, “Your exact weight” on the piece of paper. Brandon paid up.

Posted in Brain Teasers

777, 888 and 999

You are given the numbers 777, 888 and 999. Using the numbers once and adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing, how can you make 999?

(7 x 7 x 7) + (9 x 9 x 8) + ((9 – 8) x 8) = 999
(77 + 7) + 888 + (9 + 9 + 9) = 999

If other operators were allowed, another solution would be 999 modulo (888 x 777). I’m sure there are more solutions.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Group of Three

I give you a group of three. One is sitting down, and will never get up. The second eats as much as is given to him, yet is always hungry. The third goes away and never returns.

Stove, fire, smoke.

Posted in Riddles

I Change Stature As I Age

I change stature as I age, but my importance does not differ by age. My importance is manifested mostly when with my boss. When we part, I am of no importance.

What am I?

A pencil. It gets shorter with use, but is no less important. Its impact is from the person using the pencil to write or draw. Without them, the pencil is just an idle tool.

Thanks Keller!

Posted in Riddles
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Combine One-Third and Four-Fifths

How would you combine one-third of 12 and four-fifths of 7 to get 11?

Add EL (one-third of TWELVE) to EVEN (four-fifths of SEVEN) and get ELEVEN.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Fred’s Packing Job

Fred was almost done packing for the day, with five packages left. Unfortunately, Fred dropped the labels and had no idea which label went to which package. What is the probability that Fred managed to correctly label exactly four of the five packages?

Zero. If Fred had correctly labeled four packages, the fifth label would belong to the fifth package and all packages would be correctly labeled. Therefore it is impossible to mislabel exactly four packages.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Word With All 26 Letters

What word contains all 26 letters?

Alphabet (unfortunately there aren’t any actual dictionary words with every letter in the alphabet, so this gimmicky, somewhat unsatisfying answer has to suffice).

Posted in Riddles

Eight Eights For A Thousand

How can you add 8 eights to equal 1,000?

888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 1,000

Posted in Brain Teasers