Riddles and Brain Teasers

First In Flower and In Rose

My first is in FLOWER and in ROSE
My second is in FORK and well as HOSE
My third is in CROCUS but not in GNOME
My fourth is in RAKE never in HOME
My fifth is in HOE and also in WEEDS
My sixth is in SHEARS though not in SEEDS
My seventh is in LADYBIRD not in CREATURE

What am I?

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Rockery

Posted in Riddles

How to Stay Dry?

A group of ten people are going out for pizza but only two of them have an umbrella to keep them dry. Somehow they are able to walk all the way to the pizza place without getting wet. How?

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It’s not raining.

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Right Combination of Letters and Values

The letters A through H can be assigned the following values to make all the equations true. Find the right combination of letter values.

Values: 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 14, 16, 21

C + F = G
A + C = F
B + G = D
B + E = H
D + F = H

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A = 1
B = 7
C = 4
D = 16
E = 14
F = 5
G = 9
H = 21

Posted in Brain Teasers

Teams Assembling Bikes

If 6 bike makers can assemble 9 bikes in a day and a half, how many of them would it take to assemble 270 bikes in 30 days?

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9. Each bike maker can assemble one bike a day.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Hundred Legs But Can’t Stand

I have a hundred legs, but cannot stand.
I have a long neck, but no head.
I cannot see, yet I help keep your house neat and tidy.

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A broom.

Posted in Riddles

The Barber of Seville

The Barber of Seville shaves all men living in Seville.
No man living in Seville is allowed to shave himself.
The Barber of Seville lives in Seville.

Who shaves the Barber of Seville?

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Nobody. The Barber of Seville is a woman. Female barbers are rare, but they exist.And for more fun with barbers, check out the Barber paradox.

Nobody. The Barber of Seville is a woman. Female barbers are rare, but they exist.

And for more fun with barbers, check out the Barber paradox.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Petals Around the Rose

Here are five rolls of dice, with their score.

Roll #1 – Score: 6

Roll #2 – Score: 4

Roll #3 – Score: 4

Roll #4 – Score: 8

Roll #5: 0

This is what you know:

1. The name of this game is significant (Petals Around the Rose)
2. The answer is always even

How is the score determined?

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The solution is to count the dots (petals) surrounding the center dot (the rose).Only odd numbers have a center dot, so even numbers (2, 4 and 6) are worth zero.1 doesn’t have any surrounding dots, so it too is worth zero.The three has two dots surrounding the center, so it’s worth two.A five has four petals around the rose making it worth four.

The solution is to count the dots (petals) surrounding the center dot (the rose).

Only odd numbers have a center dot, so even numbers (2, 4 and 6) are worth zero.

1 doesn’t have any surrounding dots, so it too is worth zero.

The three has two dots surrounding the center, so it’s worth two.

A five has four petals around the rose making it worth four.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Julian and Penelope’s Marriage Ages

When Julian and Penelope met, one was half the others age plus seven years. Ten years later when they married, Penelope was thirty, but this time one was nine tenths the age of the other. How old was Julian? (No fractions or partial years, whole numbers only).

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Julian was 27 when Penelope was 30.

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Bookworm

A bookworm eats from the first page of an encyclopedia to the last page in a straight line. The encyclopedia consists of ten 1000-page volumes and is sitting on a bookshelf in the usual order. Not counting covers, title pages, etc., how many pages does the bookworm eat through?

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__ __ B| | | |F A|1 |...........................|10|R C| | | |O K| | | |N |__| |__|T ------------------------------------- On a book shelf the first page of the first volume is on the “inside”, so the bookworm eats only through the cover of the first volume, then 8 times 1000 pages of Volumes 2 – 9, then through the cover to the 1st page of Vol 10 for a total of 8,000 pages.Note: The question asks how many pages, not how many sheets of paper.

        __                             __
      B|  |                           |  |F
      A|1 |...........................|10|R
      C|  |                           |  |O
      K|  |                           |  |N
       |__|                           |__|T
      -------------------------------------

On a book shelf the first page of the first volume is on the “inside”, so the bookworm eats only through the cover of the first volume, then 8 times 1000 pages of Volumes 2 – 9, then through the cover to the 1st page of Vol 10 for a total of 8,000 pages.

Note: The question asks how many pages, not how many sheets of paper.

Posted in Brain Teasers