Swiftest Traveling Horses

Two horses,
Swiftest traveling,
Harnessed in a pair,
And grazing ever in places,
Distant from them.

What am I?

Eyes.

Posted in Riddles

Colored As A Maiden Tweaked

Colored as a maiden tweaked,
Time was naught when I began;
Through the garden I was sneaked,
I alone am the fall of man.

What am I?

An apple.

Posted in Riddles

A Creature, Part Man

This creature, part man and part tree,
hates the termite as much as the flea.
His tracks do not match,
and his limbs may detach,
but he’s not a strange creature to see.

What is it?

A man with a wooden leg.

Posted in Riddles

How Much Time is Left in the Exam?

During a math exam, Willy asks Ms. Matilda, the teacher, how much time is left. Ms. Matilda is known for being obtuse and answers that the amount of time left is 1/5 of the time already completed and that is also how much time is left, in a manner of speaking.

How much time is left?

15 minutes. The total exam time is 90 minutes. If 15 minutes are left, 75 minutes have already passed, and one fifth of 75 is 15. However, if you follow Ms. Matilda’s hint and pay attention to only the numbers in 1/5, you get the answer of 15 minutes as well.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Four Walls and a Bird

A man walks out of a house that has four walls all facing north. A bird walks past him. What kind is it?

A penguin. If all four walls face north the house must be at the southernmost point of the earth. Really, any native antarctic bird would work.

This brain teaser is quite similar to the guy whose house walls face south and sees a bear, then you’re asked the color of the bear. The bear would be white (a polar bear) as they’re the only bears indigenous to the north pole. A lawyer would claim it’s all circumstantial evidence and the bear could be an imported brown bear. The lawyer makes a valid point.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Sometimes I’m An Insult

Sometimes I’m an insult,
Sometimes I’m a meal,
But if you see me hanging around,
I hope to change how you feel.

A turkey.

Posted in Riddles
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I Build Up Castles

I build up castles.
I tear down mountains.
I make some men blind,
I help others to see.
What am I?

Sand.

Posted in Riddles

The Mystery Six-Digit Number

Find a six-digit number containing no zeros and no repeated digits that satisfies the following conditions:

1. The first and fourth digits sum to the last digit, as do the third and fifth digits.
2. The first and second digits when read as a two-digit number equal one quarter the fourth and fifth digits.
3. The last digit is four times the third digit.

192768.

If you call the number ABCDEF, then you get the following equations.

1. A + D = F and C + E = F
2. AB = DE / 4
3. F = 4 × C

The only numbers that work for C and E are 2 and 6 or 4 and 8, and in order to make F a single-digit number, we can deduce that C = 2, E = 6 and F = 8.

So far, our number is AB2D68.

We know A + D = 8 so A and D are both odd numbers. The only odd number less than 8 that we can use for D to make one-quarter of two-digit number D6 also be a two-digit number is 7, so D = 7 and A is 1. This makes the two-digit number AB 19.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Reading Hexadecimal

How many people can read hexadecimal if only you and dead people can read it?

57006

The trick is that the word “dead” represents a number in hexadecimal. That number in base 10 is 57005, and adding one more to include yourself gives you: 57005 + 1 = 57006.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Real Life Emergency

Mary was out riding a frisky pony in a meadow by the sea when the bridle came loose. The animal shook it off and started to gallop full speed toward the ocean, paying no attention to Mary’s yelling to slow down. She couldn’t bear to jump off and lose her beloved pony, so she stayed on and hoped for the best. When the cliff loomed ahead of her, she knew she had to stop the pony. How did she do it?

Mary clapped her hands tightly over the animal’s eyes, causing it to stop.

Posted in Brain Teasers