A secret lair has a code to only allow members to enter. The person wanting to enter says a random number, then is told a number in response. In order to enter they must say the correct third number. Here are sequences that allowed entrance.
Five because s-e-v-e-n has 5 letters. The first number can be anything, the second number is the number of letters in the first number, and the third number is the number of letters in the second number.
The numbers must be in ascending order. This can be a fun one to have people work out in person, as they test out three-number series and you can tell them whether or not they satisfy the pattern.
You dance in a circle of joined hands, And though they spin away I can always see your face, In the world, no matter where I am, One look at you and I know my place.
An analogue clock is a circle, and the hands of a clock are joined at the middle. The hands can point away from you, but the clock face is always visible. No matter where you are in the world, you can probably find a clock. “One look at you and I know my place…in time!”
Thanks to Helena for creating this and sending it in.
I am a five-letter word and am feared by most but experienced by all. If you remove my first and last letters I bring life. If you add an ‘r’ between the third and fourth letters I am almost nothing and if you remove the first letter from this new word, I am your home.
Death (eat, dearth, earth). No one can escape death, but many fear it. Removing the first and last letters leaves eat, and we must eat to stay alive. Adding the ‘r’ turns death into dearth, which is scarcity and removing the first letter of dearth leaves earth, where you live, assuming this riddle hasn’t reached extraterrestrials.
You’re standing 11 feet away from a doorway and with each step you move halfway to the doorway. How many steps will it take for you to get to the doorway?
Technically, the answer is infinity. If you keep going halfway, you’ll never actually make it to the doorway.
But in practice, after 10 steps you’ll be 1/8th of an inch to the doorway and anyone behind you would say to stop being a baby and take a real step through the doorway already.
Brief (or briefs). A legal brief is a short outline of the arguments in a court case, briefs are worn by men to cover their privates. Brief also means to not last long and brief rhymes with grief, a kind of misery.