Riddles and Brain Teasers

Standing World

What does this represent?

Standing
World

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Standing on top of the world

Posted in Riddles

Tagged with rebus

Five Letters Sound Like Six When Pronounced

What five-letter word sounds like six letters when pronounced?

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Cello. The pronunciation of c is ‘ch’, making it sound like the word has 6 letters.

Posted in Riddles

Ties One Another

What ties one to another and is closest to the heart?

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A wedding ring.

I know, this is nearly a duplicate with What Holds Two People Together.

Posted in Riddles

Sum of Consecutives

What is the sum of the numbers in the following list which are consecutive?

15  5 10 28
24  7 18 26
11 21 17 13
22  9  1 20

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The consecutive numbers are: 9, 10, 11; 17, 18; and 20, 21, 22.

The sum of those numbers is 128.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Take It And You Will Lose

Take it and you will lose or gain more than all others.

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Risk.

(found in The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare)

Posted in Riddles

Messy Math

What is the answer to this problem?

48 / 2(9 + 3) = ?

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It depends. Usually, math has one right answer, but in this case, the order of operations can get a little quirky.There are two ways to solve this. First, like so:
48 / 2 × (9 + 3) = ?
48 / 2 × (12) = ?
24 × 12 = 288But another, arguably valid way is:
48 / 2 × (9 + 3) = ?
48 / 2 × (12) = ?
48 / 24 = 2Thanks to KnowYourMeme for providing a great overview on this one. Math StackExchange has more discussion.

It depends. Usually, math has one right answer, but in this case, the order of operations can get a little quirky.

There are two ways to solve this. First, like so:
48 / 2 × (9 + 3) = ?
48 / 2 × (12) = ?
24 × 12 = 288

But another, arguably valid way is:
48 / 2 × (9 + 3) = ?
48 / 2 × (12) = ?
48 / 24 = 2

Thanks to KnowYourMeme for providing a great overview on this one. Math StackExchange has more discussion.

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Rooster

A rooster lays an egg at the very top of a slanted roof. Which side is the egg going to roll off on?

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Neither, roosters don’t lay eggs.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Three Lives Have I

Three lives have I.
Gentle enough to soothe the skin,
Light enough to caress the sky,
Hard enough to crack rocks.

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Water.

Posted in Riddles

Pushing Car Past Hotel Lands You in Jail

A man pushes his car by a hotel and gets sent to jail. Why?

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The man is playing monopoly, and landed on the Go To Jail space. An alternative version of this is, “A man stops his car in front of a hotel and immediately knows he is bankrupt.” The answer is the same, that he’s playing Monopoly, but this time he landed on a space with a hotel and didn’t have enough money to pay the bill.

Posted in Brain Teasers