Winning at Wimbledon

As a result of temporary magical powers, you have made it to the Wimbledon finals and are playing Roger Federer for all the marbles. However, your powers cannot last the whole match. What score do you want it to be when they disappear, to maximize your chances of hanging on for a win?

It sounds obvious that you should ask to be ahead two sets to love (it takes 3 out of 5 sets to win
the men’s), and in the third set, ahead 5-0 in games and 40-love in the sixth game. (Probably you
want to be serving, but if your serve is like mine, you might prefer Roger to be serving the sixth
game down 0-40 so that you can pray for a double fault.)

Not so fast! These solutions give you essentially 3 chances to get lucky and win, but you can
get six chances—with three services by you and three by Roger. You still want to be up two sets
to none, but let the game score be 6-6 in the third set and 6-0—in your favor, of course—in the
tiebreaker.

Credit goes to Peter Winkler for creating this.

Posted in Brain Teasers

My First Wears My Second

My first wears my second; my third might be
What my first would acquire if he went to the sea.
Put together my one, two, three
And the belle of New York is the girl for me.

Manhattan. A MAN wears a HAT, and a MAN might acquire a TAN if he went to sea.

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Swiftest Traveling Horses

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

What am I?

Eyes.

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Whoever Makes Me Can Hear Me

Whoever makes me can hear me, but to all others I’m silent. What am I?

A thought in your head. You can hear it, but no one else can. Unless you read minds, but then you’d have bigger problems, like figuring how how to remain sane in large crowds.

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You Hold My Tail

You hold my tail while I fish for you. What am I?

A fishing net.

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Take Off My Skin

Take off my skin, I won’t cry, but you will. What am I?

An onion.

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Eight Letter Word With KST

What eight letter word has kst inside, in the beginning, and at the end?

Inkstand.

The letters “kst” are in the word, “in” is at the beginning, with “and” at the end. I know, it’s awkwardly worded but otherwise it wouldn’t be a riddle.

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A Box Without Hinges

A box without hinges, key or lid,
Yet golden treasure inside is hid.

What is it?

An egg.

(From J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit)

Posted in Riddles

Death By Marbles

You are a prisoner sentenced to death. The Emperor offers you a chance to live by playing a simple game. He gives you 50 black marbles, 50 white marbles and 2 empty bowls and instructs you to divide the 100 marbles into the two bowls. You can divide them however you want as long as all the marbles are in the bowls. You will be blindfolded and the bowls and marbles will be thoroughly mixed. You will then choose a single marble from one of the bowls. If the marble is white, you live. Black and you will be put to death.

How do you divide the marbles up so that you have the greatest probability of choosing a white marble?

Place one white marble in one bowl and place the rest of the marbles in the other bowl (49 whites, and 50 blacks).

This way you begin with a 50/50 chance of choosing the bowl with one white marble and living. Even if you choose the other bowl, you still have an almost 50% chance of picking one of the 49 white marbles. There are no guarantees in life, but this gives you the best change of surviving.

Posted in Brain Teasers

What Begins and Has No End?

What begins and has no end? What is the ending of all that begins?

Death or decay.

Posted in Riddles