I Am Pronounced As One Letter But Written As Three

I am pronounced as one letter but written as three,
There are two of me, I am single, I am double,
I can be blue, brown, black or green.
I can be read from right to left or left to right and am still the same.

What am I?

Eye.

Posted in Riddles

Flora Not Fauna

I am flora, not fauna,
I am foliage, not trees,
I am shrubbery, not grass,

What am I?

A bush.

Posted in Riddles

Downward Grows the Root

Downward grows the root.
Outward grows the skin.
Upward grows the shoot.
What way blows the wind?

Wayward.

By Sef Daystrom

Posted in Riddles

Four Colored Balls in Gym Class

Four different-colored balls are being used in a gym class activity – blue, red, yellow and orange. Each student must hold two different-colored balls, but no two students can have the same two colors (for example, only one student can hold the blue and red ball).

How many students can play the game?

Six. If you prefer math, you can calculate it as 4 combination 2

4! / (2!)^2
24 / 4 = 6

Or you can work it out manually:

1. Blue Red
2. Blue Yellow
3. Blue Orange
4. Red Yellow
5. Red Orange
6. Yellow Orange

Posted in Brain Teasers

How Old is Lilly?

Two days ago Lilly was 7 years old. Next year she will turn 10. How can this be?

Her birthday is December 31st. Today is January 1st so she was 7 two days ago, and turned 7 last year. Now she’s 8 and will turn 9 this year. And next year she’ll turn 10.

For example, if today is 01 Jan 2015:

30 Dec 2014 = age 7 (two days ago)
01 Jan 2015 = age 8 (today, she turned 8 on 31 Dec 2014, which was last year)
31 Dec 2015 = age 9 (her birthday this year)
31 Dec 2016 = age 10 (her birthday next year)

Posted in Brain Teasers

Stand Take Mine

What does this sentence represent?

Stand   Take  Mine  Taking
  I     You    To     My

I understand you undertake to undermine my undertaking.

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The More You Have, The Less You See

The more you have of it, the less you see. What is it?

Darkness.

Posted in Riddles

Don’t Get a Goat

On a game show there are three closed doors – one hides a car and the other two conceal a goat. The contestant selects a door, which remains closed, and the host, knowing where the car is hidden, reveals a goat behind one of the remaining two doors. The contestant is then given the option to switch doors or stay with the one they originally selected. What should the contestant do to have the best chance of winning the car?

The contestant should switch doors, which doubles the chance of winning the car. Initially there is a 2/3 chance of picking a goat, but once the other goat is revealed, switching to remaining door gives the contestant a better chance of winning the car. This is known as the Monty Hall Problem and can be very unintuitive.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Archaeologist Laughed At

An archaeologist publicizes his find, a coin marked 649 BC, but is laughed at by his peers. Why?

No coins were ever marked BC because the BC / AD dating system wasn’t even devised until 525 AD. And it wasn’t widely used until after 800 AD.

Posted in Brain Teasers

I Stand Like A Sentry

I stand like a sentry
And am barred by the gentry,
The first month and its god oft slip
Between my hard, dun colored lip.

What am I?

Sentries are posted at borders, gates, or doors.
The gentry (in this case to referring to the general populace) bar their doors at night.
The first month is January, named after the Roman god Janus, the double-faced God of doorways, passages and thresholds.
You pass through the doorway (hence the slip), and dun is a brown color, referencing the color of wood, which most doors are made of. Though it’s not commonly referred to, the “lip of the door” is the part of the door that fits into the doorframe on the handle/knob side, particularly if the door is lipped or ridged in order to fit the door frame better.

Thanks to Helena for creating this and sending it in.

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