The Longest Pregnancy

A baby was born four years after its parents died in a car crash. How was this possible?

Amazingly, this actually happened. The parents died in a crash crash and their parents fought for the rights to the four frozen embryos left by their late children. After a surrogate pregnancy, the baby was born with DNA matching their deceased parents.

Posted in Brain Teasers

At Least One is a Boy

A couple has two children. At least one of them is a boy. Assuming the probability of having a boy or girl is 50%, what is the probability that both children are boys?

If you answered 1/2, you’re not without comrades, but the generally accepted answer by statisticians (though not without debate) is 1/3. This is because there are four possible combinations: boy-boy, boy-girl, girl-boy and girl-girl. Since we are told one of the children is a boy (but we don’t know if it’s the first or second child), we can rule out the girl-girl combination, leaving three remaining options. Only one out of 3 is boy-boy, so we get a 1/3 chance.

This is a well-known problem known as the Boy or Girl paradox. The other variation is this brain teaser.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Today Before Yesterday

I am a rare case where today comes before yesterday. What am I?

A dictionary

Posted in Riddles

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

I Am Here, I Am There

I am here, I am there
I am burned into the mind of none
I walk on fire and live on ice
My words are meaningless for I talk not
I hate everyone yet fear no one
I have lived for centuries
Yet I have never existed
What am I?

Nothingness.

Posted in Riddles

Three Burning Rooms

Three rooms contain:
1) Gold coins
2) Currency notes
3) Cotton bags

If all three rooms catch fire, which room will the ambulance pour water on first?

An ambulance doesn’t pour water.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A NA A SA A

A NA A SA A A

What comes next in the series?

E. Each item is the first letter(s) of one of the seven continents:

1. Asia
2. North America
3. Africa
4. South America
5. Australia
6. Antarctica
7. Europe

Posted in Brain Teasers
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Fred’s Packing Job

Fred was almost done packing for the day, with five packages left. Unfortunately, Fred dropped the labels and had no idea which label went to which package. What is the probability that Fred managed to correctly label exactly four of the five packages?

Zero. If Fred had correctly labeled four packages, the fifth label would belong to the fifth package and all packages would be correctly labeled. Therefore it is impossible to mislabel exactly four packages.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Gets Rid of Bad Ones

Gets rid of bad ones,
Short and tall,
Tightens when used
One size fits all.

A noose.

Posted in Riddles

Two Hands But Can’t Clap

I have two hands but I cannot clap. What am I?

A clock.

Posted in Riddles
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