Fifty Quarters

You have fifty quarters on the table in front of you. You are blindfolded and cannot discern whether a coin is heads up or tails up by feeling it. You are told that x coins are heads up, where 0 < x < 50. You are asked to separate the coins into two piles in such a way that the number of heads up coins in both piles is the same at the end. You may flip any coin over as many times as you want.

How can you do it?

Take x coins, flip all of them and put them in one pile. The rest of the coins form the second pile.

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O S C Sequence

O, S, C, Y, S, B, T, D, ?

What is the next letter in the sequence?

E. Oh say can you see, by the dawn’s early light.

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PK II Rebus

What does this represent?

PK
II
PD
ES

Pipe down kids.

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Three Consecutive Days

Name three consecutive days without using the words Wednesday, Friday, or Sunday.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

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Always Old, Sometimes New

Always old, sometimes new.
Never sad, sometimes blue.
Never empty, sometimes full.
Never pushes, always pulls.

What am I?

The moon. The moon has been around for quite some time, but there’s a “new” moon every month or so. A Blue moon is a rare event. The moon is a body of rock, so it’s never empty, but we do see what we call a full moon some nights. And the moon’s gravity “pulls” on the ocean to create low and high tides, but it doesn’t push anyone around because it’s a friendly fellah.

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A Date With No Numbers

How can you write a date in 5 letters without using any numbers?

The most popular answer for this teaser is ‘today’. Of course this only works if you’re reading it on that particular date or if the date is not specified. Another option is to respond literally with ‘a date’. Lastly, certain dates could be squeezed into letters using Roman numerals if you abbreviate the year to 2 numerals. For example, January 20th, 2011 would be I XX XI.

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Thought Rebus

What does this represent?

          but
thought thought

But on second thought.

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Think of Person Who Lives in Disguise

First think of a person who lives in disguise, who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies.
Next tell me what’s the last to mend, the middle of middle and the end of end.
Finally give me the sound often heard during the search for a hard to find word.
Now string them together and answer me this, which creature are you unwilling to kiss?

A spider. The person in disguise is a spy, the letter d is the last letter in mend, in the middle of middle and the last letter of end. When someone can’t think of a word they often say, “Err”. And lastly, I don’t know about you, but I’m not keen to kiss a spider.

This one is a duplicate of Deals In Secrets Tells Nothing But Lies but I’m keeping it to avoid broken links.

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NOAS Rebus

What does this represent?

  P
NOASE
  Y

Pay through the nose.

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The Bus Driver

You are the bus driver. At your first stop, you pick up 29 people. On your second stop, 18 of those 29 people get off, and at the same time 10 new passengers arrive. At your next stop, 3 of those 10 passengers get off, and 13 new passengers come on. On your fourth stop 4 of the remaining 10 passengers get off, 6 of those new 13 passengers get off as well, then 17 new passengers get on. What is the color of the bus driver’s eyes?

The eye color of the reader of this problem. The first sentence is the key: “You are the bus driver”.

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