Petals Around the Rose

Here are five rolls of dice, with their score.

Roll #1 – Score: 6

Roll #2 – Score: 4

Roll #3 – Score: 4

Roll #4 – Score: 8

Roll #5: 0

This is what you know:

1. The name of this game is significant (Petals Around the Rose)
2. The answer is always even

How is the score determined?

The solution is to count the dots (petals) surrounding the center dot (the rose).

Only odd numbers have a center dot, so even numbers (2, 4 and 6) are worth zero.

1 doesn’t have any surrounding dots, so it too is worth zero.

The three has two dots surrounding the center, so it’s worth two.

A five has four petals around the rose making it worth four.

Posted in Brain Teasers

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

Ancient Arabic

I’m Arabic, but if you speak English, you probably use me every day.

What am I?

The Arabic numerals, 1, 2, 3, etc.

Posted in Riddles
Tagged with

Little Cat’s Feet

It comes in on little cat’s feet,
Is neither sour, nor sweet.
Hovers in the air,
And then is not there.

Fog or mist

Posted in Riddles

Three Cuts to Turn a Round Cake Into Eight Equal Slices

How can you cut a round cake three times to make eight equal slices?

Cut #1 – Down the center of the cake (vertically) leaving two equal halves.
Cut #2 – Across the center of the cake (horizontally) leaving four equal slices.
Cut #3 – Through the middle edge of the cake slicing all four of the pieces in equal halves, leaving eight equal slices (four equal tops and four equal bottoms).

Posted in Brain Teasers

Four Weights To Thirty

What four weights can be used to balance from one to thirty pounds?

A = 1
B = 3
C = 9
D = 17

1 lb = A
2 lbs + A = B
3 lbs = B
4 lbs = A + B
5 lbs + A + B = C
6 lbs + B = C
7 lbs + B = A + C
8 lbs + A = C
9 lbs = C
10 lbs = A + C
11 lbs + A = B + C
12 lbs = B + C
13 lbs = A + B + C
14 lbs + B = D
15 lbs + B = A + D
16 lbs + A = D
17 lbs = D
18 lbs = A + D
19 lbs + A = B + D
20 lbs = B + D
21 lbs = A + B + D
22 lbs + A + B = C + D
23 lbs + B = C + D
24 lbs + B = A + C + D
25 lbs + A = C + D
26 lbs = C + D
27 lbs = A + C + D
28 lbs + A = B + C + D
29 lbs = B + C + D
30 lbs = A + B + C + D

Posted in Brain Teasers

Four Walls and a Bird

A man walks out of a house that has four walls all facing north. A bird walks past him. What kind is it?

A penguin. If all four walls face north the house must be at the southernmost point of the earth. Really, any native antarctic bird would work.

This brain teaser is quite similar to the guy whose house walls face south and sees a bear, then you’re asked the color of the bear. The bear would be white (a polar bear) as they’re the only bears indigenous to the north pole. A lawyer would claim it’s all circumstantial evidence and the bear could be an imported brown bear. The lawyer makes a valid point.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Silent Murder Witness

Emily witnessed a murder in early January but didn’t call the police. Why?

It was a murder of crows.

Posted in Brain Teasers

T is Like an Island

How is the letter T like an island?

It’s in the middle of waTer.

Posted in Riddles

Ten Times Two is 0218

10 × 2 = 0218
20 × 2 = 1421
30 × 2 = 1632
40 × 2 = ?

2840.

This makes the first column the start of the Fibonacci series: 0, 1, 1, 2.
The second column is the even numbers: 2, 4, 6, 8
The third column is counting up by ones: 1, 2, 3, 4
And the last column is the answer in the first row in reverse: 8, 1, 2, 0.

Don’t ask what 50 × 2 equals. I have no idea. :)

Thanks to Jim for helping with the solution.

Posted in Brain Teasers
Tagged with