Mixed Animals for $100

At the market you can buy a cow for $10, a pig for $1 and 8 hens for $1. How many animals would you need to buy to get 100 mixed animals for exactly $100?

7 cows, 21 pigs and 72 hens. The trick to this is finding the combination of cows and hens with the same cost and quantity since pigs are already equal. The magic combination is 7 cows and 72 hens, giving you 79 animals that cost $79 ($70 + $9). Then you just add 21 pigs to get to 100 animals.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Next in the Sequence

Here is a series of numbers. What is the next number in the sequence?

1
11
21
1211
111221
312211

13112221

The next number in the series counts the previous numbers. Thus the first number is 1, which is one 1, or 11. To describe 11, you have two 1’s, or 21. Now you have one 2 and one 1, so the next number is 1211. The solution is to continue describing the previous number using only numbers.

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Not a Toy But Used For Pleasure

I am not a toy, though many use me for pleasure. I have a butt but I can not poop. I have been known to kill people. What am I?

A cigarette.

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Snakes and Mice

On a remote (imaginary) island, there are 11 snakes and a single mouse. As you’d expect, snakes eat the mice. But contrary to what you’d expect, when a snake eats a mouse, it turns into one.

The snakes live by only two rules:

1. Don’t get eaten.
2. Eat mice as long as rule #1 isn’t violated.

How many snakes and mice will there be left on the island?

10 snakes, 1 mouse.

If there were only a single snake and mouse, the snake could eat the mouse, then turn into one, leaving a single mouse.

If there were two snakes and a single mouse, rule 2 would keep either of the snakes from eating the mouse to avoid being eaten themselves.

With three snakes and one mouse, one of the snakes could eat a mouse and be safe as a mouse thanks to rule 2.

This pattern continues. With an even number of snakes, nothing happens. With an odd number of snakes, one snake can eat the mouse.

Thus, with 11 snakes, one snake would eat the mouse, turn into one and leave 10 snakes and 1 mouse.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Find The Hidden Cities

Wallace died a wealthy, if somewhat odd, man without any living relatives. He left his money in four different cities for the first four people who could find it. The only clue he left was this poem:

Do not go solo,
Pairs up with a friend,
Though I hasten to add,
I’ll avenge my end.

What are the four cities?

Anagrams of four cities can be found in the poem.

Oslo (solo)
Paris (pairs)
Athens (hasten)
Geneva (avenge)

Posted in Brain Teasers

Lighter Than a Feather

I’m lighter than a feather but even the world’s strongest man can’t hold me for more than a few minutes. What am I?

Breath. Air is light, but even Stig Severinsen, the world record holder can only hold his breath for 22 minutes. The world’s strongest man can’t beat that, but you can have the pleasure of telling him to his face.

Posted in Riddles

You Read Me Daily

I am a seven letter word, you read me daily. Letters 567 increase every year. The third and fourth letters are the same and my 325 letters cover about 70% of the world. What am I?

message. Letters 567 are your age, which goes up every year. Letters 3 and 4 (both s) are in fact the same, and letters 325 spell sea, and estimates say that the earth is covered by about 70% water.

Posted in Riddles

Have No Face

I turn my head and you may go where you want.
I turn it again, you will stay till you rot.
I have no face, but I live or die,
By my crooked teeth.

What am I?

A key

Posted in Riddles

Pushing Car Past Hotel Lands You in Jail

A man pushes his car by a hotel and gets sent to jail. Why?

The man is playing monopoly, and landed on the Go To Jail space. An alternative version of this is, “A man stops his car in front of a hotel and immediately knows he is bankrupt.” The answer is the same, that he’s playing Monopoly, but this time he landed on a space with a hotel and didn’t have enough money to pay the bill.

Posted in Brain Teasers

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = 100

This equation is incomplete: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = 100

One way to make it accurate is by adding seven plus and minus signs, like so.

1 + 2 + 3 – 4 + 5 + 6 + 78 + 9 = 100

How can you do it using only 3 plus or minus signs?

123 – 45 – 67 + 89 = 100

Posted in Brain Teasers