Riddles and Brain Teasers

A Great Woman

The first two letters of this English word refer to a male, the first three refer to a female, the first four to a great man and the whole word is a great woman.

What is the word?

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Heroine (he, her, hero)

Posted in Riddles

The Blanks of UND

Fill in the blanks:

U N D _ _ _ _ _ U N D

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UNDERGROUND

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Books By Charles Dickens

Pair these words to make nine titles of books by Charles Dickens:

A LITTLE    1 RUDGE
B PICKWICK  2 COPPERFIELD
C EDWIN     3 TIMES
D BARNABY   4 CHUZZLEWIT
E NICHOLAS  5 PAPERS
F HARD      6 HOUSE
G BLEAK     7 DROOD
H DAVID     8 DORRIT
I MARTIN    9 NICKLEBY

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A 8 = LITTLE DORRIT
B 5 = PICKWICK PAPERS
C 7 = EDWIN DROOD
D 1 = BARNABY RUDGE
E 9 = NICHOLAS NICKLEBY
F 3 = HARD TIMES
G 6 = BLEAK HOUSE
H 2 = DAVID COPPERFIELD
I 4 = MARTIN CHUZZLEWIT

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Boat at High Tide

A boat has a ladder that has six rungs. Each rung is one foot apart. The bottom rung is one foot from the water. The tide rises at 12 inches every 15 minutes. High tide peaks in one hour.

When the tide is at its highest, how many rungs are under water?

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None. The boat is floating on the water, so as the tide rises, so does the ladder.

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ABCD equals DCBA

What 4-digit number abcd satisfies this equation?

4 × abcd = dcba

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2178

4 × 2178 = 8712

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A dad offered to pay his son $5 for every correct answer on his math test. His son said he would pay his Dad $8 for every incorrect answer. There were 26 questions on the test and no money was exchanged.

How did this happen?

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The son got 16 questions correct and missed 10. This means he owed his Dad 10 * $8 = $80, but his Dad owed him 16 * $5 = $80, so it was a wash.
Two math equations to solve it are x + y = 26 and 5x = 8y.

Posted in Brain Teasers

How to Escape?

A man is trapped in a room with only two possible exits. Through the first door is a room with an enormous magnifying glass causing the blazing hot sun to instantly burn anything that enters. Through the second door there is a fire-breathing dragon. How does the man escape?

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Leave through the first door at night when the sun is down.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Another Name for Shiva

My first three is another name for the Hindu god Shiva.
My last four create something to wear.
Together I might use a scythe.

What am I?

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Harvest.

Har is another name for Shiva.
A vest is something you wear.
And a harvest might use a scythe.

Posted in Riddles

Tagged with What am I?

Thin, Bold, Sick And Cold

One thin, one bold,
One sick, one cold.
The earth we span,
To prey upon man.

Who are we?

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The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Posted in Riddles

A Date With No Numbers

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

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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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