A man gets ready for bed at 9:45 pm. He makes himself a drink, then turns off the TV and the lights. The night was windy and there was a major storm. The next day he discovers he was the cause of seven deaths. How is this possible?
He lived in a lighthouse as lighthouse keeper. He turned off all the lights by accident, so a ship with 7 passengers couldn’t negotiate the rocky shores. One would think the light switches in a lighthouse would be more clearly marked.
It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills. It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.
Two boys weighing 50 pounds each and their older brother weighing 100 pounds wish to cross a river. Their boat will only hold 100 pounds. How can they all cross the river in the boat?
Alphabet (unfortunately there aren’t any actual dictionary words with every letter in the alphabet, so this gimmicky, somewhat unsatisfying answer has to suffice).
Two legs sat upon three legs with one leg in his lap. In comes four legs, grabs one leg, and runs off with him. Up jumps two legs, grabs up three legs, throws it after four legs, and makes him bring back one leg.
Alfred and Bill are clerks at the local grocery store. Alfred can stock a shelf in 20 minutes, but Bill is new and takes 30 minutes. How long would it take for them to stock a shelf together?
You are standing outside a closed door. On the other side of the door is a room that has three light bulbs in it. The room is completely sealed off from the outside. It has no windows and nothing can get in or out except through the door. On the outside of the room there are three light switches that control each of the respective light bulbs on the other side of the door.
Your assignment is to determine which light switch controls which light bulb. You are allowed to enter the room only once, and once you come out, you must be able to state with 100% certainty which light switch controls which light bulb.
Turn one light switch on, wait a few minutes, then turn it off and turn another light switch on. Go into the room and feel the light bulbs. The one that’s still warm is connected to the switch that you first turned on, the one that is on was the second switch you turned on, and the last bulb is controlled by the switch that you didn’t touch.
Mario is testing out a new car at the racetrack. His grandmother took it for a mile lap and averaged 30mph. How fast does Mario have to drive in the second lap to average 60mph for the two miles?
90mph is an alluring answer, but it’s impossible. At 90mph the second lap would take 40 seconds. If Grannie’s first lap at 30mph took 2 minutes, traveling 2 miles in 2 minutes and 40 seconds is an average speed of 45mph. Traveling an average speed of 60mph for 2 miles would take 2 minutes and since the grandma’s lap took all of those 2 minutes, even if Mario could break the sound barrier he wouldn’t be able to average 60mph.