Planting Trees on Arbor Day

On Arbor Day the fourth grade class began planting trees. They finished planting five trees before the fifth grade class arrived. But they accidentally planted them on the fifth grade side of the street.

The fourth-graders crossed the street to start over, and the fifth-graders planted the remaining trees. They finished first and felt bad for the fourth-graders, so they crossed the street and planted five trees. They planted another five trees at which point all of the trees had been planted.

By how many trees were the fifth-graders ahead of the fourth-graders?

Ten. The fifth-graders planted five more trees than they were assigned, and the fourth-graders planted five fewer than their assignment.

Posted in Brain Teasers

To Be Gold Is Good

To be gold is to be good,
To be stone is to be nothing,
To be glass is to be fragile,
To be cold is to be cruel.

What am I?

A heart.

Posted in Riddles
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A Group of Three

I give you a group of three. One is sitting down, and will never get up. The second eats as much as is given to him, yet is always hungry. The third goes away and never returns.

Stove, fire, smoke.

Posted in Riddles

Loud Linda

Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.

Which is more probable?

1) Linda is a bank teller.
2) Linda is a bank teller and is active in the feminist movement.

1) Linda is a bank teller.

Most people guess number two, but the probability of two events occurring together is always less than or equal to the probability of either one occurring alone. This problem is known as the Conjunction Fallacy.

Posted in Riddles

I Hide In A Dark Tunnel

I hide in a dark tunnel awaiting my time.
I can only be released by pulling back.
Once released, I may do unspeakable damage.

A bullet.

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Guess the Three Words

Think of the six-letter name of a European capital city whose starting letter falls in the last half dozen letters of the alphabet and whose last letter is a vowel.

Now think of a three-letter words that means “permit”.

Last, combine all nine letters from the two words above. Rearrange the letters to form a word that you might call someone you like.

1. Vienna
2. let
3. Valentine (Vienna + let)

Posted in Brain Teasers

Nine-Letter Word, Common as Air

A nine-letter word, common as air,
When each letter’s cut, a new word to pare,
Take a letter each round and continue to one.
Name the word and the path and then you’ll be done.

Surprisingly, there are several nine-letter words that can have one letter removed in each round to make a new word all the way to one letter, which must be ‘a’ or ‘i’. Startling is the most common answer, but I’ve included the other words I’m aware of. I don’t include plural words, like cleansers, drownings, splatters, starvings, trappings and wrappings because it’s kind of cheating.

startling
Remove the l to make starting (or remove the t to make starling)
Remove the t to make staring
Remove the a to make string
Remove the r to make sting
Remove the t to make sing
Remove the g to make sin
Remove the s to make in
Remove the n to make I

splitting
Remove the l to make spitting
Remove the p to make sitting
Remove a t to make siting
Remove the first i to make sting
Remove the s to make ting
Remove the g to make tin
Remove the t to make in
Remove the n to make I

stringier
Remove the r to make stingier
Remove the i to make stinger
Remove the t to make singer
Remove the r to make singe
Remove the g to make sine
Remove the e to make sin
Remove the s to make in
Remove the n to make I

strapping
Remove the s to make trapping
Remove the t to make rapping
Remove the p to make raping
Remove the r to make aping
Remove the a to make ping
Remove the g to make pin
Remove the p to make in
Remove the n to make I

Posted in Riddles

A Special Group of Words

These words all fall into a special group. Your challenge is to nominate one of the words below and determine why it fits into the special group.

RING
TOPS
MANATEE
WINDLESS
EARTH
ANGER

Choose the word that also falls into the above group

a. MATTER
b. TUNES
c. OUGHT
d. HEARTH

c. OUGHT

Each of these words forms a different word when the last letter is moved to the front.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Favorite Use Is Attached To A String

A three-letter word I’m sure you know,
I can be on a boat or a sleigh in the snow,
I’m pals with the rain and honor a king,
But my favorite use is attached to a string.

What am I?

A bow. It has three letters, the bow of a boat is the front, bows are found on the presents on Santa’s sleigh, rainbows come with the rain, one bows before a king and a bow and arrow requires a string.

Posted in Riddles

One Am I, Among Six Others

One am I, among six others:
Largest, smallest,
Cold, dark
and two brothers.

Who am I

Europe. Europe is the one among six other continents.

2. North America
3. South America
4. Asia
5. Australia
6. Africa
7. Antarctica

Asia is the largest, Australia is the smallest. Antarctica is cold, Africa is dark-skinned and the Americas are brothers.

This was is said to be written by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, known for writing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Posted in Riddles