No Eyes But Once Could See

I do not have eyes but I once could see. I used to have thoughts but now I’m empty.

A skull.

Posted in Riddles

A Silent Z

What word in the English dictionary has a silent z?

The word rendezvous. Even though it’s a French word, it’s in the English dictionary and is pronounced [rahn-duh-voo].

Turns out rendezvous isn’t the only one. Another word is oyez.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Captain Mark

Captain Mark is the captain of the ship. The captain of the ship is Captain Mark. The ship has plenty of space.

What is the name of the ship?

The Space Shuttle Endeavour, captained by Mark Kelly.

I received this by email from someone who didn’t know the answer. Thanks to Devon for helping with this answer.

Posted in Riddles

Alfred’s Tough Cash Request

Alfred is at the bank to cash his $200 check. He tells the cashier he would like some one dollar bills, ten times as many two dollar bills and the rest in fives.

How many of each denomination does the cashier need to give Alfred?

Five $1 bills, 50 $2 bills and 19 $5 bills.

We know that in order to give the rest of the amount in fives, the sum of the one and two dollar bills needs to be divisible by five (i.e. end in 0 or 5).

If we start with a single one dollar bill, we’d need ten two dollar bills to satisfy the request, making $21. But we need a sum that is divisible by 5. So we keep going up, like so:

$1 + $2 * 10 = $21
$2 + $2 * 20 = $42
$3 + $2 * 30 = $63
$4 + $2 * 40 = $84
$5 + $2 * 50 = $105 (Aha! It’s divisible by 5)
$6 + $2 * 60 = $126
$7 + $2 * 70 = $147
$8 + $2 * 80 = $168
$9 + $2 * 90 = $189

So the only option that works is 5 $1 bills and 50 $2 bills, leaving $95 (95 / 5 = 19) to be paid out in 19 fives.

Alfred is one tough customer.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Word Jumble

Frederick takes half of CONNIE, part of NESTA, part of NELLIE and part of AUNTIE to create something new. What does he call his new creation?

Constantine

Posted in Brain Teasers

A King and Device of Measure

I am a king but also a common device of measure. What am I?

A ruler. A king is a ruler of people, a ruler is a device to measure distance.

Posted in Riddles

Count to A

If you were to spell out the numbers, how far would you have to go before encountering the letter A?

One thousand (or one hundred and one, depending on how you pronounce it).

Posted in Brain Teasers

Standing World

What does this represent?

Standing
World

Standing on top of the world

Posted in Riddles
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Living to Six

How can you cross out four letters from the word LIVING to leave six remaining?

Cross out LING, leaving you with VI, or 6 in Roman numerals.

Posted in Brain Teasers

What is the Five Digit Number?

What 5-digit number satisfies the following requirements?

1. No zeroes
2. First two digits are the same
3. Fourth digit is twice the first
4. Last digit is twice the third
5. Sum of all digits is 18

33264.

There are several ways of solving this. One way is to represent each spot with a letter, A – E.

Then you have these equations:

A = B
D = 2 * A
E = 2 * C
A + B + C + D + E = 18

By simplifying, you get:

4 * A + 3 * C = 18

Plug in values for A and C to find that A = 3 C = 2.

Posted in Brain Teasers