Canaries in the Cage

I am the owner of a pet store. If I put in one canary per cage, I have one bird too many. If I put in two canaries per cage, I have one cage too many. How many cages and canaries do I have?

Four canaries and three cages.

If you put one canary in each cage, you have an extra bird without a cage. However, if you put two canaries in each cage then you have two canaries in the first cage, two canaries in the second cage and an extra cage.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Marcus’ Strange Age

Marcus was 15 years old in 2010. In 2015 he was only 10 years old. How is this possible?

The years are B.C., so 2015 came before 2010.

Posted in Brain Teasers

24 from 9, 6, 11 and 3

How do you get 24 from 9, 6, 11 and 3 using addition, subtraction, multiplication or division?

There are multiple solutions.

(6 – 3) × 11 – 9

(11 – 6) × 3 + 9

(9 – 6) × (11 – 3)

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Odd One Out

Which is the odd one out and why?

A. Cassius
B. Cassia
C. Casca

B. Cassia is a tropical tree; Cassius and Casca were conspirators against Julius Caesar.

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How Many Months Have 28 Days?

Some months have 30 days and some have 31 days. How many months have 28 days?

All of them. Every month has 28 days. Some just continue on after reaching 28.

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Odd Word Out

One of these words does not belong, one of these words is not the same. What is it about the words that does not belong? It is more apparent than the first letter not being the same.

Selflessness
Selfishness
Strengthlessness
Defencelessness

Selfishness. The rest have only one of the vowels.

Posted in Brain Teasers

I Never Return

What are these three related items? When I am placed somewhere I will never stand up. Whatever you give me I will eat. When I go I never return.

A stove, fire, smoke.

Essentially a duplicate of A Group of Three but I’m keeping it here to avoid broken links.

Posted in Riddles

A Bridge to Switzerland

During WWII, there was a bridge connecting Germany and Switzerland, and on the German side, there was a sentry tower with a guard in it. He would come out every three minutes to check on the bridge, and he had orders to turn back anyone who tried to get into Germany, and shoot anyone trying to escape without a pass. There was a woman who desperately needed to get into Switzerland, and she knew she didn’t have time to get a pass. It would take her at least six minutes to cross the bridge, but she managed to do it. How?

She walked on the bridge towards Switzerland for 3 minutes and just as the guard was about to come out, she turned around walking back to Germany. The guard saw her and asked for her pass but she didn’t have one and was sent back (or what the guard thought was back) to Switzerland. In her case it was the very country she wanted to go to.

Posted in Brain Teasers

011 235 Sequence

011 235 813 213 ???

What comes next?

455. The numbers are from the Fibonacci sequence in groups of 3. The next numbers in the series are 34 (the 3 was already used in 213) and 55.

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Losing Ten Minutes An Hour

A clock loses exactly ten minutes every hour. If the clock is set correctly at noon, what is the correct time when the clock reads 3:00pm?

3:36pm. For every 60 minutes of real time, the clock moves 50 minutes. Put another way, 60/50 = 1.2 real minutes per slow-clock minute.

In order for the clock to show 3:00pm, 180 of its slow minutes have to pass. 1.2 * 180 clock minutes = 216 real minutes or 3 hours and 36 minutes.

Posted in Brain Teasers