Copying Cassette Tapes

Joe and Andrea want to copy three 60-minute cassette tapes. They have a 2-cassette recorder to copy the tapes, allowing them to copy two tapes at a time. Each side takes 30 minutes to be copied, so two tapes can be copied in an hour and the third will take another hour. Andrea bets Joe she can copy all three tapes in 90 minutes. Does she win the bet?

In the first 30 minutes Andrea copies the A sides of tape 1 and 2.
In the second 30 minutes, she copies tape 1 side B and tape 3 side A (finishing Tape 1).
In the last 30 minutes, she copies tape 2 side B and tape 3 side B.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Words Ending in GRY

Think of words ending in -GRY. Angry and hungry are two of them. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses every day. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is.

The riddle states, “There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word?” The third word of the phrase “the English language” is of course “language.” Don’t get angry at me, I didn’t make it up :)

xkcd’s take on this riddle

Posted in Riddles

Five Pigeons on a Fence

Five pigeons are sitting on a fence. The farmer comes out and shoots one. How many are left?

None, the rest flew away at the sound of the gunshot. Or one (the dead pigeon).

Posted in Brain Teasers

Serve Many But They Forget About Me

I serve many, confirmed by how healthy those I serve are. Yet after they’re successful they forget about me. It’s true, sometimes I hit them and they’re often bloody, but they don’t mind.

What am I?

A doctor (more specifically, an obstetrician) or a midwife. They deliver thousands of healthy babies but they are soon forgotten. Sometimes they smack the baby on the butt to clear the airway, and newborn babies can have blood on them from the placenta being pulled from the walls of the uterus or from an episiotomy.

Posted in Riddles
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Bowl That Can’t Be Filled

I am as round and deep as a bowl, but all the world’s water couldn’t fill me up. What am I?

A sieve.

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Bank Wait Times

Suppose a small bank has one teller and customer transactions take 10 minutes on average. With 5.8 customers arriving per hour, what is the expected wait time? What would it be if you added a second teller?

With one teller, customers will wait nearly five hours on average. But adding a second teller makes the wait go down to 3 minutes.

Thanks to John D. Cook for this one.

Posted in Brain Teasers

How Are These Countries Ordered?

How are these countries ordered?

1. Canada
2. Indonesia
3. Russia
4. Philippines
5. Japan
6. Australia
7. Norway
8. United States
9. New Zealand
10. China

By kilometers of coastline (according to the CIA World Factbook).

1. Canada – 202,080 km / 125,567 mi
2. Indonesia – 54,716 km / 33,998 mi
3. Russia – 37,653 km / 23,396 mi
4. Philippines – 36,289 km / 22548 mi
5. Japan – 29,751 km / 18,486 mi
6. Australia – 25,760 km / 16,006 mi
7. Norway – 25,148 km / 15,626 mi
8. United States – 19,924 km / 12,380 mi
9. New Zealand – 15,134 km / 9403 mi
10. China – 14,500 km / 9009 mi

Note: Greenland has 44,087 km of coastline but it is not yet a fully independent country.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Snake Coiled Round and Round

Snake coiled round and round,
Snake deep below the ground,
Snake that’s never had a head,
Snake that binds but not with dread.

A rope.

Posted in Riddles

A Word of Weather

Find this eight-letter word.

The first four letters are a variation of the weather.
The third through seventh letters give support but also could used when someone is executed.
And the last three letters forms the name of a person.

What’s the word?

Mistaken.

Mist = Variation of weather.
Stake = a tent stake or when someone is burned at the stake.
Ken = a person’s name.

Posted in Riddles

Go in Dry, Come Out Wet

I go in dry and come out wet,
The longer I’m in, the stronger it will get.

What am I?

A tea bag or cement.

Posted in Riddles