Travel Far Before You Turn It Over

You have to travel far before you turn it over. What is it?

An odometer.

Posted in Riddles

The Boat at High Tide

A boat has a ladder that has six rungs. Each rung is one foot apart. The bottom rung is one foot from the water. The tide rises at 12 inches every 15 minutes. High tide peaks in one hour.

When the tide is at its highest, how many rungs are under water?

None. The boat is floating on the water, so as the tide rises, so does the ladder.

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Longest Double Letter Word

What is the longest unscientific English word that uses every letter in the word exactly twice? For example, noon has two Ns and two Os, but it’s not nearly long enough.

Happenchance. There are two Hs, two As, and so on for all the letters in the word. The longest scientific word with the same property is probably esophagographers.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Singular When Adding an S

There are many English words that you can add an “s” to make it plural. But far fewer words become singular when you add an “s”. What are two examples of these much rarer words?

Cares -> Caress
Princes -> Princess

Posted in Brain Teasers

An Eye In A Blue Face

An eye in a blue face
Saw an eye in a green face.
‘That eye is like this eye’
Said the first eye,
But in a low, not high place.

The sun shining on daisies.

Posted in Riddles

Made of Ten But Two We Make

Made of ten but two we make,
When assembled others quake,
Five apart and we are weak,
Five together havoc wreak.

What are we?

A fist.

Posted in Riddles

Lucrezia Borgia

Lucrezia Borgia invited a prospective victim to lunch. They ate a hearty meal of roast venison, with a selection of fresh vegetables, all washed down with the finest wine imported from Bordeaux, France.

After the meal, they ate figs and freshly picked grapes.

“Just one apple left”, said Lucrezia, “I insist you have it.

“No”, said the guest, “I couldn’t”.

“Tell you what”, said Lucrezia, “we’ll share it”, and promptly sliced the apple in two with her sharpest knife. The guest and Lucrezia started to eat their respective halves when the guest’s eyes rolled towards the ceiling and he fell over, dead.

“Another victim successfully dispatched,” thought Lucrezia.

How did she do it?

She used a knife coated on just one edge with cyanide. When she sliced the apple in two, only the victim’s half was poisoned.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Six Nine Twenty-Seven

What is N?

6, 9, 27, 54, N, 2241

675.

The next number in the sequence is n squared minus m or f(n,m) = n2 – m
f(6,9) = 62 – 9 = 27
f(9,27) = 92 – 27 = 54
f(27,54) = 272 – 54 = 675
f(54,675) = 542 – 675 = 2241

Posted in Brain Teasers
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Earthen Home Not a Den

This earthen home is not a den.
I’ve seen impressive rows of them.
As lost as any man becomes,
he always finds his way back home.

A grave.

By Sef Daystrom

Posted in Riddles

A Word That Has No End

I’m a five-letter word that has no end, Commit a sin? One through three can amend, One, four and five are something alive, Two and three occur near to thee.

What am I?

Abyss. aby is an archaic word meaning to pay the penalty for. An ass, otherwise known as a donkey, is alive and “by” is another way of saying near to you.

Posted in Riddles