I’m up and down and round about, yet all the world can’t find me out. Though thousands have employed their leisure, they never yet could find my measure. I’m found in almost every garden, In a compass or a farden. There’s neither chariot coach nor mill may move one inch except I will.
I was standing by a railing, watching a ship a sailing. What is the Captain’s name. If you don’t know his name, It’s you to blame. What is the Captain’s name.
Thanks to Sherry for submitting this one. Here’s the backstory of the riddle.
“One of my favorites I remember as a child from my father, he always said it was a Newfoundland riddle. I don’t know where it may have originated. This is usually spoken. Ensure you say it as a statement and not a question.”
A similar problem can be found in L.A. Graham’s Ingenious Mathematical Problems and Methods with a range of 1 to 9, but the principle remains the same – the numbers with the smallest difference produce the largest product. You start out with the highest two digits, 7 and 6, then attach 5 and 4, putting the smaller of the two digits with the larger number, giving you 74 and 65. The next two highest digits are 3 and 2, giving you 742 and 653. Finally, you add the 1 to the lower number. Page 80 has the details of that solution.
I am a word of meanings three. Three ways of spelling me there be. The first is an odour, a smell if you will. The second some money, but not in a bill. The third is past tense, a method of passing things on or around.
Can you tell me now, what these words are, that have the same sound?
The next number in the series counts the previous numbers. Thus the first number is 1, which is one 1, or 11. To describe 11, you have two 1’s, or 21. Now you have one 2 and one 1, so the next number is 1211. The solution is to continue describing the previous number using only numbers.