Odd Row Out

Which row is the odd one out?

A. K N Q T W Z
B. B F J N R V
C. A F K P V Z
D. 3 6 9 12 15 18
E. 7 11 15 19 23 27
F. 13 18 23 28 33 38

C is the odd row out.

In A two letters are skipped between each letter.
In B three letters are skipped between each letter.
In C four letters are skipped between each letter except V, which should be U.
The numbers in rows D, E and F follow the same pattern.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Tabitha and Ronan’s Age

Tabitha is 13 years old. Her father Ronan is 40 years old. How many years ago was Ronan four times as old as Tabitha?

Four years ago, when Tabitha was 9 and Ronan was 36 (9 × 4 = 36)

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As Heavy As Man’s Golden Greed

A metal neither black nor red,
As heavy as man’s golden greed.
What you do to stay ahead,
With friend or foe or arrow and steed.

What am I?

Lead. Lead is a metallic gray, is very heavy and in order to stay ahead of someone, you need to be in the lead.

Posted in Riddles

4 5 6 6

What is the next digit that should appear in this list of numbers?

4 5 6 6 5 4 4 2 ?

7. The digits represent the number of letters in each word of the puzzle. “What” has four letters, “digit” has five letters, “should” has six letters, etc. The last word is “numbers” which has seven letters.

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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).

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Sometimes I’m a Sphere

Sometimes I’m a sphere,
Sometimes I’m a banana,
And sometimes I’m not there at all.

What am I?

The moon. A full moon is a sphere, a crescent moon looks like a banana, and sometimes the moon is not visible at all.

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Forward I’m Heavy

Forward I’m heavy, but backwards I’m not. What am I?

Ton.

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Buckets of Coins

Which would be worth more, a bucket full of nickels or a half bucket of dimes?

The half bucket of dimes. It might be tempting to say they’d be worth the same, since a nickel is worth half as much as a dime. This would be accurate if they were the same size, but the dime is smaller. Thus more dimes would fit in the same space, resulting in more value for you, you lucky dog.

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The Pattern of Numbers

These series follow a pattern.
2 4 8
1 17 476
65 20987 3571890

This series does not follow the pattern
18 79 45

What is the pattern?

The numbers must be in ascending order. This can be a fun one to have people work out in person, as they test out three-number series and you can tell them whether or not they satisfy the pattern.

Thanks to Patrick for sending this in and thanks to this video from Veritasium for inspiring Patrick.

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Four Legs and a Foot

What has four legs and a foot, but can’t walk
And a head but can’t talk?

A bed. The foot of the bed can’t walk and the head of the bed can’t talk. It’s probably a good thing that beds can’t walk and talk. Just think of where they’d go and what they’d say…

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