A Group of Three

I give you a group of three. One is sitting down, and will never get up. The second eats as much as is given to him, yet is always hungry. The third goes away and never returns.

Stove, fire, smoke.

Posted in Riddles

Word Pairs to Create a New Word

One letter can be used to replace the first letter of each word pair below to create two new English words. The new letters can then be combined to spell a word. What is that word?

MAIL ____ PINK
CART ____ SAID
GRID ____ RIMLESS
LINK ____ BOUND
ROWED ____ RIPPLE

SMART

SAIL – SINK
MART – MAID
ARID – AIMLESS
RINK – ROUND
TOWED – TIPPLE

Posted in Brain Teasers

Take Away All My Letters

Take away my first letter,
Take away my second letter,
Take away all my letters,
and I remain the same.

What am I?

A mail carrier. Even when there aren’t any letters left to deliver, they’re job is still the mail carrier.

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My Tines

My tines are long.
My tines are short.
My tines end ere
My first report.

What am I?

A lightning bolt.

Posted in Riddles

Black We Are And Much Admired

Black we are and much admired,
men seek us if they are tired,
We tire the horse, comfort man,
guess this riddle if you can.

Coal.

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Lots and Lots of Granola Bars

Marla needs snacks for the students on her field trip. She bought 9 boxes of granola bars containing a total of 88 bars. She wanted variety, so she bought 3 different flavors, which happened to come from 3 different companies.

The Coconut Almond bars were packaged 8 to a box.
The Chewy Chocolate Chip bars came 10 to a box.
The Oats ‘n Honey package contained 12 per box.

She bought the most boxes of Coconut Almond but had the most Oats ‘n Honey bars.

How many of each did she buy?

Coconut Almond: 4 boxes × 8 in a box = 32 bars
Chewy Chocolate Chip: 2 boxes × 10 in a box = 20 bars
Oats ‘n Honey: 3 boxes × 12 in a box = 36 bars

Posted in Brain Teasers

Four Cards

Four cards are placed in front of you on the table, each with a number on one side and a color on the other. The visible cards show 3, 8, red and brown. Which cards should you turn over in order to test the truth of the statement that if a card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite face is red?

four-cards

You’d need to turn over only the 8 and brown card. Only a card with an even number on one face and which is not red on the other face can invalidate the stated rule. If you turn over the 3 card and it’s not red, it doesn’t invalidate the rule, nor does turning over the red card and finding it has the label 3.

This test was devised by Peter Cathcart Wason and is known as the Wason selection task. Less than 10% of test subjects got it correct in two separate studies.

Posted in Brain Teasers

I Have Four Pairs of Letters

I have four pairs of letters,
Leaving two to stand alone.
You’re often doing the opposite,
When playing on your phone.

I help you get things done,
With one big caveat,
If taken to extremes,
I could make you fat.

What am I?

Efficiency. Being efficient helps you get things done, but if you’re extremely efficient with your tasks you get less exercise.

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A Perfect Counterfeit

A man can make perfect counterfeit bills. They look exactly like real ones, they’re made of exactly the same materials, made the same way, everything. So perfect, one could pretty much call them real bills. One day he successfully makes a perfect copy of another bill. However, he gets caught when he tries to use the copy. How is this possible?

As a counterfeiter, he had lots of counterfeit bills around and he accidentally used one of them as his original. So he made a perfect copy of a counterfeit bill.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Grow In Trees and Have No Teeth

I grow in trees, eat living things but have no teeth and give birth to something that looks nothing like me. What am I?

A bird. They are hatched and raised in trees (nests), don’t have teeth in the traditional meaning of teeth and they lay eggs, which look nothing like a bird.

A butterfly / caterpillar could also work.

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