Words With Many Faces

My letters become three faces,
One has gone to far away places,
Another sets a standard high,
The third can never be a guy.

What are the three words?

Sailed, ideals and ladies.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Bird Flying Over the Ocean

When a bird flies over the ocean a part of the body touches the water but doesn’t get wet. What part is it?

The shadow

Posted in Riddles

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.

Posted in Brain Teasers

You Read Me Daily

I am a seven letter word, you read me daily. Letters 567 increase every year. The third and fourth letters are the same and my 325 letters cover about 70% of the world. What am I?

message. Letters 567 are your age, which goes up every year. Letters 3 and 4 (both s) are in fact the same, and letters 325 spell sea, and estimates say that the earth is covered by about 70% water.

Posted in Riddles

Rotating Coins Around Coins

You have two coins of equal size on a table, situated end to end vertically. If you roll the top coin around the bottom coin until it returns to its original position, how many times will it have rotated?

Twice. See this video for more details.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Favorite Pet is a Fish

I died and came back to life. My blood is not easily able to go through my body. My favorite pet is a fish. Who am I?

A shark. Sharks experience tonic immobility, also known as apparent death, where they appear to have died. Blood does not easily flow through their bodies, forcing sharks to swim continuously to circulate their blood. Lastly, sharks have pet fish called Remora (sometimes called suckerfish). They feed on parasites on the sharks and leftovers, and they use the shark as transport and protection.

A big thanks to Saravana for answering this.

Posted in Riddles

You Heard Me Before

You heard me before,
Yet you hear me again,
Then I die,
‘Till you call me again.

An echo.

Posted in Riddles

How to Save Gas

If you could chose to increase the average fuel economy of a car, which of these would save the most fuel?

1. 10mpg -> 12mpg
2. 12mpg -> 15mpg
3. 15mpg -> 20mpg
4. 20mpg -> 30mpg
5. 30mpg -> 60mpg

It turns out they all save the same amount of fuel.

If you travel 100 miles:

100 / 10 = 10 gallons used
100 / 12 = 8 1/3 gallons used

10 – 8 1/3 = 1 2/3 gallons saved

100 / 30 = 3 1/3 gallons used
100 / 60 = 1 2/3 gallons used

3 1/3 – 1 2/3 = 1 2/3 gallons saved

Posted in Brain Teasers

Thanks, You’re Fired

A man is leaving on a business trip and stops by his office on the way to the airport. The night watchman stops him and says, “Sir, don’t take that flight. I had a dream last night that your plane would crash and everyone would die!” The business man cancels his trip and sure enough, the plane crashes, killing all the passengers. The man gives his watchman a $10,000 reward for saving his life, then fires him. Why?

Because his night watchman was sleeping on the job.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Special Two Letter Combinations

What do these three letter combinations have in common?

DE
HI
MN

Hint: These combinations don’t have it in common.

AK
IN
WY

They are the only three US state abbreviations whose two letters are next to each other in the alphabet.

DE – Delaware
HI – Hawaii
MN – Minnesota

Posted in Brain Teasers