Everyone Has It

Everyone has it.
Those who have it least don’t know that they have it.
Those who have it most wish they had less of it,
but not too little or none at all.

Age. Young children don’t even know their age and extremely old folks wish they could turn back the hands of time, but not so much that they’re too young or they no longer have an age at all.

By Sef Daystrom

Posted in Riddles

Seemingly Simple Math

What is the answer to this math problem:

8 ÷ 2 (2 + 2)

16 or 1, depending.

According to PEMDAS, parentheses come first: 8 ÷ 2 (4)

Then, even though multiplication is first in PEMDAS, you go left to right: 4 (4) = 16

If you got 1, you’re in good company. That’s what I got at first too but most calculators I’ve tried get 16.

I found this at Popular Mechanics and the debate continues online.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Longer With a Letter Removed

What 7-letter word becomes longer when you remove a letter?

Lounger (remove the ‘u’ to make the word longer).

Posted in Riddles

Exist Between Two Things

It can only exist between any two things
and men know it well for the hardships it brings.

Distance.

By Sef Daystrom

Posted in Riddles

Rope Around The Earth

If a piece of rope was tightly wrapped around the earth and you added 3 feet to its length, how high could you uniformly raise it from the earth’s surface?

Just short of 6 inches.

Thanks to Nigel Coldwell for this one.

Posted in Brain Teasers

At Night They Come

At night they come without being fetched. By day they are lost without being stolen. What are they?

The stars.

Posted in Riddles

Whoever Makes Me Can Hear Me

Whoever makes me can hear me, but to all others I’m silent. What am I?

A thought in your head. You can hear it, but no one else can. Unless you read minds, but then you’d have bigger problems, like figuring how how to remain sane in large crowds.

Posted in Riddles
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Cannot Keep Until Given

You cannot keep me until you have given me. What am I?

Your word.

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Balance Twelve Eggs

Suppose you have twelve eggs and a balance scale. All of the eggs are identical except for one whose only difference is its weight. Using the scale only three times, determine which egg is the odd egg out and whether it is heavier or lighter than the other eggs.

Weigh four against four. If they’re equal, weigh three of them against three you haven’t weighed. If they balance too, weigh the last remaining egg against any of the others to see if it is lighter or heavier. If the three suspects are heavier, weigh one of them against another and the one that goes down is it. If they balance the remaining suspect is heavy. Use the same process if they’re lighter. If the initial four vs four don’t balance, weigh two heavy eggs and a light egg against one heavy egg, one light one and a known normal egg. If they balance weigh the remaining two light eggs against each other. If they balance the unweighed heavy egg is the odd one out. If the side with two heavy eggs goes down weigh them against each other. If they balance it is the light egg on the other side. If the other side goes down it is either because of one heavy egg on that side or because the one light egg on the other side is lighter than the rest. Weigh one of them against a known normal egg to determine which is true.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Alone I’m Unknown

Alone I’m unknown,
With my twin I’m twenty,
And triplets make me a warning.

What am I?

The letter ‘X’. A single x is often used in math as an unknown, along with Mr. X. Two together (XX) make the Roman numeral 20, and three signifies a warning for adult only content, or a warning to other programmers of a problem in source code.

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