It Scares Animals

A seven letter word that has T as the second letter, A as the fourth letter and S as the sixth letter. Girls love it, boys use it, parents hate it and it scares animals. Hint: It’s a German word.

A persistent puzzle solver will discover that no English word satisfies the letter requirements, to say nothing of the loving, using, hating or being scared requirements. I found three German words that work:

1) strafst
2) strapse
3) strauss

1 and 3 mean punish and bouquet respectively. I couldn’t find a definition for strapse. Punish is the likely answer. Girls love to punish boys, boys use punishment as well, a good parent hates to use punishment and animals are scared of it. I don’t know of any animals that are scared of a bouquet, though a bouquet fits as something girls love and boys use.

Posted in Riddles

First In Flower and In Rose

My first is in FLOWER and in ROSE
My second is in FORK and well as HOSE
My third is in CROCUS but not in GNOME
My fourth is in RAKE never in HOME
My fifth is in HOE and also in WEEDS
My sixth is in SHEARS though not in SEEDS
My seventh is in LADYBIRD not in CREATURE

What am I?

Rockery

Posted in Riddles

Weighty Wine

How much does a bottle of wine weigh if it is 1 kilogram plus half its own weight?

2 kg.

If we let half of the bottle’s weight be “n”, then we get the following equation: n/2 + 1kg = n (the bottle’s weight).

Solve for n:
n/2 + 1 = n
1 = n/2
2 = n

Posted in Brain Teasers

Two Three Four Fifteen

What is the missing number?

2 3 4 15 12
3 4 5 28 20
4 5 6 45 30
5 6 7 66 42
6 7 8 ?? 56

91. To get the number in the fourth column, you add the numbers in column 1 and 2, then multiply by the number in column 2. f(n,m) = (n + m) * m
For example, f(2,3) = (2 + 3) * 3 = 15. Thus f(6,7) = (6 + 7) * 7 = 91

Posted in Brain Teasers
Tagged with

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

One In China

I am one in China,
Two in Indonesia,
Three in the Philippines,
None in Japan.

What am I?

The letter ‘i’.

Posted in Riddles
Tagged with

What Every Man Has and Gives To Their Wife

What does every man have, some longer or shorter than others and they give it to their wife when they get married?

Note: This may not be appropriate for younger ages.

A last name.

Posted in Riddles
Tagged with

From Cold To Warm In Four Steps

How do you get from cold to warm in four steps, changing only one letter at a time to form a new word at each step?

cold
cord
word
worm
warm

An alternative is:
cold
cord
word
ward
warm

Yet another option, thanks to Beth:
cold
cord
card
ward
warm

Posted in Brain Teasers

Brandon at the Carnival

Brandon was walking around at the carnival. A man called out from a booth and said, “If I can write your exact weight on this piece of paper, you have to pay me $50. If I can’t do it, I’ll pay you $50.”

Brandon checked the booth for a scale but saw nothing. He agreed. Since your weight can fluctuate by a pound or two, he decided that no matter what number the man wrote, he would just say he weighed a pound more or less. In the end, the man in the booth won the $50. How did he do it?

The man in the booth wrote the words, “Your exact weight” on the piece of paper. Brandon paid up.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Shorter Word

What word becomes shorter when you add letters to it?

Short. Adding ‘er’ to short gives you shorter.

Posted in Riddles