Petals Around the Rose

Here are five rolls of dice, with their score.

Roll #1 – Score: 6

Roll #2 – Score: 4

Roll #3 – Score: 4

Roll #4 – Score: 8

Roll #5: 0

This is what you know:

1. The name of this game is significant (Petals Around the Rose)
2. The answer is always even

How is the score determined?

The solution is to count the dots (petals) surrounding the center dot (the rose).

Only odd numbers have a center dot, so even numbers (2, 4 and 6) are worth zero.

1 doesn’t have any surrounding dots, so it too is worth zero.

The three has two dots surrounding the center, so it’s worth two.

A five has four petals around the rose making it worth four.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Girls Like, Boys Use

What 8-letter word describes something girls like, boys use and parents are afraid of yet remember fondly?

Hint: It has these letters: macroitn

Romantic. Many girls like being romantic, boys become romantic to win the hearts of girls and parents are afraid of too much romantic activity with their kids, but remember their own romantic endeavors fondly.

Posted in Brain Teasers

250 Lbs Across the River

Two boys weighing 50 pounds each and their older brother weighing 100 pounds wish to cross a river. Their boat will only hold 100 pounds. How can they all cross the river in the boat?

Two 50lb boys cross, one comes back.
100lb boy crosses, other 50lb boy returns
Both 50lb boys cross.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Pushing Car Past Hotel Lands You in Jail

A man pushes his car by a hotel and gets sent to jail. Why?

The man is playing monopoly, and landed on the Go To Jail space. An alternative version of this is, “A man stops his car in front of a hotel and immediately knows he is bankrupt.” The answer is the same, that he’s playing Monopoly, but this time he landed on a space with a hotel and didn’t have enough money to pay the bill.

Posted in Brain Teasers

13579U

What does this represent?

13579U

The odds are against you. All of the odd single-digit numbers are lined up next to the letter u, representing the word you.

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Imprisoned In Wood and Never Released

I am taken from a mine and shut up in a wooden case from which I am never released. Yet I am used by almost everybody. What am I?

Pencil lead. While modern pencils don’t contain lead, that’s still what we call the graphite compound. When real lead was used in pencils it was mined and nearly everyone has used a pencil at some point in their life.

Posted in Riddles

Something To Everybody And Nothing To Everyone Else

What is something to everybody and nothing to everyone else?

Your mind.

Posted in Riddles

Four Colored Balls in Gym Class

Four different-colored balls are being used in a gym class activity – blue, red, yellow and orange. Each student must hold two different-colored balls, but no two students can have the same two colors (for example, only one student can hold the blue and red ball).

How many students can play the game?

Six. If you prefer math, you can calculate it as 4 combination 2

4! / (2!)^2
24 / 4 = 6

Or you can work it out manually:

1. Blue Red
2. Blue Yellow
3. Blue Orange
4. Red Yellow
5. Red Orange
6. Yellow Orange

Posted in Brain Teasers

Nearly Hanging

A prisoner is told, “If you tell a lie we will hang you; if you tell the truth we will shoot you.”

What can he say to save himself?

You will hang me. If they hang him, then the statement was true and they could only hang him for telling a lie. If they shoot him, then it makes the statement a lie and they were only to shoot him for telling the truth. An alternate solution is to say, “You will not shoot me,” leading to the same quandary for the killers.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Five Letters But One Left When Two Removed

What word of five letters has only one left when two letters are removed?

Any 5-letter word with the word ‘one’ somewhere in it. Examples include shone, stone, alone, money, loner, phone or ornery. Note it doesn’t say there is only one letter left, but only ‘one’ left. Tricky tricky.

Posted in Riddles