I debated adding this riddle because it is less of a riddle and more of an illustration of how kids are (or are not) being taught to think for themselves. But after reading how kids feel the need to make up an answer without understanding why, I thought this could be a good reminder for all of us to exercise our critical thinking skills.
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?
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.
A comb. Other inanimate objects with teeth like a saw, zipper or a gear can “bite” you. Many people can affirm from painful experience in regards to zippers and saws, and the unfortunate factory worker who is missing a finger can attest to gears. It’s a rare event that anyone would be injured by a comb.
They are the only letters in the alphabet that are not found at the beginning of the name of a state in the United States of America. The rest of the letters in the alphabet, namely ACDFGHIKLMNOPRSTUVW, start the name of at least one state. Incidentally, eight different states each start with the letters M and N, tying them for the most states starting with a particular letter. The next highest is a three-way tie between A, I and W with four each.
1020. There are 6 men with 2 legs each, for a total of 12 legs. There are 36 cats with 4 legs each for a total of 144 legs. There are 216 kittens with 4 legs each for a total of 864 legs 12 + 144 + 864 = 1020.
The Pope has it but he does not use it. Your father has it but your mother uses it. Nuns do not need it. Arnold Schwarzenneger has a big one, Michael J. Fox’s is quite small. What is it?
Fred was almost done packing for the day, with five packages left. Unfortunately, Fred dropped the labels and had no idea which label went to which package. What is the probability that Fred managed to correctly label exactly four of the five packages?
Zero. If Fred had correctly labeled four packages, the fifth label would belong to the fifth package and all packages would be correctly labeled. Therefore it is impossible to mislabel exactly four packages.
