The Truck and the Plane

A delivery truck from the post office is sent to the airport to meet a cargo plane at its planned arrival time. The plane lands ahead of schedule and its contents are brought toward the post office by bicycle. After a half hour, the bicycle meets the truck and the mail is transferred.

The truck returns from the post office 20 minutes early. How early did the plane arrive? (Assume all transactions are instantaneous)

The delivery truck arrived back 20 minutes early, so it would have taken 20 minutes to go from where it met the bicycle to get to the airport and back. Therefore, the bicycle and truck met when the truck was 10 minutes from the airport. Adding those 10 minutes to the 30 minutes the truck had already driven to meet the bicycle means the plane arrived 40 minutes ahead of schedule.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Jack, George and Anne

Jack is looking at Anne, but Anne is looking at George. Jack is married, but George is not. Is a married person looking at an unmarried person?

A) Yes
B) No
C) Cannot be determined

A. If Anne is married, she’s looking at George, who is unmarried. If Anne is unmarried, Jack is looking at her.

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Same Forward, Backwards or Upside Down

What word can be written forward, backward or upside down while still remaining the same word?

NOON.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Two Days of the Week Starting With T

What two days of the week start with ‘T’, other than Tuesday and Thursday?

Today and tomorrow.

Posted in Riddles

I A N Rebus

What does the following rebus represent?

I           A
      N
R           B

Scatterbrain.

Posted in Riddles
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Two Hands But Can’t Clap

I have two hands but I cannot clap. What am I?

A clock.

Posted in Riddles
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Animal Kingdom Quiz

This is a four-part brain teaser.

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?
2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?
3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend except one. Which animal doesn’t attend?
4. There is a river you must cross but it is used by crocodiles and you don’t have a boat. How can you cross safely?

1. Open the refrigerator, put the giraffe in and close the door. It’s not complicated.
2. Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, then put in the elephant and close the door.
3. The elephant. He’s still in the refrigerator. After all, you just put him there.
4. Jump into the river and swim across. The crocodiles are at the Lion King’s animal meeting.
I admit, this is not a typical brain teaser, but it amused me.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Planting Trees on Arbor Day

On Arbor Day the fourth grade class began planting trees. They finished planting five trees before the fifth grade class arrived. But they accidentally planted them on the fifth grade side of the street.

The fourth-graders crossed the street to start over, and the fifth-graders planted the remaining trees. They finished first and felt bad for the fourth-graders, so they crossed the street and planted five trees. They planted another five trees at which point all of the trees had been planted.

By how many trees were the fifth-graders ahead of the fourth-graders?

Ten. The fifth-graders planted five more trees than they were assigned, and the fourth-graders planted five fewer than their assignment.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Finding Rhymes in Categories

Find rhymes for each set of words so the first is a category and the rest are items in the category.

For example, LOYALTY: spring, clean, rinse → ROYALTY: king, queen, prince

1. LOIN: mortar, climb, pickle
2. SQUISH: famine, search, doubt
3. GILDING: radium, Bose, hassle
4. THYME: surgery, girder, scrutiny

1. COIN: quarter, dime, nickel
2. FISH: salmon, perch, trout
3. BUILDING: stadium, mosque, castle
4. CRIME: perjury, murder, mutiny

Posted in Brain Teasers

I Lack Much Reason, But Often Rhyme

I lack much reason, but often rhyme,
And require logic to pass the time,
To get the words to tell your kin,
Look for clues that lie within,
Though all are different, they act the same,
The answer is practically in the name.

What am I?

A riddle.

Posted in Riddles