Slayer of Regrets

Slayer of regrets
old and new,
sought by many,
found by few.

Redemption. It can get rid of regrets, many people seek it but few find it.

By Sef Daystrom

Posted in Riddles

What Times Seven Is All Fours?

What is the smallest integer that is all 4s when multiplied by 7?

63,492 × 7 = 444,444

Posted in Brain Teasers

As I went over London Bridge

As I went over London Bridge
I met my sister Jenny
I broke her neck and drank her blood
And left her standing empty

A bottle of gin.

Posted in Riddles

Alphabetized Letters

What well known series can these alphabetized letters be rearranged to form?

aaaaaabdeeghllmmptt

Alpha, beta, gamma, delta

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Ages of a Prince and Princess

A princess is as old as the prince will be when the princess is twice the age that the prince was when the princess’s age was half the sum of their present ages.

What are their ages?

This one took a while to figure out and there are numerous valid ways of finding the answer.

Here is the solution I came up with

I created the following table from the riddle:

 CurrentFuturePast
Princessx2z(x+y)/2
Princeyxz

I then created three equations, since the difference in their age will always be the same.
d = the difference in ages
x – y = d
2z – x = d
x/2 + y/2 – z = d

I then created a matrix and solved it using row reduction.

xyz
1-10d
-102d
.5.5-1d

It reduced to:

xyz
1004d
0103d
0015d/2

This means that you can pick any difference you want (an even one presumably because you want integer ages).
Princess age: 4d
Prince age: 3d

Ages that work

PrincessPrince
43
86
1612
2418
3224
4030
4836
5642
6448
7254
8060

To see other solutions check out the comments from when I posted this on my blog.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Abraham Encoding

The name ABRAHAM can be changed into a word for a primitive musical instrument by replacing each letter with a different letter. The repeated letters (A is this case) must be replaced with the same replacement letter in the new word.

What is the musical instrument?

PANPIPE

Posted in Brain Teasers

I Can Ruin a Lucky Run

I can ruin a lucky run,
Or create an item of wealth,
But for man, woman or child,
I’ll always steal your health.

What am I?

Die. The roll of a die can ruin a game of chance. A die (i.e. mold) is used to create new coins and so far at least, we all die.

Posted in Riddles
Tagged with

Half of Eight

What is half of 8?

Hint: It’s not 4

3 (if you slice vertically) or 0 (if you slice horizontally)

Posted in Brain Teasers

You’ll See Me When the Sun is High and Also Late at Night

You’ll see me when the sun is high and also late at night,
I’m in the songs of holidays, when the snow is white,

Kings and Queens and royalty, are all found in me,
I’m the largest of them all, with just one you see,

Step by step with pounding feet, I’m tribes of angry men,
I’m above your hands right now, for help or to go again,

You’ll use me in the kitchen, or add a little more,
I’ll be in the years to come, and the days of yore.

What am I?

Twelve (12).

Noon and midnight are both 12 o’clock and the Twelve Days of Christmas is a popular Christmas carol.

There are twelve face cards in a standard 52-card deck and twelve is the largest number with one syllable.

There are twelve steps in Alcoholics Anonymous, a troy pound is 12 ounces, there were 12 tribes of Israel and a popular movie was called, “Twelve Angry Men” (12 members of the jury). There are twelve function keys on your keyboard. F1 often shows a help screen and F5 reloads pages in your browser.

Many recipes measure items by the dozen, adding one more for a baker’s dozen. There are twelve months in a year.

It’s surprising how many times the number twelve shows up in our culture.

Posted in Riddles
Tagged with

Three Eyes But One Leg

I have three eyes but only one leg.
I still close one even if you beg.

What am I?

A traffic light. It has three “eyes” (the red, orange and green lights) and the leg is the pole holding it up. Many people beg the light to stay green as they’re approaching.

Posted in Riddles