Cat-Related Phrases

What are these words or phrases, which contain the word cat?

A dreadful event (11 letters)
A robber who climbs walls (10 letters, 2 words)
A systematic list (7 letters)

Catastrophe
Cat Burglar
Catalog

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I Wave But Never Say Goodbye

I wave my hands at you,
But I never say goodbye.

You’re always cool with me,
Even cooler when I’m high.

What am I?

An electric fan

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The Best of Three Evils

A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions that haven’t eaten in 3 months.

Which room should he choose to have the best chance of staying alive?

The third room, since the lions would have died from starvation.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Snakes and Mice

On a remote (imaginary) island, there are 11 snakes and a single mouse. As you’d expect, snakes eat the mice. But contrary to what you’d expect, when a snake eats a mouse, it turns into one.

The snakes live by only two rules:

1. Don’t get eaten.
2. Eat mice as long as rule #1 isn’t violated.

How many snakes and mice will there be left on the island?

10 snakes, 1 mouse.

If there were only a single snake and mouse, the snake could eat the mouse, then turn into one, leaving a single mouse.

If there were two snakes and a single mouse, rule 2 would keep either of the snakes from eating the mouse to avoid being eaten themselves.

With three snakes and one mouse, one of the snakes could eat a mouse and be safe as a mouse thanks to rule 2.

This pattern continues. With an even number of snakes, nothing happens. With an odd number of snakes, one snake can eat the mouse.

Thus, with 11 snakes, one snake would eat the mouse, turn into one and leave 10 snakes and 1 mouse.

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Five Items In a Tennis Court

We’re five little items of an everyday sort. You’ll find us all in a tennis court. What are we?

The vowels. The phrase “a tennis court” contains all five vowels sorted in alphabetic order: a, e, i, o, u.

Posted in Riddles

Humans and Animals

I am important to both human beings and animals. Both search for me but it is hard to find me. I travel to benefit them. What am I?

A scent or smell. A scent is important to both humans and animals and both search for scents (for different reasons). A scent travels through the air to benefit humans and animals, again, for different reasons.

Special thanks to Vavessa for the answer to this one.

Posted in Riddles

Pot

What does this represent?

Pot OOOOOOOO

Potatoes (Pot + 8 Os)

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Horse Fence

Farmer Finnegan needs to build a fence to keep his horses on his property. He only has a little over 1.5 miles of fence materials, but there’s also a mile-long straight river running through his property. What shape should he use for the fenced in area to give his horses the most space possible?

Our dear friend Finnegan should build a half-circle fence with the river as the diameter, giving the horses about 0.4 square miles to frolic and play in.

Area of semi-circle = πr2 / 2 = π × .5 miles2 / 2 = 0.3927

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A Family of Seven

I’m a family of seven,
Two are bitter and harsh,
Four are twins,
The last is the warmest of all.

What family am I?

The Seven Seas. The first two are bitter and harsh, the north and south ones are the twins, and the Indian Ocean is the warmest of the bunch.

  1. Arctic Ocean
  2. Antarctic Ocean
  3. North Atlantic Ocean
  4. South Atlantic Ocean
  5. North Pacific Ocean
  6. South Pacific Ocean
  7. Indian Ocean
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Gain and Lose the Most

Some are quick to take it.
Others must be coaxed.
Those who choose to take it
gain and lose the most.

Risk.

By Sef Daystrom

Posted in Riddles