Wear Black

What does this represent?

Wear
Black

Black underwear.

Posted in Riddles

A Ton of Fun

Use each clue to identify a famous person who last name ends in the letters T-O-N, like George Washington.

1. Friends star
2. Cotton Club bandleader
3. Batman and Beetlejuice lead
4. Blonde, buxom country music legend

Halfway there!

5. Steamboat developer
6. Author of The Age of Innocence
7. Found of a Kmart rival and a Club
8. She lead a news website called The (her last name) Post

1. Jennifer Aniston
2. Duke Ellington
3. Michael Keaton
4. Dolly Parton

Did you do well so far?

5. Robert Fulton
6. Edith Wharton
7. Sam Walton
8. Arianna Huffington

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Right Combination of Letters and Values

The letters A through H can be assigned the following values to make all the equations true. Find the right combination of letter values.

Values: 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 14, 16, 21

C + F = G
A + C = F
B + G = D
B + E = H
D + F = H

A = 1
B = 7
C = 4
D = 16
E = 14
F = 5
G = 9
H = 21

Posted in Brain Teasers

Hangs Others

What hangs others yet can unintentionally hang itself?

A jury.

Posted in Riddles

An Apparition

Two people were in a house. No one came in or went out, but then there were three people. What happened?

The two people were a husband and an expectant wife, who gave birth to her baby.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Progressive Countdown

If you’re given a number, subtract 1, then 2 from the result, then 3 from that result and so on until you reach 0 or a negative number.

For example, if you’re given 15:

15 – 1 = 14
14 – 2 = 12
12 – 3 = 9
9 – 4 = 5
5 – 5 = 0

Which of these numbers will finish exactly at zero?

102 103 104 105 106

105

105 – 1 = 104
104 – 2 = 102
102 – 3 = 99
99 – 4 = 95
95 – 5 = 90
90 – 6 = 84
84 – 7 = 77
77 – 8 = 69
69 – 9 = 60
60 – 10 = 50
50 – 11 = 39
39 – 12 = 27
27 – 13 = 14
14 – 14 = 0

Posted in Brain Teasers

Apples and Lies

During lunch hour a group of boys from Mr. Bryant’s homeroom visited a nearby grocery store. One of the five took an apple.

Jim said, “It was Hank or Tom”.
Hank said, “Neither Eddie nor I did it.”
Tom said, “Both of you are lying.”
Don said, “No, one of them is lying, the other is speaking the truth.”
Eddie said, “No, Don, that is not true.”
When Mr. Bryant was consulted, he said, “Three of these boys are always truthful but two will lie every time.”

Who took the apple?

Tom took the apple
Jim was telling the truth
Hank was telling the truth
Tom was lying
Don was lying
Eddie was telling the truth
(three telling the truth and two lying)

Posted in Brain Teasers

Code in the Cold

Last winter I found myself locked out of my house because I couldn’t remember the 5-digit code to open the garage door. I used the following facts to get inside.

1. The second and third digits add up to 9.
2. The first digit is equal to the second digit cubed.
3. The sum of the third and fifth digits is the smallest number with exactly five divisors.
4. The fourth digit is equal to 6 times the second-to-last digit.
5. None of the digits repeat.

What was the code?

82709

If we label each digit a, b, c, d and e, we get the following equations.
1. b + c = 9
2. a = b3
3. c + e = 16 (since 16 is the smallest number with five divisors – 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16).
4. d = 6 * d (The fourth and second-to-last digits are the same number, meaning d must be zero to satisfy the equation)
5. b must be zero, one or two (b can’t be three because that makes a=27, which isn’t a single digit). Zero and one result in duplicate digits (00907 and 11808 respectively) so the only remaining value for b is 2, giving us 82709 and warmth.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Woman Shoots Her Husband

A woman shoots her husband, then holds him under water for five minutes. Finally, she hangs him. Five minutes later they enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How can this be?

She took a photo of him and developed it in the dark room.

Posted in Riddles

Tabitha and Ronan’s Age

Tabitha is 13 years old. Her father Ronan is 40 years old. How many years ago was Ronan four times as old as Tabitha?

Four years ago, when Tabitha was 9 and Ronan was 36 (9 × 4 = 36)

Posted in Brain Teasers