Subtracting Ten From A Hundred

How many times can you subtract 10 from 100?

Only once. The next time you’d be subtracting 10 from 90.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Black When Clean and White When Dirty

What is black when it’s clean and white when it’s dirty?

A chalkboard (or blackboard). It’s solid black when clean, and as you write on it with white chalk it becomes dirty.

Posted in Riddles

A Leathery Snake

A leathery snake,
With a stinging bite,
I’ll stay coiled up,
Unless I must fight.

A whip.

Posted in Riddles

I Make Men Crazy

I can make men crazy,
I shine when you retire.
I move water without a touch,
My colors may cause you ire.

The moon. The moon has a long association with being crazy (lunar being the basis for a lunatic). It shines at night, when you go to bed. The moon’s gravity creates the ocean tides and when the moon is different colors it can mean bad weather is on its way.

Posted in Riddles

Bricks to Finish a Building

How many bricks does it take to finish a brick building?

One (the last one is the only one that can finish the building).

Posted in Riddles

Stand Take Mine

What does this sentence represent?

Stand   Take  Mine  Taking
  I     You    To     My

I understand you undertake to undermine my undertaking.

Posted in Brain Teasers
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Cannot Hear or Even See

I cannot hear or even see,
But sense light and sounds there may be,
Sometimes I end up on a hook,
I can be combined with a book.

What am I?

A worm. Worms don’t have eyes or ears, but they can sense light and their bodies can detect vibrations in the ground. Fishers use worms as bait and the term bookwork is used for someone who loves to read.

Posted in Riddles

Bank Wait Times

Suppose a small bank has one teller and customer transactions take 10 minutes on average. With 5.8 customers arriving per hour, what is the expected wait time? What would it be if you added a second teller?

With one teller, customers will wait nearly five hours on average. But adding a second teller makes the wait go down to 3 minutes.

Thanks to John D. Cook for this one.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Measured But Not Seen

What can be measured but not seen?

Time. Or my toes when I’ve had one too many donuts…

Posted in Riddles

A Black Dog Night

A completely black dog was strolling down main street during a total blackout affecting the entire town. Not a single streetlight had been on for hours. As the dog crosses the center of the road a Buick Skylark with two broken headlights speeds towards it, but manages to swerve out of the way just in time. How could the driver see the dog to swerve in time?

It was during the day.

Posted in Brain Teasers