Often Talked Of But Never Seen

Often talked of, never seen,
Ever coming, never been,
Daily looked for, never here,
Still approaching, coming near,
Thousands for it’s visit wait,
But alas for their fate,
Tho’ they expect me to appear,
They will never find me here.

Tomorrow.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Special Strengths

What’s special about the word “strengths”?

It has a record nine letters but only one vowel, and it’s one of the longest one-syllable words in English.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Ground Not For Thy Daily Bread

Ground not for thy daily bread,
Leave me in my scented bed,
Ignore me not, lest I doth wither,
My name I leave you to consider.

A flower. The soil they grow in is not used for food, like wheat to make bread, but for their smell. A neglected flower will wither.

Posted in Riddles

You’re Halfway There

You’re standing 11 feet away from a doorway and with each step you move halfway to the doorway. How many steps will it take for you to get to the doorway?

Technically, the answer is infinity. If you keep going halfway, you’ll never actually make it to the doorway.

But in practice, after 10 steps you’ll be 1/8th of an inch to the doorway and anyone behind you would say to stop being a baby and take a real step through the doorway already.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Little Miss Eticote

Little Miss Eticote
In her white petticoat
And her red nose
The longer she stands
The shorter she grows

A candle.

Posted in Riddles

Messy Math

What is the answer to this problem?

48 / 2(9 + 3) = ?

It depends. Usually, math has one right answer, but in this case, the order of operations can get a little quirky.

There are two ways to solve this. First, like so:
48 / 2 × (9 + 3) = ?
48 / 2 × (12) = ?
24 × 12 = 288

But another, arguably valid way is:
48 / 2 × (9 + 3) = ?
48 / 2 × (12) = ?
48 / 24 = 2

Thanks to KnowYourMeme for providing a great overview on this one. Math StackExchange has more discussion.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Graphical Rebus Five

What does this rebus represent?

Rebus

I Feel the Earth Move

Posted in Riddles
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Count to A

If you were to spell out the numbers, how far would you have to go before encountering the letter A?

One thousand (or one hundred and one, depending on how you pronounce it).

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Camel Race

An Arab sheikh tells his two sons to race their camels to a distant city to see who will inherit his fortune. The one whose camel is slower will win. The brothers, after wandering aimlessly for days, ask a wise man for advise. After hearing the advice they jump on the camels and race as fast as they can to the city. What did the wise man say?

The wise man said to switch camels.

Each son owns a camel, let’s call them Camel A and Camel B. If Camel A is slower, son A gets the fortune. If Camel B is slower, son B gets the fortune. Neither of the sons want to enter the city first because they won’t get the fortune.

When they switch camels, son A is now riding his brother’s camel (camel B) and son B is riding his brother’s camel (camel A). Now, they each want the camel they’re riding to get to the city first. If son A wins the race on camel B, that means his camel, camel A, was slower and he wins the fortune. The same is true for the other way around if the second son wins the race on camel A.

Posted in Brain Teasers

I Build Up Castles

I build up castles.
I tear down mountains.
I make some men blind,
I help others to see.
What am I?

Sand.

Posted in Riddles