Tree That’s Difficult To Get Along With

Which tree is the most difficult to get along with?

A crab tree.

Posted in Riddles

How Old Is Amir?

Amir has three children. One is the same age as the first number in his age, another is the same age as the second number in his age, and the third is the same age as the sum of the two numbers in his age. None of the children are the same age and the total of everyone’s ages is 45. How old is Amir?

27. His children are 2, 7, and 9.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Tasty Fruit

I am a tasty fruit that provides you with healthy nutrients. I can also be found on a calendar. What am I?

A date.

Posted in Riddles
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It Scares Animals

A seven letter word that has T as the second letter, A as the fourth letter and S as the sixth letter. Girls love it, boys use it, parents hate it and it scares animals. Hint: It’s a German word.

A persistent puzzle solver will discover that no English word satisfies the letter requirements, to say nothing of the loving, using, hating or being scared requirements. I found three German words that work:

1) strafst
2) strapse
3) strauss

1 and 3 mean punish and bouquet respectively. I couldn’t find a definition for strapse. Punish is the likely answer. Girls love to punish boys, boys use punishment as well, a good parent hates to use punishment and animals are scared of it. I don’t know of any animals that are scared of a bouquet, though a bouquet fits as something girls love and boys use.

Posted in Riddles

Winning at Wimbledon

As a result of temporary magical powers, you have made it to the Wimbledon finals and are playing Roger Federer for all the marbles. However, your powers cannot last the whole match. What score do you want it to be when they disappear, to maximize your chances of hanging on for a win?

It sounds obvious that you should ask to be ahead two sets to love (it takes 3 out of 5 sets to win
the men’s), and in the third set, ahead 5-0 in games and 40-love in the sixth game. (Probably you
want to be serving, but if your serve is like mine, you might prefer Roger to be serving the sixth
game down 0-40 so that you can pray for a double fault.)

Not so fast! These solutions give you essentially 3 chances to get lucky and win, but you can
get six chances—with three services by you and three by Roger. You still want to be up two sets
to none, but let the game score be 6-6 in the third set and 6-0—in your favor, of course—in the
tiebreaker.

Credit goes to Peter Winkler for creating this.

Posted in Brain Teasers

2 + 2 = 5

What is the similarity between “2 + 2 = 5” and your left hand?

Neither is right. Two plus two equals five isn’t right, or correct and your left hand is not your right hand.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Takeoff On a Conveyor Belt

If a plane sits on a conveyor belt whose speed matches that of the plane in the opposite direction, can the plane take off?

Yes, because a plane’s wheels roll freely and have no affect on the movement of the plane(unlike a car). The propeller or jet engine makes the plane move and the plane will be able to take off normally. If you don’t believe me, here’s proof.

Posted in Brain Teasers

A Foot On Each Side

What has a foot on each side and one in the middle?

A yard stick.

Posted in Riddles

Old Mother Twitchet Had One Eye

Old Mother Twitchet had one eye
and a long tail that she let fly.
And every time she went through a gap,
she left some tail in the trap

A needle and thread.

Posted in Riddles

The Case of the Missing Matchstick

Chuck and Ruby were going to meet at a hotel for their anniversary dinner, but Ruby didn’t show. Chuck was angry and left her a passive aggressive message on their kitchen table in the form of fifteen matchsticks spelling “hotel” and went to bed. When Ruby got home and saw the matchsticks, she removed one and went to bed. When Chuck woke up the next morning and saw Ruby’s new message, he realized his mistake. Which stick did Ruby remove and what was the new message?

Matchsticks

Ruby had removed the top of the T and the new message could be seen upside down from where Chuck sat at his breakfast of sadness and anger. What he saw was 7 3 1 0 4, or 7/31/04, the date of their anniversary. In his excitement, Chuck had gone to the restaurant a day early, on July 30th. All was forgiven by both parties and Chuck and Ruby had a wonderful dinner together. They also promised to buy a whiteboard for the kitchen so they wouldn’t have to use matchstick messages ever again.

Posted in Brain Teasers