Longest Word in English

What is the longest word in the English dictionary?

Smiles because there is a mile between the two s’s.

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Three Pills From the Doctor

Your doctor gives you three pills and tells you to take one every half hour. How much time will have passed by the time you’ve taken all three pills?

One hour. You take the first pill, then wait a half hour and take the second pill, then at the hour mark you take the third and last pill.

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Stand Take Mine

What does this sentence represent?

Stand   Take  Mine  Taking
  I     You    To     My

I understand you undertake to undermine my undertaking.

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Take It And You Will Lose

Take it and you will lose or gain more than all others.

Risk.

(found in The Copper Gauntlet by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare)

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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.

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Yesterday and the Day After Tomorrow

When the day before yesterday was referred to as the day after tomorrow, the day that was then called yesterday was as far away from the day we now call tomorrow as yesterday is from the day which we shall now be able to speak of last Monday as a week ago yesterday. What day is it?

Thursday.

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Weighty Wine

How much does a bottle of wine weigh if it is 1 kilogram plus half its own weight?

2 kg.

If we let half of the bottle’s weight be “n”, then we get the following equation: n/2 + 1kg = n (the bottle’s weight).

Solve for n:
n/2 + 1 = n
1 = n/2
2 = n

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Look at My Face

If you look at my face you won’t see 13 in any place. What am I?

A clock face. It only has the numbers 1 through 12.

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Twice the Sum of Its Digits

What number is twice the sum of it’s digits?

18.

1 + 8 = 9
2 × 9 = 18

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Maya’s Stamps Errand

Maya’s mother asked her to buy some stamps. The available stamps were 3 cents, 9 cents, 11 cents, 17 cents and 21 cents. Her mother asked her to buy eight each of three stamps and nine of each of the remaining two stamps. Unfortunately, Maya forgot which stamps she was supposed to buy eight and nine of. Luckily, her mother had given her $5, the exact amount required to buy the stamps. Which stamps did she buy?

Eight of the 11 cent, 17 cent and 21 cent stamps and nine of the 3 cent and 9 cent stamps.

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