Canaries in the Cage

I am the owner of a pet store. If I put in one canary per cage, I have one bird too many. If I put in two canaries per cage, I have one cage too many. How many cages and canaries do I have?

Four canaries and three cages.

If you put one canary in each cage, you have an extra bird without a cage. However, if you put two canaries in each cage then you have two canaries in the first cage, two canaries in the second cage and an extra cage.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Always Runs, Never Walks

What always runs but never walks, often murmurs, never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has a mouth but never eats?

A river.

Posted in Riddles

Alternating Empties

Six glasses are all in a row in front of you, the first three are full of grape juice and the last three are empty. Moving only one glass, how can you make all six alternate between full and empty?

Pour the contents of the second glass into the fifth glass.

Posted in Brain Teasers

An Alphabetic Phrase

What phrase can be made using the following letters?

A B C D E F G I

Big-faced.

I wouldn’t suggest calling anyone that, unless you want a big red nose from being punched.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Scrambled Auctioned

What are two other words (anagrams) that can be made from the letters in “auctioned”?

1. Cautioned
2. Education

Posted in Brain Teasers

Hickory Dickory Dock

Hickory dickory dock!
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one
and down I come.
The man will never talk.

What am I?

A guillotine.

Posted in Riddles

The Secret Lair

A secret lair has a code to only allow members to enter. The person wanting to enter says a random number, then is told a number in response. In order to enter they must say the correct third number. Here are sequences that allowed entrance.

1 3 5
27 11 6
9 4 4

What’s the third number of this series?

16 7 ?

Five because s-e-v-e-n has 5 letters. The first number can be anything, the second number is the number of letters in the first number, and the third number is the number of letters in the second number.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Oh, Oh, Oh, No

What number do the three letters O, H and N represent in order to make this addition problem correct?

OH
OH
OH
OH +
-----
NO

O = 2
H = 3
N = 9

23
23
23
23 +
-----
92
Posted in Brain Teasers

The Mystery Six-Digit Number

Find a six-digit number containing no zeros and no repeated digits that satisfies the following conditions:

1. The first and fourth digits sum to the last digit, as do the third and fifth digits.
2. The first and second digits when read as a two-digit number equal one quarter the fourth and fifth digits.
3. The last digit is four times the third digit.

192768.

If you call the number ABCDEF, then you get the following equations.

1. A + D = F and C + E = F
2. AB = DE / 4
3. F = 4 × C

The only numbers that work for C and E are 2 and 6 or 4 and 8, and in order to make F a single-digit number, we can deduce that C = 2, E = 6 and F = 8.

So far, our number is AB2D68.

We know A + D = 8 so A and D are both odd numbers. The only odd number less than 8 that we can use for D to make one-quarter of two-digit number D6 also be a two-digit number is 7, so D = 7 and A is 1. This makes the two-digit number AB 19.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Paula and Quincy

Paula had four times the money that Quincy had, but after Paula gave Quincy $33, Quincy had 3 times as much as Paula.

How much did they each start with?

Paula had $48 and Quincy had $12.

If Q is the amount Quincy had, then 3(4Q – 33) = Q + 33

Solved, Q = 12.

Posted in Brain Teasers