Riddles and Brain Teasers

I Drift Forever With The Current

I drift forever with the current
down these long canals they’ve made
Tame, yet wild, I run elusive
Multitasking to your aid.
Before I came, the world was darker
Colder, sometimes, rougher, true
But though I might make living easy,
I’m good at killing people too.

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Electricity (or lightning).

Posted in Riddles

Silent Military Communication

How could a member of the military communicate silently and without light?

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By using braille.Braille was based on a tactile military code called night writing, developed by Charles Barbier in response to Napoleon’s demand for a means for soldiers to communicate silently at night and without light. In Barbier’s system, sets of 12 embossed dots encoded 36 different sounds. It proved to be too difficult for soldiers to recognize by touch and was rejected by the military.

By using braille.

Braille was based on a tactile military code called night writing, developed by Charles Barbier in response to Napoleon’s demand for a means for soldiers to communicate silently at night and without light. In Barbier’s system, sets of 12 embossed dots encoded 36 different sounds. It proved to be too difficult for soldiers to recognize by touch and was rejected by the military.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Which Do You Light First?

You have a single match and are in a pitch black room with a candle, an oil lamp and a gas stove. Which do you light first?

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The match.

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Three Lives Have I

Three lives have I.
Gentle enough to soothe the skin,
Light enough to caress the sky,
Hard enough to crack rocks.

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Water.

Posted in Riddles

No Ears and More Than One Eye

I have no ears, but more than one eye,
Cut me in half, I won’t cry,
Leave me alone and I will die.

What am I?

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A potato. The roots growing out of a potato are called eyes, when you cut a potato in half it doesn’t produce any moisture and if you leave a poor potato to its own devices, it will die.

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What Has Roots Nobody Sees?

What has roots that nobody sees,
Is taller than trees,
Up, up it goes,
Yet it never grows?

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A mountain (from Tolkien)

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Three Items for $100

Bill buys three items at the store for exactly $100. The second item costs half as much as the first item, and the third item is half as much as the second.

How much did each one cost?

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First: $57.14
Second: $28.57
Third: $14.29

Posted in Brain Teasers

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?

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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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Add More But Weigh Less

The 17 items in your shopping cart weigh 8 pounds. But when your daughter puts in a ball, poster board and yo-yo the shopping cart weighs less. How is that possible?

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Your daughter had to get out of the cart to fit the remaining items.

Posted in Brain Teasers