My Thunder, Lightning and Rain

My thunder comes before the lightning.
My lightning comes before the clouds.
My rain dries all the land it touches.

What am I?

A volcano.

(via Reddit)

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You Read Me Daily

I am a seven letter word, you read me daily. Letters 567 increase every year. The third and fourth letters are the same and my 325 letters cover about 70% of the world. What am I?

message. Letters 567 are your age, which goes up every year. Letters 3 and 4 (both s) are in fact the same, and letters 325 spell sea, and estimates say that the earth is covered by about 70% water.

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Special Sequence

What is special about the following sequence of numbers?

8 5 4 9 1 7 6 10 3 2 0

The numbers are in alphabetical order.

8 = eight
5 = five
4 = four
9 = nine
1 = one
7 = seven
6 = six
10 = ten
3 = three
2 = two
0 = zero

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Buckets of Coins

Which would be worth more, a bucket full of nickels or a half bucket of dimes?

The half bucket of dimes. It might be tempting to say they’d be worth the same, since a nickel is worth half as much as a dime. This would be accurate if they were the same size, but the dime is smaller. Thus more dimes would fit in the same space, resulting in more value for you, you lucky dog.

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Turn Us On Our Backs

Turn us on our backs
And open up our stomachs
You will be the wisest of men
Though at start a lummox.

A book.

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I’m A Sifter

I’m a sifter of a memorable shape,
You can eat a variety of me, but I can be toxic,
I can cause severe pain if you’re not careful,
And the action I describe could hurt as well.

What am I?

A kidney.

Kidneys filter your blood and are shaped like kidney beans, which you can eat. Red kidney beans contains high amounts of phytohemagglutinin (quite the word, eh?) and can be toxic if not soaked and boiled. Kidney stones can be extremely painful and if a kid knees you in the stones, that would also be unpleasant.

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False Positive HIV Test

Imagine an HIV test that is 95% accurate (false positive rate of 5%) and around 2% of the tested population is infected with HIV. What is the probability that you actually have HIV when your test comes back positive?

29%

To read more about this, see the False Positive Paradox page on Wikipedia.

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Many Foods Make Me Strong

Many foods can make me strong but give me water and I won’t last long. What am I?

Fire.

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What Everleigh Likes

Everleigh likes knights but not batteries, writing but not typing and to listen but not to sing. Does she like an unknown or a famous author?

Unknown. Everleigh likes words with silent letters.

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Many and One

They are many and one,
They wave and they drum,
Used to cover a stare,
They go with you everywhere.

Your hands.

Posted in Riddles