A Game of Cards

In a game of cards, GEORGE partnered with MARY, while TED had to choose a partner. He could have chosen ANN, EDNA, JOAN or ANGELA. Whom did he choose and why?

ANN. If you give each letter a number according to its position in the alphabet:
TED = 20 + 5 + 4 = 29
ANN = 1 + 14 + 14 = 29

(George and Mary each add to 57)

Posted in Brain Teasers

A One Letter Change

At my start I last a mere eleven days,
But change one letter and I’m over 31 years.

What am I?

One million seconds (about 11 1/2 days).

Change the “m” to a “b” to get one billion seconds (about 31.7 years).

It’s rather surprising that a million seconds and a billion seconds differ by such a large duration.

Posted in Riddles
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Six Apples

A mother of three children had six apples. She gave two to each and yet 4 remained. How was this possible?

She gave the same 2 apples to each child in succession.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Ground Not For Thy Daily Bread

Ground not for thy daily bread,
Leave me in my scented bed,
Ignore me not, lest I doth wither,
My name I leave you to consider.

A flower. The soil they grow in is not used for food, like wheat to make bread, but for their smell. A neglected flower will wither.

Posted in Riddles

Only Room You Can’t Enter or Leave

What’s the only room from which no one can enter or leave?

A mushroom.

A variation of this riddle is as follows.

I am a room with no doors and no windows, what am I?

Posted in Riddles

How to Make the Great Escape

Shawn and Kyle are bunk mates in prison and are desperate to escape. There is an unbarred window high above them, but the walls are smooth and it’s too high for them to reach even when standing on each other’s shoulders. Their cell has no furnishings other than a toilet and even when standing on the toilet and each other’s shoulders, they can’t reach the window.

They’ve tried digging through the dirt floor but the wall extends 50 feet below. How could escape through the window?

Smurf imprisoned

They could dig down with their hands, but it would take too long to dig 50 feet down. Instead, they could pile the dirt they dig up to give them enough height to reach the window. If they put the toilet seat down, they could pile the dirt on top, then get on each other’s shoulders to reach the window. That would mean only one of them would be able to get out. The remaining prisoner could either continue piling dirt to account for the missing guy or the escaped prisoner could come back with a rope to help his mate escape.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Born In December

Dustin was born on December 28th yet his birthday always falls in the summer. How is this possible?

Dustin is Australian, where the three hottest summer months are December, January and February.

Posted in Brain Teasers

The Average of Three

There are three numbers. The first two are 2/3 and 3/4.

What does the third number have to be to make the average of all three be 2?

4 7/12

In order for the average of three numbers to be 2, they must all add up to 6. That gives you this equation:
2/3 + 3/4 + n = 6

Solve for n = 55/12, or 4 7/12.

Posted in Brain Teasers

Traveling Colorful Balls

Kevin, Charles, Larry and Alex are in a room that’s about 110 feet long. In front of them are 5 balls which are exactly 100 ft from the exit. The balls are yellow, purple, green, red and blue, respectively. Each man must carry a ball to the exit. After traveling 20 ft a ball will change color twice. The sequence of color changes is always the same: yellow, purple, green, red, and blue.

At 80 ft Kevin’s ball is red.
At 40 ft Larry’s ball is purple.
At 60 ft Charles’ ball is blue
At 100 ft Alex’s ball is purple.

What color ball was left behind?

The remaining ball was blue. Here’s a table of each ball and the color it changes to at 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 ft. Kevin’s started out yellow, Larry’s was green, Charles’ was red and Alex began with a purple ball, leaving blue as the one nobody picked.

  20 ft 40 ft 60 ft 80 ft 100 ft
Yellow Green Blue Purple Red Yellow
Purple Red Yellow Green Blue Purple
Green Blue Purple Red Yellow Green
Red Yellow Green Blue Purple Red
Blue Purple Red Yellow Green Blue
Posted in Brain Teasers

Having and Sharing

If you have it, you want to share it.
If you share it, you don’t have it.

What is it?

A secret.

Posted in Riddles