Riddle:
A detachment of soldiers must cross a river. The bridge is broken, the river is deep. What to do?
Suddenly the officer in charge spots two boys playing in a row boat by the shore.
The boat is so tiny however, that is could only hold two boys or one soldier.
Still all the soldiers make it across the river in the boat. How?
Answer: First the boys cross the river and 1 boy comes back and gets a soldier and keeps going back until all the soldiers have made it across safetly.
Riddle:
Three matches are sitting on a table. Without adding another make for three matches four. You are not allowed to break any of the matches. How can this be done?
Answer: Shape the 3 matches into a roman numeral four.
Riddle:
Place three matches on a table. Tell a friend to add two more matches to make eight. How can this be done?
Answer: Add two matches to make a roman numeral eight.
Riddle:
Take eight small sticks, four of which are half the length of the other four. How can you make three equal squares out of the sticks?
Answer: Use the longer four sticks to be sharing sides between the squares and at the end their should be three intertwined squares.
Riddle:
An item is made from lead blanks in a lathe shop. Each blank suffices for 1 item. Lead shavings accumulated for making 6 items can be melted and made into a blank. How many items can be made from 36 blanks?
Answer: From 36 blanks there are 36 items made. The lead shavings are enough to make 6 blanks. Which make 6 more items. But don't stop here. The new shavings are good for 1 more item. Total: 43.
Riddle:
A nonstop train leaves Moscow for Leningrad at 60 mph. Another nonstop train leaves Leningrad for Moscow at 40 mph. How far apart are the trains 1 hour before they pass each other?
Answer: 100 miles (60+40)
Riddle:
Not far off shore a ship stands with a rope ladder hanging over her side. The rope has 10 rungs. The distance between each rung is 12 inches. The lowest rung touches the water. The ocean is calm. Because of the incoming tide, the surface of the water rises 4 inches per hour. How soon will the water cover the third rung from the top rung of the rope ladder?
Answer: When a problem deals with a physical phenonmenon, the phenonmenon should be considered as well as the numbers given. As the water rises, so does the rope ladder. The water will never cover the rung.
Riddle:
Can you divide the watch face with 2 straight lines so that the sums of the sums of the numbers in each part are equal?
Answer: The sum of the numbers on the watch face is 78. If the two lines cross, there must be 4 equal parts, but 78 is not divisible by 4. Then the lines do not cross, giving three parts with the sum of 26 each. Once you see the pairs on the face that add to 13(12+1,11+2, and so far) the answer will be easy to find.
Riddle:
A watchmaker was telephoned urgently to make a house call to replace the broken hands on a clock. He was sik so he sent his apprentice.
The apprentice was thorough. When he finished inspecting the clock it was dark. Assuming his work was done, he attached the new hands and set the clock by his pocket watch. It was sic o'clock, so he set the big hand at the 12 and the little hand at the 6.
The apprectice returned, but soon the telephone rang. He picked up to his angry client:
"You didn't do the job right. The clock shows the wrong time."
Surprised he hurried back. He found the clock showing not much past eight. He handed is watch to the client and showed her that her clock was not even one second late. The client had to agree.
Early the nect morning, the client telephoned to say the clock has apparently gone berserk, hands were moving around the clock at will. The apprentice again rushed over, the clock showed a little past seven. After checking his watch he yelled:
"You are making fun of me! Your clock shows the right time!"
Have you figured out whats going on?
Answer: As the problem says the apprentice mixed up the hands so that the minute hand was short and the hour hand was long.
The first time the apprentice returned to the client was about 2 hours and 10 minutes after he had set the clock at six.The long had moved olny from twelve to a little past two. The little made two whole circles and an additional 10 minutes. Thus the clock showed the correct time.
The next day around 7:o5 a.m.he came a second time,13 hours and 15 minutes after he had set the clock for six. The long had, acting as the hour hand,covered 13 hours to reach 1. The short hand made 13 full circles and 5 minutes, reaching 7, So the clock showed the correct time again.
Riddle:
A book costs $1 plus half its price. How much does it cost?
Answer: $2
