Riddle:
If seven people meet each other and each shakes hands only once with each of the others, how many handshakes will there have been?
Answer: Twenty one. Most people would think there were 42 handshakes. The first person shakes the hand of 6 others, the second person shakes the hand of 5 remaining people, the third person shakes the hand of 4 remaining people, the fourth person shakes the hand of 3 remaining people, the 5th person shakes the hand of 2 remaining people and the sixth person shakes the hand of 1 remaining person. 6+5+4+3+2+1=21
Riddle:
If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in the other field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in another field?
Answer: One. He Combined them into one.
Riddle:
I am a number but I am countless, I am compared with other things but nothing compares to me. What am I?
Answer: Infinity.........
Riddle:
James ordered a fishing rod, priced at $3.56. Unfortunately, James is an Eskimo who lives in a very remote part of Greenland and the import rules there forbid any package longer than 4 feet to be imported. The fishing rod was 4 feet and 1 inch, just a little too long, so how can the fishing rod be mailed to James without breaking the rules? Ideally, James would like the fishing rod to arrive in one piece!
Answer: Insert the fishing rod into a box which measures 4 feet on all sides, the fishing rod will fit within the diagonal of the box with room to spare.
Riddle:
Does a ton of feathers or a ton of bricks weigh more?
Answer: They both weigh a ton.
Riddle:
What are three ways you can add 4 odd numbers and get ten?
Answer: 1+1+3+5=10
1+1+1+7=10
1+3+3+3=10
Riddle:
Taking that internship in a remote mountain lab might not have been the best idea. Pulling that lever with the skull symbol just to see what it did probably wasn't so smart either. But now is not the time for regrets because you need to get away from these mutant zombies...fast. Can you use math to get you and your friends over the bridge before the zombies arrive? Alex Gendler shows how.
Answer: At first it might seem like no matter what you do, you're just a minute or two short of time, but there is a way. The key is to minimize the time wasted by the two slowest people by having them cross together. And because you'll need to make a couple of return trips with the lantern, you'll want to have the fastest people available to do so. So, you and the lab assistant quickly run across with the lantern, though you have to slow down a bit to match her pace. After two minutes, both of you are across, and you, as the quickest, run back with the lantern. Only three minutes have passed. So far, so good. Now comes the hard part. The professor and the janitor take the lantern and cross together. This takes them ten minutes since the janitor has to slow down for the old professor who keeps muttering that he probably shouldn't have given the zombies night vision. By the time they're across, there are only four minutes left, and you're still stuck on the wrong side of the bridge. But remember, the lab assistant has been waiting on the other side, and she's the second fastest of the group. So she grabs the lantern from the professor and runs back across to you. Now with only two minutes left, the two of you make the final crossing. As you step on the far side of the gorge, you cut the ropes and collapse the bridge behind you, just in the nick of time.
Riddle:
How can you cut a cheese round into 8 pieces with only three cuts?
Answer: First you cut the cylinder lengthwise. With the two pieces stacked end to end, you cut the cheese into quarters with two cuts. The result is three cuts and 8 pieces of cheese. See the image below for three cuts needed to divide a cheese round into eight pieces.
Riddle:
I am a two-digit number. All my digits are even. No two digits are the same. None of my digits are prime numbers. I am not a multiple of ten. My tens digit is bigger than my other numbers. If you followed all the previous steps, there should be three options remaining the number is the option where if you add all the digits it's exactly in the middle (in how big the number is) of all the other options with their digits added together. What number am I?
Answer: If you followed all the steps apart from the last one there will be three options remaining: 64, 84, and 86. You then had to add up the digits, 64=6+4=10, 84=8+4=12, and 86=8+6=14. Finally, you then had to take up the middle biggest number (12) and put it back as it was before the digits were added together and your answer should be 84.
Riddle:
I am a three-digit number. All of my digits are prime. One of the numbers is even. Each of my numbers are used only once. The total of my first and last digits equals 10. The total of my first two digits equals 5.
Answer: This one is fairly easy if you use elimination if you follow all the first 5 steps you get three options: 525, 327, and 723 but if you followed the last step you would reach your answer. The answer was 327.
Riddle:
Adored by few, Feared and hated by many. Mistress of the entire universal reason, Master in the art of numbers. Some may have solved many of your mysteries, But there still much of them to find. What are they?
Answer: Mathematics.
Riddle:
If someone says to you, "I'll bet you $1 that if you give me $2, I will give you $3 in return", would this be a good bet for you to accept?
Answer: No. This is a situation where you lose even if you win. Assuming the other person is being wise, they would take your $2 and say, "I lose", and give you $1 in return. You win the bet, but you're out $1.
Riddle:
A bottle costs a dollar more than a cork. Together they cost 110 cents. How much does the bottle cost and how much does the cork cost?
Answer: The right answer is that the bottle costs 105 cents, and the cork costs 5 cents.
Riddle:
A professional fisherman caught 30 fish during a 5-day tournament. Each day, he caught three more fish than the day before. How many fish did the fisherman catch on the first day?
Answer: He didn't catch any fish the first day, but he caught 3 on the second day, 6 on the third day, 9 on the fourth day and 12 on the fifth day.
Riddle:
The distance from the Earth to the Sun is about 100 million miles. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second, and light takes eight minutes to reach the Earth from the Sun. Let's say the Sun rose at 6am this morning, and that by some freak of physics the speed of light is suddenly doubled to 372,000 miles a second.
What time will the Sun rise tomorrow?
Answer: 6am again. After all, what diffrence does the speed of light make to the answer? It's irrelevant- only the speed of the roation of the Earth matters here.
Riddle:
What symbol can be put between 2 and 3 to make the result greater than 2 but less than 3?
Answer: A decimal point
Riddle:
What two whole, positive numbers have the same answer when multiplied together as when one is divided by the other?
Answer: Any number and 1.
Riddle:
In a pond, there are some flowers with some bees hovering over them. If both the following statements are true: 1. If each bee lands on a flower, one bee doesn't get a flower. 2. If two bees share each flower, there is one flower left out. How many flowers and bees are there?
Answer: 4 bees and 3 flowers.
Riddle:
Ms. Dell is a math teacher at a high school. She always gives her students summer homework. One year, her students are SO tired of summer homework, and they want her to stop giving it to them. Ms. Dell promises a riddle to the students; whoever gets it right will not get summer homework. The riddle went like this: Add me to myself, and multiply me by four. Divide me by eight, and you will have me once more. What number am I? All of her students gave different answers, but nobody received any summer homework. How is that possible?
Answer: All numbers work with Ms. Dell's riddle! ((x + x) * 4) / 8 will always equal x.
Riddle:
What is half of two plus two?
Answer: The ambiguity of this riddle means that the answer could be either two or three. But the real answer is three because you have to follow the order of operations (half of two is one, and one plus two is three).
