Riddle:
Edward is as old as Benjamin used to be when Edward was as old as Benjamin is now.
Benjamin is 36. How old is Edward?
Answer: Edward is 48.
Riddle:
Out of 100 ladies attending the gala,85 had a white hand bag;75 had black shoes;60 carried an umbrella;90 wore a ring;
How many ladies must have had all four items?
Answer: 10
Divide by 3. All the ladies had three items. The remainder shows the number of ladies who had 4.
85756090______310 / 3 = 100 + 10 remainder
Riddle:
A man bumps into his mathematician friend on the street whom he hasn't seen in 5 years. The man asks the mathematician how old his children are. The mathematician, who always replies in riddles said, "I now have three children. The sum of their ages is equal to the number of windows on the building in front of you and the product of their ages equals 36." The friend then says "I need one more piece of information." The mathematician then replies "My youngest child has blue eyes." What are the ages of the mathematician's three children?
Answer: They are 6, 6, and 1.
Riddle:
Jack had only $2, but he needed $3 for his cab fare home. He went to a pawn shop and pawned his $2 for $1.50. Jack then bumped into Don and told him that he would sell him his $2 pawn ticket for $1.50. Don agreed. Jack started out with $2 and he ended up with $3. Who is out the extra dollar and why?
Answer: Don is out the extra dollar. Before the pawn broker will return the $2 to the ticket holder, he will want the $1.50 which he advanced returned to him. Don will give the pawn broker the ticket and the $1.50, and the pawn broker will then return the $2.
Riddle:
If you toss a die and it comes up with the number one 9 times in a row, what is the probability that it will come up with one on the next throw?
Answer: One in six. A die has no memory of what it last showed.
Riddle:
A rubber ball is tossed off the top of a 90 foot building. Every time it bounces, it goes back up half way. How many bounces will the ball take before it stops?
Answer: The answer is infinite, in a gravity free world. But of course gravity will eventually stop it.
Riddle:
'When Gwen is twice as old as Dean, Then I shall be just 17. But Gwendoline was 23 When Dean was twice as old as me.' Thats what Bill said.
So tell us then, How old he was when Dean was ten?
Answer: Eight.
Riddle:
What is the value of 1/2 of 2/3 of 3/4 of 4/5 of 5/6 of 6/7 of 7/8 of 8/9 of 9/10 of 1,000?
Answer: One hundred - work backwards and you will understand.
Riddle:
What single-digit number should go in the box with the question?
| 6 | 5 | 9 | 2 | 7 |
| 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | ? |
| 8 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 1 |
Answer: The missing number is 4. Simply add the first and second rows together to get the third row value.
| 65, 927 | |
| + | 14, 354 |
| 80, 281 |
Riddle:
How many times does the long hand of the clock pass the short hand between midnight one day and midnight the following day? As both hands are together at the starting time of midnight this does not count as a pass.
Answer: 21.
Riddle:
A baseball and a bat combined cost $1.10. If the bat costs $1 more than the baseball, how much does the baseball cost?
Answer: If you said $0.10, you're wrong. The answer is $0.05 because the bat, costing $1 more than the baseball, will cost $1.05. $1.05+$0.05 is $1.10.
Riddle:
Find four numbers, the sum of which is 45, so that if 2 is added to the first number, 2 is subtracted from the second number, the third number is multiplied by 2 and the fourth number is divided by 2, then the four numbers so produced are all the same. What are the four numbers?
Answer: 8 + 2 = 10
12 - 2 = 10
5 x 2 = 10
20 ÷ 2 = 1045
Riddle:
How can you give someone $63 using six bills, without using any one dollar bills?
Answer: 1 - $50 bill, 1 - $5 bill , 4 - $2 bills
Riddle:
If seven cats kill seven rats in 7 minutes, how many would be needed to kill one hundred rats in 50 minutes?
Answer: 14.
Riddle:
A book costs $1 plus half its price. How much does it cost?
Answer: $2
Riddle:
Two cyclists began a training run, one starting from Moscow and the other starting from Simferopol.
When the riders were 180 miles apart, a fly took an interest. Starting on one cyclists shoulder, the fly flew ahead to meet the other cyclist. After reaching him the fly then turned around and yet back.
The restless fly continued to shuttleback and fourth until the pair met; then settled on the nose of one rider.
The flys speed was 30 mph. Each cyclist speed was 15 mph.
How many miles did the fly travel?
Answer: The cyclists took 6 hours to meet. The fly traveled 6*30=180 miles.
Riddle:
Using only brackets, parentheses, and these signs +,-, X, /. How can you express 100 with 5 1's and express 100 three ways with five 5's?
Answer: 111-11=100
(5 x 5 x 5)-(5 x 5)=100; (5+5+5+5)x 5=100;(5 x 5)(5-(5/5)=100.
Riddle:
(A) Use two digits to make the smallest possible positive integer.
(B) Five 3s can express 37: 37=33+3+3/3
Find another way to do it.
(C) Use six identical digits to make 100. (Several solutions are possible.)
(D) Use five 4s to make 55.
(E) Use four 9s to make 20.
Answer: (A) 1 X 1; 1/1;2/2;ect....;1-0;2-1;and many others.
(B) 37=333/3X3; 37=3 X 3 X 3 + 3/.3
(C) 99 + 99/99; 55+55- 5- 5; (666-66)/6
(D) 44 + 44/4=55.
(E) 9 + 99/9=20.
Riddle:
The title of the problem tells you how to approach these four questions.
(A). A bus leaves Moscow for Tula at noon. An hour later a cyclist leaves Tula for mosco, moving slower than the bus. When the bus and cyclist meet, which one of the two will be farther from Moscow?
(B). Which is worth more: a pound of $10 gold peices or half a pound of $20 gold pieces?
(C). At six o'clock the wall clock struck 6 times. Checking with my watch, I noticed the time between the first and last strokes was 30 seconds. How long will the clock take to strike 12 at midnight?
(D). Three swallows fly outward from a point. When will they all be on the same plane in space?
Now check the answers. Did you fall into any of the traps which lurk in these simple problems?
Answer: (A). Neither
(B). A pound of metal is always more than half a pound of the same metal.
(C). Six strokes took 30 seconds, therefore 12 strokes will take 60 seconds. But when the clock struck six, there were only 5 intervals between strokes, and each interval was 30/5=6 seconds. Between the first and twelfth strokes there will be 11 intervals of 6 seconds each, therefore 12 strokes will take 66 seconds.
(D). There is always a plane that contains any 3 points
Riddle:
As I traveled up and down our great glorious country, I found myself in a place where the tempature goes up sharply in the day and down at night. This had an effect on my watch, I noticed it was 1/2 a minute faster at nightfall, but at dawn it had lost 1/3 minute, making it only 1/6 minute fast.
One morning- May 1- my watch showed the right time. By what date was it 5 minutes faster?
Answer: In 24 hours the watch gained 1/2-1/3= 1/6 minute. It would seem it would be 5 minutes fast in 5 X 6= 30 days; that is,the morning of May 31. But already on the morning of May 28 the was 27/6= 4 1/2 minutes fast. At the close of the day the watch gained 1/2 minute more, so it was 5 minutes fast on may 28.
