Riddle: You go to the doctor because you're ill and he prescribes you with 3 pills and tells you to take them every half hour.
How long do the pills last you?
Answer: An hour because the first pill doesn't take 30 min. to take.
Riddle: I am a perching barrel, filled with meat, Taking hits from leaps and dives. Look inside, but do not eat, The meat in there is still alive! What am I?
Riddle: My first is often at the front door. My second is found in the cereal family. My third is what most people want. My whole is one of the United States. What am I?
Answer: Matrimoney. (mat + rye + money). Matrimony is certainly a "united state"!
Riddle: There are 100 light bulbs lined up in a row in a long room. Each bulb has its own switch and is currently switched off. The room has an entry door and an exit door. There are 100 people lined up outside the entry door. Each bulb is numbered consecutively from 1 to 100. So is each person. Person No. 1 enters the room, switches on every bulb, and exits. Person No. 2 enters and flips the switch on every second bulb (turning off bulbs 2, 4, 6, ...). Person No. 3 enters and flips the switch on every third bulb (changing the state on bulbs 3, 6, 9, ...). This continues until all 100 people have passed through the room. What is the final state of bulb No. 64? And how many of the light bulbs are illuminated after the 100th person has passed through the room?
Answer: First think who will operate each bulb, obviously person #2 will do all the even numbers, and say person #10 will operate all the bulbs that end in a zero. So who would operate for example bulb 48: Persons numbered: 1 & 48, 2 & 24, 3 & 16, 4 & 12, 6 & 8 ........ That is all the factors (numbers by which 48 is divisible) will be in pairs. This means that for every person who switches a bulb on there will be someone to switch it off. This willl result in the bulb being back at it's original state. So why aren't all the bulbs off? Think of bulb 36:- The factors are: 1 & 36, 2 & 13, 6 & 6 Well in this case whilst all the factors are in pairs the number 6 is paired with it's self. Clearly the sixth person will only flick the bulb once and so the pairs don't cancel. This is true of all the square numbers. There are 10 square numbers between 1 and 100 (1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81 & 100) hence 10 bulbs remain on.
Riddle: A headless man had a letter to write; It was read by a man who had lost his sight. The dumb repeated it word for word, And deaf was he who listened and heard. What is it?
Answer: The letter in question is the letter "O". It is zero. The man had nothing to write. The blind could read nothing. The person who was dumb could repeat nothing. The deaf man listened and heard nothing.
Riddle: You are given a set of scales and 12 marbles. The scales are of the old balance variety. That is, a small dish hangs from each end of a rod that is balanced in the middle. The device enables you to conclude either that the contents of the dishes weigh the same or that the dish that falls lower has heavier contents than the other. The 12 marbles appear to be identical. In fact, 11 of them are identical, and one is of different weight. Your task is to identify the unusual marble and discard it. You are allowed to use the scales three times if you wish, but no more. Note that the unusual marble may be heavier or lighter than the others. How can you identify it and determine whether it is heavy or light?
Answer: Number the marbles from 1 to 12. For the first weighing put marbles 1,2,3 and 4 on one side and marbles 5,6,7 and 8 on the other. The marbles will either they balance or not. If they balance, then the different marble is in group 9,10,11,12. Thus, we would put 1 and 2 on one side and 9 and 10 on the other. If these balance then the different marble is either 11 or 12. Weigh marble 1 against 11. If they balance, the different marble is number 12. If they do not balance, then 11 is the different marble. If 1 and 2 vs 9 and 10 do not balance, then the different marble is either 9 or 10. Again, weigh 1 against 9. If they balance, the different marble is number 10, otherwise, it is number 9. That was the easy part. What if the first weighing 1,2,3,4 vs 5,6,7,8 does not balance? Then any one of these marbles could be a different marble. Now, in order to proceed, keep track of which side is heavy for each of the following weighings. Suppose that 5,6,7 and 8 is the heavy side. We now weigh 1,5 and 6 against 2,7 and 8. If they balance, then the different marble is either 3 or 4. Weigh 4 against 9, a known good marble. If they balance then the different marble is 3 or 4. Then, if 1,5 and 6 vs 2,7 and 8 do not balance, and 2,7,8 is the heavy side, then either 7 or 8 is a different, heavy marble, or 1 is a different, light marble. For the third weighing, weigh 7 against 8. Whichever side is heavy is the different marble. If they balance, then 1 is the different marble. Should the weighing of 1,5 and 6 vs 2,7 and 8 show 1,5,6 to be the heavy side, then either 5 or 6 is a different heavy marble or 2 is a light different marble. Weigh 5 against 6. The heavier one is the different marble. If they balance, then 2 is a different light marble.
Riddle: Two men walk into a restaurant by the sea and sit at the bar. Both men are covered in water. Both men order a plate of Albatross and take one bite. After chewing and swallowing, the first man stands up, walks outside, and shoots himself, while the other finnishes his meal. Why?
Answer: The two men were stranded out in the ocean with a third man when they were beginning to stave. When an albatross landed on their life boat and died they finally had food but it was not enough to feed all three of them. They drew straws and the looser was killed and eaten. They mixed up the human meat and the albatross meat so neither person would know what they were eating. After being rescued, the friends went to eat real Albatross and the man who killed himself realized that he was the one that ate his friend.
Riddle: Black I am and much admired, men seek me until they're tired. When they find me, they break my head, and take from me my resting bed. What am I?
Riddle: The word FACETIOUSLY contains the six vowels, A-E-I-O-U and Y, in their alphabetical order. Can you find another English word that does the same?
Answer: The word is abstemiously. There may be others.