Merry Christmas Everyone

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone. I'll be on vacation so enjoy your New Years Eve parties and I look forward to seeing you next year!

Don't forget to keep track of Santa tonight.

And in case you desperately need a brain teaser to get you through, here's a nice one for Santa.

Vacation From School

In how many ways can you arrange 100 identical stones into 3 piles so that each pile has at least 1 stone in it.

Four Brothers Born Together

There are four brothers in this world that were all born together. The first runs and never wearies. The second eats and is never full. The third drinks and is always thirsty. The fourth sings a song that is never good.

Who are they?

Electricity Jokes

Since I'm happy to have electricity this Friday (as opposed to last Friday), here are some jokes to get you through the weekend.

How did Benjamin Franklin feel when he discovered electricity?
How is energy conservation like a baseball team?
What is burned by cars driven late at night?

I Have a Big Head

I know what my job is,
The point has been made.
You say I have a big head,
And you're right, I'm afraid.
Put me in my place,
And then leave me alone.
What I need most,
Is someone to drive me home.

Dropping the Steel Ball in Jamaica

In Jamaica, if you drop a steel ball weighing five pounds from a height of 45 inches, will it fall more rapidly through water at 20 degrees Fahrenheit or water at 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Or will it make no difference?

Four Way Stop

Four cars come to a four way stop, all coming from a different direction. They can't decide who got there first, so they all go forward at the same time. They do not crash into each other, but all four cars go. How is this possible?

The Name Gives Away the Guilty Party

Old Mr. Tidy was found dead in his study by Mr. Fiend.

Mr. Fiend recounted his dismal discovery to the police. "I was walking by Mr. Tidy`s house when I thought I would just pop in for a visit."

"I noticed his study light was on and I decided to peek in from the outside to see if he was in there. There was frost on the window, so I had to wipe it away to see inside. That is when I saw his body."

"So I kicked in the front door to confirm my suspicions of foul play. I called the police immediately afterward."

The officer immediately arrested Mr. Fiend for the murder of Mr. Tidy. How did he know Mr. Fiend was lying?

Fill the Mind With Light

I come in darkness, but fill the mind with light.
I bring enlightenment to some, while gripping others in the hand of fear.
With me it can be a journey of inexplicable joy and sorrow.
What I will show you will often be unreachable.
Journey with me and what you see may haunt you.
Journey with me and you may never want to return home.
Journey with me and you will never know when it will end.
What am I?

White Bird Flyin

White bird, featherless, flyin' out o' paradise, flyin' over sea and land, dyin' in my hand. What is it?

Do You See What I See?

I can name three things with eyes that cannot see. Can you name three or more?

Taking it Easy on a Monday Morning

Almost everyone sees me without noticing me,
For what is beyond is what he or she seeks.
What am I?

Anagrams Are Here Again

1) So heartwarming. Said like a poet.

2) What moronity!

3) Cautionary: "Eh?"


Don't look below unless you want some clues.










Hint: Ignore the ?:".
Hint 2: (Applies to 1) "xxxx xx x xxxxxx xxxxx." - Aristotle
Hint 3: The letters in Aristotle are taking from the phrase.

By Request, Some Anagrams

Re-arrange the following phrases into more common ones.

1) Obey, Launch a Battle

2) Well-aware, outspoken act

3) Alien voyageur?

A Very Special Day

Something very extraordinary happened on the 6th of May, 1978 at 12:34 a.m.

What was it?

Again, Again!

Like yesterday, each of the following represent common phrases, sayings or just plain words.  Your job is to figure them out.

1)

W you

A have

Y the

2)

L

I   L

B     Y

3) 

poBASSnd

4)

hacashnd

5) 

deredro

Back to the Rebus

That's right.  It's time once again for the rebus to re-appear.

Each of the following represent common phrases, sayings or just plain words.  Your job is to figure them out.

Example:

MT
TP

represents Empty Teepee.

1)

E CUSES

2)

T M
A U

H S
W T

3)

Chee

Chee

Chee

4)

thing 2 do

5)

Gone Gone Gone Gone

1. Gotten
2. Gotten
3. Gotten

Turkey Trivia, Part II

Two years ago, we had Thanksgiving trivia. Last year, I posted some turkey trivia. Who knew, but there's even more turkey trivia out there.

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it in the US. For the rest of you, I'm off on holiday, so feel free to look around the site. There's over three years of riddles, puzzles, brain teasers, math, statistics, and other questions here for you to peruse. Take a look around.

• Age is a determining factor in taste. Old, large males are preferable to young toms (males) as tom meat is stringy. The opposite is true for females: old hens are tougher birds.
• A turkey under sixteen weeks of age is called a fryer, while a young roaster is five to seven months old.
• Turkeys are the only breed of poultry native to the Western Hemisphere.
• Turkeys have great hearing, but no external ears. They can also see in color, and have excellent visual acuity and a wide field of vision (about 270 degrees), which makes sneaking up on them difficult. However, turkeys have a poor sense of smell (what's cooking?), but an excellent sense of taste.
• Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. Wild turkeys, however, can fly for short distances at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. They can also reach speeds of 25 miles per hour on the ground.
• Turkeys sometimes spend the night in trees.
• Turkeys can have heart attacks: turkeys in fields near the Air Force test areas over which the sound barrier was broken were known to drop dead from the shock of passing jets
• The ballroom dance known as the Turkey Trot was named for the short, jerky steps a turkey makes.

Bad Baseball Joke

In baseball, if you ran each length at exactly the same speed, which of the following would take you longest to complete: Home to first, first to second, second to third or third to home?

I Buried a Stone

I buried a stone in the ground, and it grew and produced fruit. How is this possible?

Not an Echo

I say everything I hear to others around.
I'm not an animal, nor part of the human race.
I will, immediately, repeat after you;
But only if my tail is in place.
What am I?

Do You Have the Time of Day?

Which clock works best, the one that loses a minute a day, or the one that doesn't work at all?

Start by Saying I

Which word that begins with the letter I, and by adding the letter A, becomes another word that is pronounced the same?

Hang on Sloopy

What is round on the ends and high in the middle?

Are You a Dog Person

At this year's Summerset Cat Club Show, five cats, each entered by a different owner and each a different breed, reached the best-in-show finals. Given the judges' decisions below, you should be able to decide the 1st-5th place awards in the event: the cat's name, breed, and owner.

1. Jan's cat placed ahead of the Cornish Rex cat, which finished higher in the competition than William Wallace Winston III.
2. Neither the Manx nor the Havana Brown breed in the finals is Snowball.
3. In the final judging, Bill's entry finished higher than the Russian Blue cat, which placed higher than Miss Muffet.
4. Snowball's finish was higher than that of the Turkish Van cat, which placed ahead of Erica's pride-and-joy.
5. Adam's cat is not a Manx.
6. Neither Bill nor Jan owns best-in-show finalist Frodo
7. Neither William Wallace Winston III nor Miss Muffet belongs to Erica.
8. Pericles placed one position ahead of Tony's cat, which isn't a Russian Blue.

The Cat names are Snowball, William Wallace Winston III, Frodo, Miss Muffet and Perciles.
The Cat types are Manx, Turkish Van, Havana Brown, Cornish Rex, and Russian Blue
The Cat owners are Bill, Jan, Erica, Tony and Adam.

Hungry for a New Puzzle?

What common English verb becomes its own past tense by rearranging its letters?

Spokes in the Wheel Are Getting in the Way

If a wheel has 64 spokes, how many spaces are there between the spokes?

My Waist is Slender

My voice is tender, my waist is slender and I'm often invited to play. Yet wherever I go I must take my bow or else I have nothing to say. What am I?

Which of the Following Belong to the Six Words Below

Which of the four following words belong to the group below: Philanthropy, seismologist, onomatopeia, reappearance

UNDECEIVABLE
SIMULTANEOUS
ALIMENTATION
CAUTIOUSNESS
GLADIATORIAL
FORAMINIFERA

Not Just for the Pros

Which game uses the largest ball?

Never Comes Out

What goes through a door but never goes in and never comes out?

Can You Make Mine Well Done?

Bubba invited Beavis and Butthead to his house for a barbeque. Since Bubba's barbeque is only capable of handling two hamburgers at once, he wonders how he can cook three hamburgers at once, he wonders how he can cook three hamburgers in the shortest amount of time. It takes five minutes fro each side of a burger to cook. Therefore, in ten minutes two will be cooked, and another ten minutes will be needed to cook the third burger. Butthead says all three can be cooked i just 15 minutes. How?

Same Three Letters

How good are you with words? How about large words? Fill in the blanks using the same three letters at the end as at the beginning in the same order.

_ _ _ ERGRO _ _ _

Use Your Logic to Solve the Puzzle

George, Helen, and Steve are drinking coffee.
Bert, Karen, and Dave are drinking soda.
Using logic, is Elizabeth drinking coffee or soda?

Six Letters to Cross Out

Cross out six letters and you'll find a word that we should know. The word must be spelled out in order.

SBAIXNLETATNERSAS

Candy Riddle

Happy Halloween!

The word candy can be spelled using just 2 letters. Can you figure out how?

And yes, for those of you with long memories, we've seen this one before. But I like it and it's appropriate for Halloween.

Photo from flickr by  Porcelaingirl.

Towering Office Space

Brad stared through the dirty soot-smeared window on the 62nd floor of the office tower. Overcome with depression he slid the window open and jumped through it. It was a sheer drop outside the building to the ground. Miraculously after he landed he was completely unhurt.

Since there was nothing to cushion his fall or slow his descent, how could he have survived the fall?

Unique

What's so unique about the following items?  For instance, President James Buchanan was the only bachelor president of the United States.

1. the two-toed sloth
2. the chow chow
3. the hyoid bone
4. mercury
5. negative 40 degrees
6. Kahoolawe
7. the pyramids
8. Midnight Cowboy
9. Nepal
10. Libya
11. Ohio

Leaps and Runs

What is it that leaps and runs and even falls, yet has no feet?

We Have Not Seen Any Letter Equations for a While

I was looking at my 'search query' report and noticed some people looking for answers on letter equations. So, let's see if we can help them out.

The problem is, there are some typos in the searches. So, I'm presenting all of them, even though I'm sure some of them are repeats, just with the search corrected. I can't tell in each case which one is right, so I've tried to group the possibilities together. Good luck!

1) 7 C in a M

2) I ITs N 1 T it's A
1 Is N 1 T it's A

3) S of a C

4) There are two s to E Q
T are 2 s to E Q
2 s to e q
2p in a q

5) 100 P I A R
100 P A I R

6) 39 = P of the U.S.
39 = B of the U.S.

7) 32=DF at which WF

8) 5 = GL in NA

I Need a Loan

John 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. John then bumped into Dan and told him that he would sell him his $2 pawn ticket for $1.50. Dan agreed. Since John started out with $2, and he ended up with $3, who is out the extra dollar and why?

I Like Stories

Have I mentioned that I like rebus?

1)

0

PHD, MA, MS

2)

111111

TIME

3)

PERESTACE

Rebus Revisited

Some more rebus for your enjoyment. Each the following puzzles represent a common phrase.

1)
Wave 2025AD

2)
G
R
EASE

3)
CR\EW

4)
THECAUGHTACT

5)
H
O
L
D JOBJOB
I
N
G

A Person Has Two

He has one and a person has two, a citizen has three and a human being has four, a personality has five and an inhabitant of earth has six. What am I?

Patience and Time

Some will use me, while others will not,
some have remembered, while others have forgot.
For profit or gain, I'm used expertly,
I can't be picked off the ground or tossed into the sea.
Only gained from patience and time,
can you unravel my rhyme?

Picture Puzzles

Time for some more rebus:

1)

cut

r

i

right

h

t

2)

eggeggeggegg

eee    e

3)

machines+machines+machines

4)

dirty dirty

dirty dirty

dirty dirty

dirty dirty

dirty dirty

dirty dirty

5)

A Woman's Wor

6)

DINNER'S

Fire Above

Fire is often maintained above me, & if you remove my first letter, you will find the home shared by everyone you have ever known.

What am I?

Long or Short, Grown or Bought

I can be long, or I can be short.
I can be grown, and I can be bought.
I can be painted, or left bare.
I can be round, or square.
What am I?

What is the Third Dogs Name

Bruce, the head dog at the north pole, had three sons. One was named mo, the other curly. What is the third dogs name.

I dig out tiny caves, and store gold and silver in them.
I also build bridges of silver and make crowns of gold.
They are the smallest you could imagine.
Sooner or later everybody needs my help, yet many people are afraid to let me help them. Who am I?

Come For a Ride, Just Me and You

It goes up, but at the same time goes down. Up toward the sky, and down toward the ground. It's present tense and past tense too, come for a ride, just me and you.

What is it?

Dice Dice

Can you find the hidden phrases in the following clues?

Example

DICE

DICE

Answer: Paradise (Pair of dice)

1)

LEHEVE

2)

LBS LBS LBS LBS LBS LBS

WEIGHT

3)

GROUND

YARDSTICK YARDSTICK

4)

TTTT Mon, Tue, Wed, ...

TTTT 9 PM - 10 PM

Half of Five

When is Four half of Five?

Were You Talking to Me

Can you think of a question where the answer I give is yes, but what I mean is no.

Bat and Ball

I am used to bat with, yet I never get a hit.
I am near a ball, yet it is never thrown.
What am I?

Pay Attention

What is the difference between a dollar and a half and thirty five-cents?

Sing Happy Birthday

A pregnant lady named her children: Dominique, Regis, Michelle, Fawn, Sophie and Lara. What will she name her next child? Jessica, Katie, Abby or Tilly?

Five Vowels

There are several english words that contain all 5 vowels (aeiou). How many can you name? For an extra challenge, can you name one or two that have the vowels in order? What about throwing in y?




For those of you who have been around for a while, I've had this question (in a slightly different format) before.

Logical Tire Use

Bill rode his bicycle 300 miles. Three tires were used equally in accumulating this distance. How many miles of wear did each tire sustain?

Sorry I didn't post on Friday. Blogger was being blocked at work and I couldn't get through!

Broken is Better

Break it and it is better, immediately set and harder to break again.

What is it?

Did You Buy Her a Gift or a Trinket?

Do you know of any anagrams for TRINKET? I know of only one. What is it?

A Farmer and His Stones

A farmer had a stone that he used to measure grain on his scale. One day his neighbor borrowed the stone, and when he returned, it was broken into four pieces. The neighbor was very apologetic, but the farmer thanked the neighbor for doing him a big favor. The farmer said that now he can measure his grain in one pound increments starting at one pound all the way to forty pounds (1, 2, 3, 17, 29, 37, etc.) using these four stones.

How much do the four stones weigh?


Stuck? There are some hints below:

Hint 1: The stones have broken (miraculously) into four parts that are each X pounds each, where X is a whole number. In other words, there's no stone that weighs 5 and 1/2 pounds, but there could be one that weighs 5 pounds.

Hint 2: Each stone is different in size.

Baseball Trivia

Seven batters come up in an 1/2 inning, yet no one scores. How is this possible? There are no substitions.

Old One Eye

She has but one eye,
And a long tail that she would let fly.
Every time she went over a gap,
Part of her tail would get caught in a trap.
Who is she?

Two Legs

Two legs I have, and this will confound: only at rest do they touch the ground!

What am I?

Cool Pool

A little pool with two layers of wall around it. One white and soft and the other dark and hard, amidst a light brown grassy lawn with an outline of green grass.

What am I?

thefusometimeture

1)

tiidty

tiidty

2)

$1wheat

3)

thefusometimeture

4)

I12

BAP

5)

     J

AKQ 10

Think Hard

I am never quite what I appear to be. Straight-forward I seem, but it's only skin deep, for mystery most often lies beneath my simple speech. Sharpen your wits, open your eyes, look beyond my exteriors, read me backwards, forwards, upside down. Think critically and answer the question...what am I?

The Purple House

See the house? It is the purple house. The purple house is one story and every thing in it is purple. The doors are purple, the sofa is purple, the refrigerator is purple (go on as long as you like) now what color are the stairs?

So Dark the Con of Man

AMON L'ISA
O, DRACONIAN DEVIL!
OH, LAME SAINT!
SO DARK THE CON OF MAN


For those of you have read the book, this won't be challenging. But I found them interesting.

I Say Much

I am a window, I am a lamp, I am clouded, I am shining, and I am coloured; set in white, I fill with water and overflow. I say much, but I have no words. What am I?

Can You Figure Out What This United State Is?

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.

Another Good Question

Anonymous asks:

Does anyone know what 3=S.Y.O.A.T.O.B.G. STAND FOR?

Feed the Animals

NASA was considering sending canaries into space to study them under zero gravity. The project was scrapped when someone realized that in spite of having sufficient water supplies, they could die of dehydration within a few hours. Why?

Riddle Built on Two Backbones

Only two backbones, but a thousand ribs.

What is it?

Help a Friend

An anonymous reader asked if we could find the number missing here:

8 11 6
14 ? 10
3 13 9

Refers to Today

My first is a creature whose breeding is unclear.
My second, a price you must pay to stay.
My whole can be found in the river of Time and refers to events of today.
What am I?

kst is the Word

Name an eight letter word that has kst in the middle, in the beginning, and at the end.

A Minor Irritation Can Grow

My host thinks I'm an irritation, a bother, a pain. But he can't evict me, so here I will remain. Then one day I'm taken and ranked among my peers.

Can you guess just what I am? Then you might call me dear.

An Eminent King

Five hundred begins it, five hundred ends it,
Five in the middle is seen;
First of all figures, the first of all letters,
Take up their stations between.
Join all together, and then you will bring
Before you the name of an eminent king.

Be a Monkeys Uncle

Carl Jones introduced Roger Smith to his friend as his ‘Uncle Roger'. Roger Smith introduced Carl Jones to his friend as his ‘Uncle Carl'.

"If you are uncles to each other," queried one of the friends, "you must also be nephews to each other."

"That's correct," replied Carl.

Since there has been no breach of marriage law, how can you explain such a relationship?

This One is Hardly Divine

A hundred and one by fifty divide,
And next let a cipher be duly applied
And if the result you should rightly divine,
You’ll find that the whole makes but one out of nine.

Seven Busy Brothers

We are seven busy brothers laboring every day.
Always helping others in everything they say.
The first in the Amazon doth dwell,
The second in Egypt has a cell,
The third in Ireland makes his home,
The fourth of us resides in Rome,
The fifth and seventh are in you,
The sixth is everywhere in view.

Who are the seven busy brothers?

Letters and Numbers

To solve the following riddle, you must answer each fo the five questions. The answer to each of the five questions will give you the letters to use in the final riddle. You just need to solve the code.

Every officer's job? 1 2 3 4
Not innocent. 5 2 6 7 3 4
Get ready for a picture. 8 9 10 11
More than some, but not all. 12 9 10 3
Elephants have two of them. 3 2 10 13

Riddle: What do you get from a pampered cow?
4 9 2
5 11 3
10 8 9 6 7 11 1
12 6 7 13

Four Letter Blanks

Insert a four letter word into each of the following blanks, so that when added, two new words which share the middle word, are created.
post ____ down
fair ____ pen

cake ____ way

base ____ game

back ____ way

broke ____ town

Thanks For All the Fish

There are 5 houses in 5 different colors.  In each house lives a person of a different nationality.  The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet.  Using the clues below can you determine who owns the fish?

The Brit lives in a red house.
The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
The Dane drinks tea.
The green house is on the immediate left of the white house.
The green house owner drinks coffee.
The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
The man living in the house right in the middle drinks milk.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.
The man who smokes Blend lives next door to the one who keeps cats.
The man who keeps horses lives next door to the man who smokes Dunhill.
The owner who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
The German smokes Prince.
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water.

Running Here and There All Around the Square

One winter night, a man in an apartment looked out the window and saw a man staring at him.  He thought nothing of it until the next morning when he saw the same man staring in at him.  He was so annoyed by this that he called the police. The police arrive that afternoon, sweating, and find that the man has disappeared even though the security cameras showed no one leaving the property of the apartment. All they found left was a hat.

What happened?

Time to Put Some Color in Your Life

What did Edward Binney and Harold Smith invent in 1903?

Should you Brake, Slow Down or Go?

How fast would you need to be traveling towards a red traffic light to see it appear as green?

First Step is To Assume No Friction

At the same time a block of iron and an equally heavy iron sphere are released from the top of a slope. Assume that the friction between the slope has a negligible effect on the velocity of the block and the sphere. Which of the two will be down first?

Two Plus Two

We all know that two times two is equal to two plus two. (2x2 = 2+2). But there more number pairs for which the sum is equal to the product of the numbers.

Keep in mind the number pairs don't have to be the same.

What are some of the answers, or do you know a good formula for solving for the answers?

Answer Quickly

If you look at a clock and the time is 3:15, what is the angle between the hour and the minute hands?

Boys or Girls

In a country in which people only want boys, every family continues to have children until they have a boy. if they have a girl, they have another child. if they have a boy, they stop. what is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?

Birthday Wager

You are at a party with a friend and 10 people are present including you and the friend. your friend makes you a wager that for every person you find that has the same birthday as you, you get $10; for every person he finds that does not have the same birthday as you, he gets $2. would you accept the wager? Why or why not?

Tea But Not Leaf

My first is in tea but not in leaf
My second is in teapot and also in teeth
My third is in caddy but not in cosy
My fourth is in cup but not in rosy
My fifth is in herbal and also in health
My sixth is in peppermint and always in wealth
My last is in drink, so what can I be?
I’m there in a classroom, do you listen to me?

Twelve City Long

I lived in a city that held as much as it could,
So I moved to another that repaid what it should.
The third had very little, with not much to be found,
The fourth was very boring, with no change in the sound.
The fifth was a jungle; wild beasts roamed the in street,
The sixth was so foggy you could not see past your feet.
The seventh was on the move; I could barely keep the pace,
The eighth was so evil; a whole city in disgrace.
The ninth was off-center; the people were bizarre,
The tenth was quite truthful; where honesty is par.
The eleventh was so wise; the acumen hurt my brain,
So I settled in a twelfth, because it was so plain.

Two Days and Five Minutes Later

Sarah and Mike conclude that it is Wednesday. But five minutes later it is already Friday. How is that possible?


TGIF

Riddles Are Where It Is At

I am what I am,
but if you know what I am,
I am no longer what I am.
Guess, what am I?

Riddle Gets Down and Dirty

What gets whiter the dirtier that it gets?

Tricky Counting

How many characters does the right answer to this question have?

Insurance Agents are Quick on Their Feet

A mathematician sits down to talk to his insurance agent. The agent, after answering some preliminary questions, the mathematician gets bored and tries to play a game. When the agent asks him how many children he has, the mathematician replies "3."

"And what are their ages?"

"The product of their ages is equal to 36," said the mathematician.

"Sir, that's not enough information."

"Well then, the sum of their ages is equal to the number of shops in front of your office," the mathematician spoke, now thoroughly enjoying himself.

"Again sir, that just isn't enough information," the agent replied.

"My oldest child likes knowing that she is the oldest."

"Thank you, sir, that's enough information. Shall we move on to the next set of questions?"

How did the agent figure out how old the children were?

Happy Anniversary, Now Pay Up

A restaurant was holding a promotional deal.  Anyone who could prove it was their anniversary could eat for free.  A couple came into the restaurant and were seated and after eating their meal, announced it was their anniversary (and could they have a special dessert along with their free meal?)  Unfortunately for them, they had no proof today was their anniversary.

The manager was called over and he started talking to the customers.

The wife was quickly becoming irate and told the manager they had been happily married for 28 years now after being married at their local church on a beautiful Sunday morning.  And now here they were trying to celebrate their special day and how dare the restaurant, and the manager, ruin their day!

The manager smiled and said, while it may be a special day for them, today was not their anniversary and they would need to pay for their meal.

How did the manager know they were lying?

Olympics Trivia

1. The original games were organized at Olympia (hence Olympics). They were expanded to four locations to create the Panhellenic Games. What were the four locations?

2. What does Panhellenic stand for?

3. Each of the locations celebrated the games in dedication to a Greek God. Who were the three gods who received honor, and which location(s) were they associated with?

4. Athletes in the ancient Greek games competed in the nude, True or False?

5. Although women were not allowed to participate or be a spectator in the games, it is said athleticism was just as important for them. There was one exception. One women was allowed to be a spectator at the games. Who was this lucky lady?

6. Lining the passageway that led to the stadium, statues were erected with the names of famous athletes inscribed upon them. But most athletes would have preferred not to be remembered this way. Why?

7. The modern games last weeks, but the ancient games weren't as long. How many days did the games last?

8. Although a laurel crown is most associated with the ancient awards ceremony, each site had their own type of crown. And Olympia did not use the laurel leaf. What type of crown was used at the Olympics? What about the other sites?

9. We all know who Nike is today (swoosh!), but in ancient Greece, Nike meant something else. What?

Facts are taken from the pdf file at the olympics.org site.  You can look there for answers, but try to answer them on your own first!  ;-)

A Whole Range of Numbers

If you multiply me by 2, subtract 1, and read the reverse the result you'll find me. Which numbers can I be?

All Others Were Behind Her at the Olympics

Susan is in the final of a match at the olympic games. At the moment she reaches the finish, all the other contestants are behind her back. She did not play unfair and did also not use doping, but she does not get the gold medal? Why is that?

What Do You Know About the Olympics

What is the maximal height a pole vaulter could theoretically jump? Would it ever be possible that a pole vaulter passes the height of 10 meter?

Thank The Swiss

Tim owns a pocket knife with five different tools. It has a corkscrew, a bottle opener, tweezers, a screwdriver and something else. What?

Diffferent Type of Game

In Greenwich Village, tic-tac-toe is played in an atypical way. At each turn a player marks as many squares as he wishes provided they are in the same vertical or horizontal row (they need not be adjacent). The winner is the one who marks the last square.

Which player has the advantage, and what strategy should he employ?

Thunder and Lightning

Thunder and lightning are so common an experience, you may never have thought about what you're seeing and hearing.  Thunder can seem to last forever as it rolls over you, but the flash of lightning lasts only a moment.  Why?

Do you know any other trivia related to thunder and lightning?

How Old Is Bob Anyways?

Bob and John form a team together. Bob is as old as John will be when Bob is twice as old as John was when Bob was half as old as the sum of their current ages. John is as old as Bob was when John was half as old as he will become over ten years.

How old are Bob and John?

US Trivia

To continue the theme from yesterday.  Here are some trivia questions for the Fourth of July. 

1. What is the inscription on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery?
2. Who founded the Library of Congress?
   
3. Was the Smithsonian Institution names for an American?  Who was it named after?
   
4. What was the nation's first national monument?

I'll be out on vacation starting tomorrow and into next week.  I'll see you when I get back.  Have a great week everyone!

American Trivia

Here are a couple of trivia questions about the US.  The first is easy, the second is harder.

1. What were the 13 original colonies? 
   
2. There are a number of places where the US Flag is never lowered to half staff.  Do you know any of them?  
   

International Race

Five drivers--an American, Englishman, German, Italian, and a Japanese-- decided to have a race. Their cars, not necessarily in order, were: a Toyota, Volkswagen, Fiat, Triumph, and a Chevy. They had their cars numbered #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5. From the following clues, determine the order of finish and which driver was driving in which car.

1. No driver had the same nationality as the manufacturer of his car.
2. The Toyota finished somewhere behind the Fiat.
3. The driver of the Chevy had to stop and change a flat tire.
4. The Italian won the race.
5. Car #3 did not finish in the top two places.
6. No car finished in a place corresponding to its number.
7. The driver of #3 was 2 years older than the Fiat driver.
8. The driver who finished 4th was bigger than the American.
9. The Chevy finished last.
10. The driver of #2 was older than the American, but younger than the driver of the VW.
11. The American was not driving car #4.
12. The Englishman finished ahead of these three different cars: the Fiat, the Chevy, and the car labeled #1.

Opening Day Jitters

A high school has a strange principal. On the first day, he has his students perform an odd opening day ceremony:

There are one thousand lockers and one thousand students in the school. The principal asks the first student to go to every locker and open it. Then he has the second student go to every second locker and close it. The third goes to every third locker and, if it is closed, he opens it, and if it is open, he closes it. The fourth student does this to every fourth locker, and so on. After the process is completed with the thousandth student, how many lockers are open?

Runs But Cannot Walk

This thing runs but cannot walk, sometimes sings but never talks. Lacks arms, has hands; lacks a head but has a face.

What is it?

Who Needs 80 Days?

Sorry about yesterday. I didn't have access to the site.

There is only one airport on a fictional planet, and that is on the north pole. There are 3 airplanes and lots of fuel at the airport. A full tank of an airplane lasts exactly to the south pole, however the airplanes can transfer their fuel to one another.

Your mission is to fly round the globe with at least one airplane, making sure to cross the south pole. All airplanes must return to the airport.

Building Fences

A farmer challenges an engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician to fence off the largest amount of area using the least amount of fence.

The engineer made his fence in a circle and said it was the most efficient.

The physicist made a long line and said that the length was infinite. Then he said that fencing half of the Earth was the best.

The mathematician laughed at the others and with his design, beat the others. What did he do?

Can You Unscramble Eggs?

Each of these words can be changed into something edible by scrambling the letters and making a new word. What foods can you produce from these words when rearranged?

1. PLAYERS
2. SANDIER
3. ASSUAGE
4. BARELY

TGIF

Name four days of the week that start with the letter "t"?

Kitty Cats

What does a cat have that no other animals have?

A Little Game Theory

This is an optimization problem common to game theory. You want to get the most out of your situation, so it's not enough just to say I'd make the call or I'd take the buck. You have to explain why you would want to do so.

You are alone in a room which contains a one dollar coin, a pay-phone and a scrap of paper with a phone number on it. There are one million identical rooms in the building, each containing a single person. Every person can choose to do one of the following:

A. Use the coin to call the number, if somebody older than them also calls then they win one million dollars (the younger caller wins the million). If nobody older than them calls, then they leave with nothing.

B. You can take the $1 and leave, never to return.


What do you do?


I don't know if there's a right answer to this question. At least, I don't know what it is.

Where Did Daddy Go?

A mother is 21 years older than her child. In exactly 6 years from now, the mother will be exactly 5 times as old as the child.

Where's the father?


Hint, don't look below if you don't want to get some REALLY BIG hints about the answer.



.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
















OK... If you figure out the answer, then you may want to argue about some things. What if the kid's early/late? isn't it 10 months and not 9?, etc... This question is fun/interesting, but not technically correct in a lot of ways. Despite enjoying multiple answers to questions, I don't really like hearing a lot of complaints about such questions. This one is for fun, not fact.

Sorry about that. I know that the people reading this blog usually don't complain about things like this, but I thought I should head it off.

Crosswords by Coworkers

Five colleagues at work pooled their efforts during the lunch-hour to solve the crosswords in the daily paper. From the information given below, can you work out who provided each of the first five answers to be found, give the number of the clue in question and say in which order the words were discovered?

• Colleagues: Bernard, Edward, Elsie, Shirley, Thora
• Answers: Balsam, Barely, Bindweed, Regatta, Silence.
• Numbers: 4 down, 8 across, 15 across, 15 down, 21 across.
• Order: First, second, third, fourth, fifth.

1. Thora produced the answer to 8 across, which had the same number of letters as the previous answer to be inserted and one more than the subsequent answer, which was produced by one of the men.
2. It was not Bernard who solved the clue to" Balsam", and Edward did not solve 4 down.
3. The answers to 15 across and 15 down did not have the same number of letters.
4. 'Silence', which was not the third word to be inserted, was the answer to an across clue, as was the fifth one to be worked out.
5. 'Barely' was the first word to be entered in the grid, but 'Bindweed' was not the second answer to be found.
6. Elsie's word was longer than Bernard's; Shirley was neither the first nor the last to come up with an answer.

Tell Me Bozo Did Not Do It

Yesterday, circus owner P.U. Burnem gathered his clowns, and told them he was going to fire every one of them after that night's performance. Last night, Burnem's electrocuted body was found underneath a bumper car. The following facts have been determined; can you find the killer?

1. All male clowns with rubber noses wear red wigs.
2. None of the juggling clowns wear both a red wig and a rubber nose.
3. All happy clowns without rubber noses are part of the "tiny car" act.
4. None of the sad clowns without rubber noses wear red wigs.
5. All of the men who are sad clowns wear rubber noses.
6. None of the happy clowns who can't juggle wear red wigs.
7. All clowns with rubber noses who can't juggle are in the "tiny car" act.

The coroner was able to put the time of death at 8:17, which was during the clowns' "tiny car" act. Therefore, nobody involved in that act could possibly be the killer.

The list of suspects has been narrowed to the following four clowns. Which one of them bumped off the circus owner?

1. Alberto, who can juggle
2. Babs, who wears a red wig
3. Crazy Chester, who has a rubber nose
4. Doris, who is a happy clown

Pants or No Pants Today

You have stepped across the border into a strange new nation. After studying the inhabitants for a while, you make the following observations.

1. All bearded Capricorns have jobs.
2. All Capricorns with jobs can do magic tricks.
3. All Capricorns who can do magic tricks are double-jointed.
4. All double-jointed people who wear pants have beards.
5. All unemployed, clean-shaven people can do magic tricks.
6. Nobody who has a beard and can do magic tricks wears pants.

Which of the following statements is true based on your observations?

1. Nobody with a beard wears pants.
2. No double-jointed people wear pants.
3. No one who can do magic tricks wears pants.
4. No Capricorns wear pants.
5. None of the above.

Triangles Are Easy

Take a stick and cut it twice so that you have three sticks. If you make the cuts randomly, what are the chances you can make a triangle out of your three sticks?

The Fear of

Each of the following phobias have been labeled by psychiatrists.

I got these out of a Peanuts strip, so they may be real or they may not be (I wonder if the fear of getting questions wrong is also labeled?).

1. Hypengyophobia
2. Ailurophobia
3. Climacophobia
4. Thalassophobia
5. Gephyrophobia
6. Pantophobia

Mrs Muddled

When asked her 3 children's ages, Mrs. Muddled said that Alice is the youngest unless Bill is, and that if Carl isn't the youngest then Alice is the oldest. Who is the oldest and who is the youngest?

A Poem by Robert Frost

What was Frost referring to when he wrote the following:
He has dust in his eye and a fan for a wing,
a leg akimbo on which he can sing,
and dye in his mouth instead of a sting

Each Took a Pear

Twelve pears hanging high, twelve men passing by.
Each took a pear and left eleven hanging there.
How can this be?

Of Course There is a Trick to It

What is half of 2+2?

Turn Yourself Around

What turns everything around, but does not move?

The Answer is the Key

Name three keys that unlock no doors.

Not Very Nutritious

What is put on a table and cut, but never eaten?

Here we go 'round

What goes around and around the wood but never goes into the wood?

Can You Follow This?

The more of them you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?

A Very Rare FATALITY

I have many eyes but cannot see.
I have no mouth or nose, but always smell.
Do not eat my tree or you will be,
a very rare FATALITY!

Have a Great Long Weekend

Have a great weekend. I'll see you on Tuesday.

1. 15 M. on a D. M. C.
2. 1 H. on a U.
3. H. 57
4. $200 for P. G. in M.
5. 13 = Number of S. on the A. F.

Letter Equations

We haven't had these in a long time.

Example: 365 D. in a Y.
Answer: 365 days in a year

1. 8 = Number of S. on a S. S.
2. 3 B. M., S. H. T. R
3. A P. is W. 1000 W.
4. 99 B. OF B. on the W.

Socks and Shoes Are Two

Name ten or more things that you can wear on your feet that begin with the letter "s".

A Man Has Been Condemned to Death

A man has been condemned to death. He is placed in a room with three exits.

The first is full of raging fires, the second has fierce assassins armed to the teeth and the third has lions that have not eaten for three years.

Which one should he choose?

Rebus Rewired

In case you didn't know, a rebus is a picture representation of common phrase or name. Can you guess what each is?

1)

uplatm

2)

knee
light light

3)

easy
iiiiiiiiiiiiii

4)

xqqqme

5)

b
bow
w

Have I Mentioned That I Like Rebus?

1)

9S2A3F8E0T1Y7

2)

E
K
A
M

3)

camping
night

4)

elseveven

5)

hristmas tre

DW is Politically Correct

Only four words in Standard English begin with the letters "dw". They are all common. Name them.

Pear Brandy Wednesday

In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?

No Ties

Two men play five games of checkers. Each man wins the same number of games. There are no ties. Explain this.

A Substitute Teacher

A substitute teacher has been tipped off about a girl cheating in his class. Unfortunately, he doesn't know the class well enough to know who's friends with who. Fortunately, there are only four girls in his class. One of the girls is lying about cheating. A second girl is her friend and wants to help her friend (especially since she's worried that she might be implicated!). The other two girls are innocent and will tell the truth.

Andrea: "Dottie is the cheater."
Beatrice: "Charlene is lying."
Charlene: "Andrea is lying."
Dottie: "Beatrice is not the friend."

The Value of Z

What is the value of Z? X, Y and Z are all positive integers between 0 and 9.

X + Y + Z = XY

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

How many four letter words can you find in the word "twinkle"

Try for at least 15!

Mary Married John

Mary Married John two years ago. Despite not bring any money into the marriage and without working at all, John turned Mary into a millionaire. How did John do it?

PS. He did not buy any lottery tickets.

Calendar Time

A month begins on a Friday and ends on a Friday, too. What month is it?



And if that one was too easy for you, how about this one:

The result of adding the date of the last Monday of last month and the date of the first Thursday of next month is 38. If both dates are within the same year, what is the current month?

How Many Apples Does it Take

Four wise men sat at a table eating apples during a dinner party. When they started, there were 11 apples. By the end of the party, all 11 were eaten. Each man ate at least one apple, and everyone knew that. Each man also knew how many he had eaten, but did not know how many the others had eaten.

The first wise man, let's call him Alfred, asked the second, let's call him Bert, "Did you eat more apples than I did, Bert?"

Bert answered, "I don't know. Did you, Carl, eat more apples than I did?"

Carl responded, "I don't know."

David immediately said, "Aha!"

David knows how many apples each person ate. Do you?

When you answer, lay out your logic for the rest of us! You must assume that each wise man is perfectly logical and can think his way through the puzzle.

Can You Point to the Answer?

The first is needed to make quotes you see,
And it often sticks up when it's time for noon tea.

The second's biggest distinction is found
Bearing the symbol of love that is bound.

The third should be biggest but that can depend,
Never standing alone or it may offend.

The fourth is oft used when making a selection
Or if you should need a gun for protection.

The fifth is the fattest and oddest by far,
And can sometimes be found in a wrestling war.

What are they?

Can You Decipher This, Please?

The following cryptogram needs to be cracked. Can you do it?

WLA'P XLJAP RLJO XGMXBSAE NSQLOS PGSR GCPXG.

Can You Put It In a Sentence?

The following words are uncommon, to say the least. Do you know what they mean?

1. Astrobleme
2. Engastrimyth
3. Pogonotrophy

Missing Number Next to E

What's the missing number next to the letter "E"?

P7 H4 O6 N6 E?

By arranging all nine integers in a certain order, you can come up with fractions equal to 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, 1/8, and 1/9. Can you come up with any or all of these?

Example: 1/8 = 3187/25496

Add a Word

What word, when added in the middle, completes the first word and starts the second?

1) as ... cil
2) ma ... age


Have a good weekend everybody!

Which of these is not like the others?

Which of these anagrams does not belong?

slotec
hoccu
sidtnagnht
uerabu
pabrededs
arhic

Five Words

Below are five words. By adding the same three letters to each word, you can make five new words. What are the three letters?

her
ion
or
if
to

Live When There is Light

I can only live when there is light, but I die if the light shines on me. What am I?

But is it Worth Paying the Gas to Go Back?

A bookstore has a complicated, but nice discount policy. If you buy a $20 book today, you get a 2% discount on your next purchase. Buy a $15 book, and you get 1.5% discount on your next purchase.

If you buy three books that cost $10, $20 and $30, you could buy the $30 book today, the $10 book tomorrow (with a 3% discount) and the $20 book the next day and get a 1% discount. Or you could buy the $30 and $20 book today and get 5% back on your $10 purchase tomorrow.

What is the cheapest way to buy five books at $10, $20, $30, $40 and $50?

What Good Logic Puzzle Does Not Involve Death?

There are six jars containing coffee, arsenic, sugar, snuff, tea and salt. But they have all been mislabeled, so that no jar contains what it's label says. The six jars have been placed on two shelves so that it looks like:

coffee, arsenic, sugar,
snuff_, _tea_, _salt_

To be clear, the jar labeled snuff is below the jar labeled coffee. The jar labeled tea is below the jar labeled arsenic and the jar labeled salt is below the jar labeled sugar. Your job is to find the arsenic by asking two questions from a friend knows what is inside each jar.

You ask her, "Where is the salt located?"

She responds, "It is under the jar containing snuff."

Your second question goes, "Would you tell me where the sugar is?"

Her response, "Immediately to the right of the jar containing coffee."

Have you figured it out?

Logic Can Be Hard to Parse

You need to match three letters (A, B, and C) to three numbers (1, 2, 3). From the following rules, can you find a solution?

1) If A is not 1, then C is not 3.
2) If B is either 2 or 1, then A is 3.
3) If C is not 2, then A cannot be 3.
4) If C is not 1, then A is not 3.
5) If C is 3, then B is not 1 or 2.
6) If B is 3, then A is not 2.

A Strange Restaurant

A very strange restaurant has entered your neighborhood. Instead of letting you order your food the normal way, they only let you order the items based off their code (which doesn't change). There are nine dishes labeled A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and I.

If you come in with a group of people, they will not place the dish you ordered in front of the person who ordered it. Instead, they will place the dish in the center of the table, so that the group can decide what to take (think buffet style).

Your four friends and you enter the first night and look at the strange menu. Since you are captains of logic, you decide to break the restaurants code and figure out which dish corresponds to each letter. Without asking the waiter (who won't tell you anyways), can you order five dishes each night for three nights running and figure out what each dish is?

Change One Letter at a Time

Move from Took to Burn with just four letters. Each successive step must form a real word.

Took
____
____
____
Burn

Stories so Common, But is That All There is?

1) We've all heard the story of Lady Godiva, but did you get all the details? What town did Lady Godiva ride naked through? What was she (according to legend) trying to accomplish?

2) Since I've seen the movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang about 100 times, I'm assuming you have too. But did you know that there was a book? Who wrote it?

For those interested in a little mathematical discussion of the Monty Hall problem (one of the first questions I posed here, btw), take a look at this NY Times article.

Calculators Down, Please

Without using a pencil or calculator, solve this puzzle:

1 3 1 = 1
11 3 11 = 121
111 3 111 = 12,321
1,111 3 1,111 = ?

Do You Get It?

I've always liked rebus, so why stop?

1)

GETTINGIT

2)

FLUUE

3)

____dance____

Time For a Little Break in the Action

Can you find the hidden phrases?

1)

evil EVIL

2)

POC$$KET

3)

ieieieceieiei

What Are You Afraid Of?

If you have been diagnosed with Basophobia, what is it you are afraid of?

What if you were affected by Cacophobia?

What's missing?

Since yesterday was so easy, you won't have any trouble today. What are the missing numbers?

27 29 25 33 17 ...
25 23 27 19 35 ...
31 33 29 37 21 ...

Can You Break the Code?

The following list of numbers has an accompanying list of codes. Can you break the code and give me the last number?

Number ... Code

589 ... 521
724 ... 386
1346 ... 9764
??? ... 485

A Couple of Riddles

1) Man walks over,
Man walks under.
In time of war he burns asunder.

What is it?


2)You heard me before,
Yet you hear me again,
Then I die,
'Till you call me again.

What am I?

What Numbers Belong

What numbers belong in the parentheses?

1)
98 (33) 79
23 (..) 55

2)
12 (26) 13
11 (..) 6

3)
125 (21) 20
70 (..) 35

Can You Follow the Series?

What's the next letter in the following series?

A C F H K M ?

Arrange and Sum

Take the four digits: 1, 2, 3, and 4 and form a four digit number such as 2,314. You can produce 24 different four digit numbers this way (4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24).

Now here's the question. What is the sum of all 24 numbers?

There is a shortcut to answering this question. But feel free to figure out all 24 numbers and start adding with your favorite spreadsheet! Of course, the real question here is figure out the shortcut?

From a Certain Point of View

What must you do to make the equation below true?

81 X 9 = 801

I Could Have Sworn I Posted This Yesterday

I mean, if you had asked me around 3 PM yesterday if I had posted the next question, I would have sworn on the bible...

Take a fish bowl, partly filled with water. Place the bowl on a scale. If you place a fish into the bowl, the total weight of the bowl increases by exactly the amount as the weight of the fish.

Now, hold the fish by the tail and partially introduce it into the water, will the total weight be greater than before we introduced the fish?

No fish were harmed in the making of this question.

Easter Egg Hunt

You are invited to an Easter egg hunt party having 100 colored Easter eggs hidden in the backyard. 20 eggs are colored red, 14 eggs are colored blue, 15 eggs are colored green, 16 eggs are colored brown, 17 eggs are colored yellow and 18 eggs are colored orange. All of these eggs are wrapped with golden wrappers. What is the minimum number of eggs that you should find so that you are sure that you have at least 2 pairs of similarly colored eggs. For example, 2 red eggs and 2 blue eggs. You can also have 2 yellow eggs together with another set of 2 yellow eggs.

That is an Order

Two soldiers have been ordered to do the following:

1. Peel potatoes
2. Do the dishes
3. Mow the lawn

Neither soldier can go on leave until all three are done, so they are both very motivated to get it done as quickly as possible. Each of these chores, when done by one person, takes one hour. They only have one knife, one lawn mower and one sink with room for only one person. If they start at 8 A.M., how soon can they finish? How are they able to minimize the time spent by both of them?

Next in Fractions

What's the next number in the series?

2/3 7/12 1/2 5/12 1/3 1/4 1/6 ?

What Word Added

What one word, added to each initial letter, forms other words?

c
th
g
p
b


I suppose there could be more than one answer to this question, but I only know one.

Sorry I didn't post yesterday.

Time is a Fleeting Thing

1) I'm looking at my watch. From this moment on, the hour hand will take exactly twice as long as the minute hand to reach the number six. What time is it?

2) Again, I'm looking at my watch. From this moment on, the hour hand will take exactly three times longer than the minute hand to reach the number six. What time is it?

Well Then, How About This

If the first two were easy, you should jump all over this one.

Which of the following does not belong?
icicle
nail
cone
fork
horseshoe
arrow

Was Yesterday Easy?

Then how about this one?

Which of the following does not belong?

Oslo
Paris
Rome
Barcelona
Beijing
Frankfurt
Prague

Which Word

Which of the following words does not belong?

foot
elbow
head
knee
skull
toe

A 100 meter long train is traveling at 100 meters per minute. It must pass through a tunnel of 100 meters in length. How long will it take to pass completely through?

Complete the Series

What number best continues the following series?

2 3 3 6 15 ...

Worth Your Weight in Water

Do you know what a cubic yard of water weighs (round off, please)?



Possible Answers/Hint below:






17 lbs
170 lbs
1,700 lbs
500 lbs
98.8 lbs.

Late at Night

A man is waling at night at a steady pace. As he walks by a street lamp, he notices that his shadow becomes longer. Does the top of the shadow move faster, slower or at the same speed when the shadow is longer as when it is shorter?

I May Be Late

I'm looking at my watch. Each minute has a mark. The hour hand is on one mark, while the minute hand is on the next one. What time is it?

But just yesterday, I was looking at my watch and the hour hand was on one mark, while th minute hand was on the previous one. What time was it?

Round Robin

Over the weekend a soccer tournament was played between five teams: the Lions, Tigers, Bears, Orioles and Eagles. Each team played once against every other team. A team won 2 points for winning, 1 point for tying and 0 points for losing.

The final point total was:
Lions 6 points
Tigers 5 points
Bears 3 points
Orioles 1 point

What was the Eagles final point total?

Saw This One Over the Weekend

What numbers fit the bill:
a + b + c + d = a * b * c * d


The solutions to a, b, c and d do not have to be unique (i.e. a can equal b).

A Lowly Thing

I am just a lowly thing, object of much derision,
I am odd because I multiply by division.

What am I?

Does This Seem Out of Order

1)
eiln pu

2)
arrest
you're

3)
minI'llbethereute

In case you haven't seen these before, they're rebus. Can you figure out the common phrases hidden inside?

Nothing Like a Little Math to Wake You Up

The local kids basketball team has seven kids. From that group of seven, there are 21 different starting teams of five players. If Joey plays on the team (he's one of the seven), what's the likelihood that he is one of the starting five?

Assume that the coach feels that all kids deserve a shot at starting, no matter their ability.

Killed By a What?

Aeschylus is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedians whose plays survive, the others being Sophocles and Euripides.

Speaking of a tragedy (or perhaps it was more of a comedy), how was Aeschylus killed?

What Was in That

The following jumbled up words can be translated into a common phrase. Can you tell me what they mean?

1)
JOBINJOB

2)
PumPkinPie

3)
1.
2. Blame
3. Blame

4)
timing ti ming

Shakespeare Was No Scientist

What major scientific blunder did Shakespeare include in his play Twelth Night?

Drink Some Wine

A man says, "I am going to drink water because I don't have water. If I had it, I would drink wine." What does he do for a living?

Sporty Anagrams

Which of the following anagrams is not a sport?

1. luncigr
2. bigbacer
3. roasdcsel
4. lwstnrieg
5. gyubr
6. ceryarh

Hidden Phrase

Can you find the hidden phrase in the following rebus?

1)
G
N lost
I lost 6:17
K lost PM
A lost
M

2)
OVER...OVER

Dinner Party Trick

Using four glasses and three knives, you too can impress your friends (if you have friends who are amused by such tricks)

The trick goes like this:
Form an equilateral triangle with three identical glasses so that they are just slightly further apart than the length of three identical knives. Now, using just those three knives, and without moving the glasses, form a bridge so that one more glass can be supported a fourth glass full of water.

You can't place the fourth glass directly on top of one of the other three glasses.

You May Need a Search Engine For This One

Two trivia questions today:
1. What does a sphygmomanometer measure? (Bonus points if you can say that out loud, too!)

2. What language was invented by Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof?




Hopefully, I spelled those right!

Gumballs in the Bowl

In order to win a free trip, contestants had to guess the exact number of gumballs in a fish bowl. The contestants guessed 45, 41, 55, 50, and 43; but no one won. The guesses were off (in no particular order!) by 3, 7, 5, 7, and 2.

Do you know how many gumballs there were in the bowl?



BTW, Sorry there was no post yesterday!

What Went Wrong?

In case you don't know: i = √-1

-1 = -1
-1/1 = -1/1
-1/1 = 1/-1
√(-1/1) = √(1/-1)
i/1 = 1/i
i = 1/i
i * i = 1
-1 = 1

Are You on the List

Notice anything special about this list of names?

Dennis, Nell, Edna, Leon, Nedra, Anita, Rolf, Nora, Alice, Carol, Leo, Jane, Reed, Dena, Dale, Basil, Rae, Penny, Lana, Dave, Denny, Lena, Ida, Bernadette, Ben, Ray, Lila, Nina, Jo, Ira, Mara, Sara, Mario, Jan, Ina, Lily, Arne, Bette, Dan, Reba, Diane, Lynn, Ed, Eva, Dana, Lynne, Pearl, Isabel, Ada, Ned, Dee, Rena, Joel, Lora, Cecil, Aaron, Flora, Tina, Arden, Noel, and Ellen sinned.

Gambling Problem

The house is always determined to make sure you walk out with less money than what you entered in. But Ted feels he's found a strategy for roulette that works. He tells you:

"In each round, I always bet half of the money I have at the time on red. Yesterday, I counted and I had won as many rounds as I had lost."

Over the course of the night, did Ted win, lose or break even?


In case you're not aware, if red comes up, you win as much money as you bet. So, if you bet $100, you win $100. If black comes up, you lose the $100.

Missing Letters

What are the missing letters?

a j e f .
l c h g .

Find the Path

Say we have a 4x5 board. Your job is to mark a pathway on that board such that the square you start on is 01. The next square you move to is 02 and the following one is 03 and so on to 20. You may move one square vertically or horizontally, but not diagonally. You may enter each space only once. A simple path would go like this:

01 02 03 04 05
10 09 08 07 06
11 12 13 14 15
20 19 18 17 16

Can you figure out a working path for the following board:

- - - - x
- - x - -
- x - - -
- - - - -

Each of the x's represent 5, 10 and 15 in some unknown order.

Words in a Square

What nine letter word is written in the square? You may start at any letter and go in any direction (one space, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal). You may not use any letter twice.

T E M
R C O
I G E

And while you're at it, decipher the following cryptogram:

SALTS LA ELLG

Series of Question Marks

What are the two missing numbers in the series below?

8, 15, 10, 13, 12, 11, 14, 9, 16, 7, ?, ?

Ed and Edd, But Not Eddy

Ed and Edd decided to build competing roller coasters. Ed built his roller coaster 40 feet high that will travel down on a straight slope. Edd built his roller coaster 40 feet high, but his travels down a curved slope (steep at the beginning, levels out at the end with no bumps).

If both cars are released at the same time (they cars are identical), which one will arrive at the bottom first?

Get a Little Exercise Today

Bill and Judy set out to cover a certain distance by foot. Bill walks half the distance and runs half the distance. Judy walks half the time and runs half the time. Bill and Judy walk and run at the same rate. Who will reach the finish line first?

Flower Anagrams

Which of the following anagrams is not a flower?

• piltu
• cridoh
• nanitraco
• nejirup
• airadneg

Wibs and Wobs

Let's say 26 zips weigh as much as 4 crids and 2 wobs. Also, 8 zips and 2 crids have the same weight as 2 wobs.

How many zips have the weight of 1 wob?

Additional Puzzles Are Required

What number should I put in for the question mark?

6 5 9 2 7
1 4 3 5 ?
8 0 2 8 1

Words to Live By

Can you translate the following into their more common utterances?

1. Superfluous chronological dispatch institutes riddance of valued effects.
2. There’s no value to be derived from demanding attention by loud screeches over fallen white liquid derived from the lactic glands of a female bovine.
3. An excess of culinary experts impairs the quality of a thin derivative of meat.
4. A body of persons abiding in a domicile of silica combined with metallic oxides should not carelessly project small geological specimens.

Common Phrases

These may be common phrases, but how can you tell?

1. If a large solid-hoofed mammal becomes available to you without compensation, refrain from casting your faculty for seeing into the oral cavity of such a creature.
2. Each vaporous mass suspended in the firmament has an interior decoration of metallic hue.
3. It is not advantageous to place the sum total of your barnyard collections into the same wicker receptacle.
4. Feathered bipeds of a kindred mind in their segregated environment associate with a high degree of amiability.

Math Can Be Fun

Take your age and multiply it by 2.
Add 5.
Multiply this sum by 50.
Subtract 365.
Add the amount of loose pocket change, but do NOT count change totalling $1 or over (i.e., must be less than $1)
Add 115


Notice anything special?

What is the Plural for Rebus?

1)

1,2,3,4,5,...,38,39,40,life

2)

give get
give get
give get
give get

3)

LE
VEL

4)

TAILR
RIALT
LIRTL
LTRIA

Some Rebus to Amuse You

Can you transform the following into common phrases or items?

Example:

VA DERS

Answer: Space Invaders (space in vaders)
1)

12:00 T

2)

Knee
UR Full OF

3)

WINEEEE

4)

NINE
CUMULUS

Let's Get a Little Lighter Today

From what heavy seven-letter word can you take away two letters and have eight left?



Oh, and TGIF!

Name Game Part 3

Once again, I'm looking for names that sound similar to the words the clues below refer to.

1. A short haircut
2. A cribbage pin
3. A red flower sent frequently on Valentines Day
4. A white flower used for memorials
5. A blue flower mentioned in yearbooks

The Name Game Part 2

Just like yesterday, the following clues indicate a common word that is also a name. Note the word may not be spelled exactly like the name, but should be similar enough to figure out.

1. A star-shaped game piece
2. A Spanish nobleman
3. A Christmas song
4. How a beach feels
5. Unearthed with a shovel
6. Sweet confections
7. A rabbit's den
8. Loam (clean dirt)
9. A hive-dweller

The Name Game

Each of the following clues leads you to a name, but a name with meaning. How many can you figure out? I should mention, the spelling of the name does not have to match the clue exactly.

Example: To tease good-naturedly or engage in banter.
Answer: Josh

1. Happiness.
2. A hard, translucent yellow to brown fossil resin.
3. Made from wood, shows up in books.
4. A hard stone, typically faceted.
5. To be holding something while going somewhere.
6. Describes someone who has a lot of this growing on their body.
7. Any three parts in a union; a triad.
8. A ball hit out of the park.
9. Something you typically eat on a bun, also called a "hot dog"

Not the Captain!

Judy, Phil and Tom shot, drowned and strangled Cap'n Crunch.


In case you've never seen a rebus before, translate the preceding sentence into a common phrase or sentence.

Sporting Quiz

There's one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends. What is it?

There are eight ways a baseball player can legally reach first base without getting a hit. Name them.

Carnival Question

A clerk in the butcher shop is 5' 10'' tall. What does he weigh?

Locked Drawers and Lost Files

A man working in a cube has 10 drawers in which to store his files. Two of the drawers can be locked. Each time he stores a file, he picks one of the drawers at random and places it inside.

Yesterday he locked the two drawers that could be locked, but when he came in this morning, he realized he had forgotten his keys at home. He realizes he needs one of his files and begins to look for it. His search is simple, picking each drawer in order, he rifles through each one until he finds the file he needs. He does not go back to any drawer he has already checked.

1) He checks the first drawer, but doesn't find the file. What are the chances he finds the file in the remaining 7 drawers? (Remember, he can't check the last two!)

2) He checks the first four drawers and has not found it. What are the chances he will find the file in the remaining 4 drawers he can open?

3) He has looked in the first seven drawers. What are the chances he can find the document in the final drawer?

Probability of Bears

There are two bears - white and dark.

1. What is the probability that both bears are male?

If we write m for male and f for female, we have four possibilites: (mf, fm, mm, ff) which means the probability of mm = 1/4 (assuming they are all equally possible).

2. What if I told you one of the bears is male? What is the probability they are both males?

The possible outcomes are (mf, fm, mm), which means the probability they are both males is 1/3.

3. Now, what if I told you that the lighter bear is known to be male. What is the probability they are both males?

Truth, Lies, and Islands

The inhabitants of an island tell truth one third of the time. They lie with the probability of 2/3.

On an occasion, after one of them made a statement, another fellow stepped forward and declared the statement true.

What is the probability that it was indeed true?

Envelope, Please

In a box there are two envelopes. It is known that with probability 1/2, one envelope contains $1 and the other one $10; with probability 1/4, one envelope contains $10 and the other one $100; with probability 1/8, one envelope contains $100 and the other one $1000; and so on.

You open one envelope and find x dollars in it. Now you can keep the money or take instead the other envelope. What do you do?

Flawed Nobel Prize

On the occasion of his receiving second Nobel prize, Dr. Linus Pauling, the chemist, remarked that, while the chances of any person in the world receiving his first Nobel prize were one in several billion (the population of the world), the chances of receiving the second Nobel prize were one in several hundred (the total number of living people who had received the prize in the past) and that therefore it was less remarkable to receive one's second prize than one's first.

What is the flaw in Professor Pauling's joke?

Sold Out Flight

On a sold out flight, 100 people line up to board the plane. The first passenger in the line has lost his boarding pass, but was allowed in, regardless. He takes a random seat. Each subsequent passenger takes his or her assigned seat if available, or a random unoccupied seat, otherwise. What is the probability that the last passenger to board the plane finds his seat unoccupied?