An Old Riddle

As I was going to St Ives,
I met a man with seven wives,
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits;
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were there going to St Ives?

Another Word Puzzle

Which of these words doesn't belong in the list?

Cud
Thru
Dome
Hi
Kill
No
Hat
Men
Flag
Jack
Loam

-Matthew Lauser

Color Puzzle

Which word does not belong to this group

Red, Green, Purple, Orange, Blue, Brown, Black.

The Hill

There's a street where the incline is so high, that I sometimes have to shift all the way down to 1st gear to make it to the top. Especially if I have to stop a the light at the bottom of the hill.
Coming down the hill causes my vehicle to gain too much speed.

Again I shifted all the way down to first gear, but this time it didn't help at all. I had to constantly apply the break to keep from gaining too much speed and be able to stop at the light at the bottom of the hill.

Why did shifting to first gear not help reduce the speed when going down the hill?

-Euclid's Brother

What number comes next?

1,
3,
7,
15,
31,
63,
127,
255,
511,
????
What number comes next in this pattern?

(I have hints if you want/need them)

Emilio C.

Word Challange

Insert a long E sound after the first letter of "bond" and phonetically you get "be-ond" (beyond). Insert a long E sound after the first letter of "renter" and you get "re-enter" (reenter). Name something found in outer space. Insert a long E sound after the first letter, and you'll name a resident of a major American city. What are the words?

(Curtousy of NPR and Will Shortz puzzle master)

-Euclid's Brother

The missing pound!!

Three diners on finishing their meal are presented with a bill for £30, which they agree to split between them. They each gave the waiter £10, not knowing that the waiter had rechecked the bill and found that it was only £25. The waiter realised that the £5 change would not divide equally between the three men, and they were unaware of the mistake, so he returned to the table, apologised, and gave each diner £1, keeping the other £2 for himself.
The diners have all paid £9 each for their meal - totalling £27.
The waiter has kept £2 in his pocket - totalling £29.
If the men originally paid £30, where has the missing pound gone?

- pramsay13

Who 3

Bill finds himself in a very dark place surrounded by a variety of precious metals. He has had a very busy day. He spends time in a taxi, visits a newsstand, stops by a corner deli and goes to the movies. He doesn't know where he will go tomorrow, but he will probably got alone. One is, after all, Bill's favorite number.

Who is Bill and where is he?

Once again I have hints if you need/want them.
~Valerie

As Easy as A. B. C.

The math teacher Mr. Menon was not feeling well, so he asked the class to find out four numbers, a number in the spellings of English counting which has "A" in it, a number which has "B", a number which has C, and a number which has D in it.

The students were, sure busy for the whole period. What would you say ?

The bus

A strange man wrote some instructions for him self:
"1)Get on bus number 44 it's has 45 stops.
2)Wait 44 stops.
3)Count how many people are on the bus.
4)If there are 44 people on the bus get off the bus and skip 5.
5)Switch to the bus with one number below your current bus number and continue the instructions from number 2.
6)You're done."

The man follows the instructions.
Which stop no' will he get off the bus?

-Dani Messerman

Dress Puzzle

Ms. White, Ms. Black, and Ms. Grey were all talking together. One was wearing a black dress, one was wearing a white dress, and one was wearing a grey dress.
Their conversation was as follows:

Ms. Grey said, " We're all wearing dresses that are the same color as our name, but none of us is wearing the color dress which matches our name!
"What difference does that make?" said the lady in the black dress.

Which woman is wearing which color dress?

-Paul

Who 2

A boy enters the bedroom of a young woman and her siblings. He does not use the door to enter, even though the young woman's room is three floors up. His primary purpose is to find something he's left behind. When his business is concluded, he leaves by the same means he used to arrive.

Who is the boy and what was he looking for?

~i still have hints if you guys need it.
~Valerie

The cannibal land

An explorer gets caught buy cannibals on an island.
One cannibal tells him:"I'm a powerful sorcerer and i can see into your mind. Now you choose: If tell the truth, we'll hang you on a rope, and if you tell a lie we'll burn you."

What should the explorer say to be saved?

-Dani Messerman

Escaping the Tunnel

Two boys walking in the woods decided to take a shortcut through a railroad tunnel. when they had walked two-third of the way through the tunnel, their worst fears were realized. A train was coming from the opposite direction, nearing the tunnel entrance. The boys panicked and each ran for a different end of the tunnel. Both boys ran at the same speed, 10 miles per hour. Each boy escaped the tunnel just at the instant that the train would have squashed them into the rails.

Assuming the trains' speed was constant, and both boys were capable of instantaneous reaction and acceleration, how fast was the train going ?

Who

A man stretches as far as he can to save a woman from falling 50 feet below, but misses. Without a scratch on her body, the woman stands up and walks away smiling.

Who is the woman and why does she survive the fall unscathed?

p.s. i'm borrowing these riddles from a book i have called "30 second mysteries volume 2" they start out really easy then get harder. If you need hints i have 5 i can give you, each one giving away a little more. Just post if you want hints, i'll let you know if you guys are right

~Valerie

Ski Lift

From the time, you get on a ski lift to the time you get off what proportion of the chairs do you pass ?

The killer omelette

A true story: A farmer went to a restaurant and ordered an omelette. After a few moments he was arrested and beheaded afterwards. Why?

-aLbert14-

Boat and Dock

You are sitting in a small boat, holding at the end of a rope. The other end of the rope is tied to the top of the nearby pier, such that it is higher above the water than your end of the rope. You pull on the rope, causing your boat to move toward the pier, stopping directly underneath the pier.

As you pull on the rope, which is faster, the speed the boat moves across the water or the speed the rope moves through your hands ?

Riddle

The person who pays for it doesn't know it.
The person who owns it doesn't use it.
The person who uses it didn't pay for it.
And the person who loses it pays for it.

-Matthew Lauser

Rubik's Cube Puzzle

How many cubes are there on the surface of the Cubic array of a 3 x 3 x 3 Rubik's cube

What about 4 x 4 x 4 ? How about n x n x n ?

Frank

Frank the Butcher has a size 12 shoe, 42 suit jacket and is six foot two. What does he weigh?

Not at Fault

A Firetruck, Mailman, Ambulence, Police Car, and a School Bus crashed in a intersection. Who is not responsible? EXPLAIN

At rope's end

A cow is tethered by a piece of rope 50 m
long, The rope is fastened to a hook
located 10 m from the corner of the
longest side of a barn measuring
60 m x 30 m. Over how much ground
can the cow graze?

Head Start

The track coach at Aardvark High plans
to make 8 lanes each 1 meter wide on the
running track.

• The track measures y meters along the inside belt
• The track has straight parallel sides and semicircular ends.
• If the runners in a race lined up at the same spot and stayed in their own lanes throughout the race, they would not run the same distance.

To make a race even, by how much should each lane be staggered?

Tightening your belt

Suppose a belt tightly stretched about the equator of the earth just fits. How long a piece should be inserted so that the belt could encircle the earth at a distance of 1 m away from the equator at all points?

Eccentric Estel

Eccentric Estel claims that her best canvasses have the same area and perimeter, if the unit measures are integers, what are the dimensions of Estel's canvasses

What number comes next..... And Why

What number comes next in this pattern, and why?
There is a logical pattern.

5.6731
6.3138
7.1154
8.1443
11.4301
14.3007
19.0811
28.6363
?

HINT: 80-88
?=89

9 word 9 letter word

What 9 letter word can you take one letter from it 8 times and still have a word?



Brownbear.

Car Crash

A father and his son are in a car crash.
The father dies but the son lives however needs an operation.
While he is in the operation room the surgeon walks in and and says "i cannot operate on him, he is my son."

How is that possible when the father died in the car accident?

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall

In the song "99 bottle of beer on the wall" what is the total sum of all the numbers sung throughout the whole song including the repeats?

Have fun counting
xoxo
Kristie

Janet and Joan

Janet and Joan were found dead in a room which had an open window (it wasnt broken, just open). And, there were glass splinters in a puddle of water on the floor. How did they die?

Stupid cat

If a cat can jump 5 feet high, then why can't it jump through a 3 foot high window?

This has a very stupid answer heehee :P

Isolated death

A man hung himself in a room with no windows, no doors, and no objects inside it, this was a compleetly confined room. The only thing in there was a puddle of water underneith his body, how did he manage to hang himself?

Still Got Friday

I got on scooter within ten minutes after I got your letter. When I got to Carlsbad, I got a taxi for town. But I got wet through before I got to Carlsbad, and I have got such a cold as I shall not be able to get rid of in a hurry. I got to bank about noon, but first of all I got shaved and dressed. I soon got into the secret of getting a petition before the board, but I could not get an answer then, however I got intelligence from the agent that I should most likely get one the next morning.

As soon as I got back to my hotel, I got my dinner, and got to bed, it was not long before I got to sleep. When I got up in the morning, I got my breakfast, and then got myself dressed, that I might get out in time, to get an answer to my petition. As soon as I got it, I got into the taxi, and got to Carlsbad by three: and about tea time, I got home. I have got nothing particular for you and so Adieu.

What's wrong in the above paragraphs ? Can you fix it ?

Johnny and the waitress

Remember the waitress ! Johnny quite impressed, came back to the restaurant. This time he thought of asking her out. "God ! I don't even know her name" he said to himself. When she appeared, he asked her, "Would you come with me for a dinner ?"

"Only if you can find out my name (hidden) in this !" and she gave him a piece of paper with the following note.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

Can you help ?

KINGS ADVISOR

There was a king that needed a new advisor. He wanted the smartest person for the job. The entire kingdom was searched and it was narrrowed down to 3 people.

The final test was about to begin. The king met with each and told them that he would either put a red dot or a blue dot on thier forehead. After all three would meet in a room. Their instructions were that they could not talk. If they saw a blue dot they were to clap. if they saw a red dot they were to do nothing. But as long as they see a blue dot they were to clap. When any of them found out what color they had on themself, they were to come out of the room and tell the king.

The three canidates were put in the room and standing in a triangle formation where each could see the other two. They all clapped for a long period of time. Then realizing what was on their forehead they all ran out together.

What color and how did they know? This is all logic.


Have fun.
Eblue123

Hands of the clock!

How many times do the hands of an analogue clock point to
exactly the same direction at exactly the same time, in 24hrs?
(this is very easy!)


But...for the math gurus...
What are the exact times when this happens?
(please don't tell me 1:05, 2:10, etc....)

I've posted this question just to give you some food for thought,
but any suggestions are more than welcome!

-gilumar-

Two stones

There was a king who wished to mary a young women, not suprisingly though she did not wish to marry him. Although he could force the women to marry him ( because he is the king and can marry whoever he chooses) he did not want to make himeself look bad. So he came up with a plan to make it look somewhat fair to his subjects. he was to put two different coloured stones in a pot, one black and one white. the white one meant she did not have to marry him, the black one meant she did. This king however was selfish and wanted her no matter what, so instead of putting two different coloured stones he put two black ones, so no matter what she picked she would have to marry him. On the day she was to pick the stone she found this out.

How can the women avoid marrying the king?

hint: when she picks a stone she is OUTSIDE in front of a small crowd to witness the event

~Misha <3

QWERTY

Robert Wordsworth said
"SAD can be one of the word, TRY is another one, SAW is not and neither is ZEBRA, Nor you can count LION, but LAD yes, LAD can be one of the word, TIE is in but TIME is out"

"Thats confusing Robert, can you be more specific?" asked Appleseed.

"Well! If the word must have a vowel you cannot have any word starting from Z,X,C,V,B,N,M " added WordsWorth. "What is the biggest word which can be made with the logic given ?"

Any Clue ?

Survey - Who Am I ?

To help post puzzles of your interest and serve you better, please select from one of the options about who you are and what is your age group ?


The poll will end by the weekend !

Thanks
Rajesh

Catching Up

A runner was told that the last running record was made with an average of 30 miles per hour. He ran 15 miles per hour for the first half of the race, how fast he must run in order to break the last record ?

Similar but different!

What on earth is very very similar to half a watermelon;
although there might be many differences?

-gilumar-

What am I?

I begin every party,
Come after every ‘Oh’.
Without me pills would make you sick,
And the things you sit on at church would be disgusting.

-Matthew Lauser

The Missing Number

10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
20
22
24
31
100
?
10000
1111111111111111

Chess Queens

How many ways can you arrange eight queens on a chess board so that none of them could take any other?

-Matthew Lauser

What can you do?

What can anybody potentially do at least once in
his lifetime that anybody else cannot do?

-by gilumar-

What is it?

Who makes it will not use it, (Most probably he will use a similar one that someone else made for him)
and who uses it does not see it!
What is it?

-by gilumar-

A typical black lab

A person is walking their black lab on a leash towards home at a steady 3mph. When they are 7 miles from home, the person lets the lab off the leash. The lab immediately runs towards home at 8mph. When the lab reaches the house, he turns around and runs back to the person at the same speed. When the lab reaches the person, he turns back for the house. This is repeated until the person gets home and lets the lab in. How many miles does the lab cover from being let off the lead to being let in the house?

Note: No one is home to let the lab in, plus he'd much rather run back to his owner.

Keenan

Cabin

A man was walking through the forest.
He came to an open area.
He saw a cabin.
There were about 200 people inside (number of people dos NOT matter)
All the windows were broken.
All of the people were dead.
How did they die?


Amanda K.

I will post hints up when people start guessing if they cant get it.

A Civil Code

Can you decode the following message which was sent, undetected, in 1862 during the American Civil War? Who sent the message?

Burnside, Acquia creek:
Can Inn Ale me with 2 oar our Ann pas Ann me flesh
ends N.y. Corn Inn our with U cud Inn heaven day nest
Wed Roe Moor Tom darkey hat Creek Why Hawk of
abbot inn b chewed i if-Bates

Friday

A person rides into a city, let's say Philadelphia. He arrives in Philadelphia on Friday. He stays there for only three days, and then rode back on Friday. How did he do it?

Elementary My Dear

David Taylor drove at a steady speed along the highway, his wife beside him. "Have you noticed," he said, "that those road signboards seem to be regularly spaced along the road? I wonder how far apart they are."

Mrs. Taylor glanced at her wristwatch, then counted the number of signboards they passed in one minute. "What an odd coincidence!" exclaimed Taylor. "When you multiply that number by 10, it exactly equals the speed of our car in miles per hour."

Assuming the car's speed is constant, that the signs are equally spaced, and Mrs. Taylor's minutes began and ended with the car midway between two signs, how far is it between one sign and the other?

my own.....

THREE GO EAST TO WATCH THE BIRTH,
THEY GO HEADLONG STRAIGHT TOWARDS THE EARTH.
KINGS ARE THEY, BUT NOT THEY MEN,
THAT SEE IT BORN AGAIN, AGAIN.


WHOM ARE THEY AND WHAT ARE THEY WITNESS TO?


HINT:12/25


SORRY IF STUPID, MY OWN AGAIN. YOU MUST ADMIT, THE WORDING IS COOL.
CodyC

What did he say?

A man goes to his lawyer and says that he wants to end his marriage
because his wife has been throwing things at him for the last 30years!

The lawyer said, "So why did you wait all this time to come forward?"

What do you think was the man's reply?

-by gilumar-

10 birds

There is a hunter who sees 10 birds sitting on a branch of a tree.
He shoots and hits only 1 of them.

How many birds are left alive on the branch?

-by gilumar-

Stopped Watch

An analogue watch which stopped without batteries, how many times does it show the correct time in 24hrs? (given that it does not indicate 'am' or 'pm')

With the same reasoning, a digital watch that stopped without batteries how many times does it show the correct time in 24hrs? (given it is not set on the 24-hour mode)

-by gilumar-

Where did it go?

There are 3 men who went out for dinner.
The bill came to be 30 pounds, so they gave the waiter 10 pounds each.
When he arrived at the cash point, the cashier told the waiter him that there
was a mistake, and their bill was supposed to be only 25 pounds.
So the cashier gave 5 pounds back to the waiter to give it back as change.
On his way to their table the waiter decided to put 2 pounds into his pocket
so that he would have no problems of dividing 5 pounds amongst 3.
And he gave them 1 pound change each.

But the problem comes here:
Each man paid 9 pounds (10-1=9) adding up to 27 pounds,
and the waiter took 2 pounds,

which in all add up to 29 pounds!

Where did the other 1 pound go?!

-by gilumar-

Switches & Bulbs

There are 3 bulbs in a room, each having a switch outside the room.

How can you tell which switch is of which bulb if:

1. you are allowed to switch the switches 'on' & 'off' as many times as you want

but

2. you are allowed to look into the room only ONCE in your lifetime!
(then you have to decide)

-by gilumar-

The illusionist

A crowd of 120 people went to see the show of an illusionist. The men in the crowd paid $5, the women a discounted price of $2. And there were childrens in the crowd who paid much less. The total money collected was $ 120.

How many of each, witnessed the illusionist ?

Seconds in a Year

How many seconds are there in a year?
(no calculators please...you don't need one!!)

2007

How many men were born last year?

Car Auction

A man is going to an antique car auction. All purchases must be paid for in cash. He goes to the bank and draws out $25,000.
Since he does not want to be seen carrying that much money, he divides the money between fifteen envelopes labeled 1 through 15. Each envelope contains the least number of bills possible, for example, instead of two tens there would be a twenty, instead of two fives there would be a ten, etc.
At the auction he makes a successful bid of $8322 for a car. He hands the auctioneer envelopes 2, 8, and 14.
After opening the envelopes the auctioneer finds exactly the correct amount.
The amount of money in each envelope is mathematically related to the number on the envelope, with envelope 15 being an exception.

The question is; how many one dollar bills did the auctioneer find in the three envelopes?

-Matthew Lauser

Nine Letters

There are at least two nine letter words that can be made from all of these letters:

E E I L N O S S S

What are they?

-Matthew Lauser

P.S. Extra points for people who figure out more than two. :)

NO COMPUTER PROGRAMS!!!

The Carpet Factory

A factory creates carpet with size in the range of length 10-15 foot and breadth 5-10 foot. One of manufacturing machine went bad and started creating a 8 x 1 foot hole in the middle of 9 x 12 foot carpet.

Alex Rogo, the plant manager responsible, when came to know about the problem the machine already created 1000 unit with holes. "I am going to lose my job for this," he thought, "Wait ! I have an idea to reduce the loss."

A week later he was promoted ! What did he do?

A Mile Long

How long does it takes for a mile long train to pass a mile long tunnel moving at 60 mph

The Urban Riddle

Come near, o men of wisdom, an search you through
my ditty:
Four buried in this rubbish cities fair are lying low,
Search 'till on every line you see stand up a risen city.
'Till walls and arches, terraces and turrets, upward grow.

This is a toughie, lets see if you can find all of the cities in the lines (there are only four, the line below the first doesn't count)

Beheadments

In yon vast field of cultivated space,
I there am found with members of my race;
Decapitate me__if you've no objection_
You then will find what brings me to perfection;
Take one more cut, and then you'll plainly see,
What I am destined, day by day, to be

Run a program on that!

Adam & Eve

An explorer comes across two bodies frozen in ice that are perfectly preserved. He takes them to his laboratory, thaws them out and examines them thoroughly. He claims to know beyond any doubt that the bodies are Adam and Eve. How can he be so sure?

Ross Fraser

Greatest Common Number

What is the missing number in this list?

1
64
125
216
729
13,824
15,625
?
132,651

Brothers and Sisters

John McCain's daughter has many sisters. She has just as many sisters as she has brothers. Each of her brothers has twice as many sisters as brothers.

How many sons and daughters, does John McCain have?

The Mystery Move

I'm sometimes white, but sometimes black, I take you there but I don't take you back.

What am I?

(and extra points to whoever can tell me the rhyme scheme of this question)

also, the answer is not micheal jackson

Outside the Box

There are five boxes A,B,C,D, and E each with some oranges in it.

1. Box A has 12 times oranges than in B
2. Oranges in D is 1/2 as in A, and is equal to the product in B & C
3. E, with mid number, is the sum of oranges in C & 1 other box
4. Number of oranges in C is number in A divided by 8
5. One of the boxes contains 4 oranges

Can you find out the numbers ?

no walky

What has 1,000 legs, but cannot walk?



CodyC

What The Doctor Said

A man goes to the doctor complaining about stomach problems. The doctor asks him what he's been eating.
  "I only eat pool balls," he says.
"Red ones for breakfast, yellow and orange ones for lunch, blue for afternoon snacks, and purple and black for dinner."
  "I see the problem," says the doctor.

"..........."

What did the doctor said ?

Grocer Ganapathi

Grocer Ganapathi have a beam balance, which he can use to weigh upto 40 pounds.

What is the minimum number of weights, he will need and what are the weights ?

Analog Clock

Why an analog clock On Display is always set to show the time 10:10 ?