Riddles
- What seven-letter word has hundreds of letters in it?
- Sherlock Holmes and the Broken Window
One snowy night, Sherlock Holmes was in his house sitting by a fire. All of a sudden a snowball came crashing through his window, breaking it. Holmes got up and looked out the window just in time to see three neighborhood kids who were brothers run around a corner. Their names were John Crimson, Mark Crimson and Paul Crimson. The next day Holmes got a note on his door that read "? Crimson. He broke your window." Which of the three Crimson brothers should Sherlock Holmes question about the incident?
- Three people picked 65 apples altogether. At the first tree they each picked the same number of apples. At the second tree they each picked 3 times as many as they picked at the first tree. When they finished at the third tree, the group had 5 times as many apples as they had when they started at that tree. At the fourth tree the group picked just 5 apples. How many apples did each person pick at the first tree?
- You have a lighter and two fuses that take exactly one hour to burn, but they don't burn at a steady rate. For example, one fuse could take 59 minutes to burn the first inch and then burn the rest of the fuse in the last minute.
How would you use these two fuses to measure 45 minutes?
- A cube of side 4cm is painted with 3 colors red, blue and green in such a way that opposite sides are painted in the same color. This cube is now cut into 64 cubes of equal size.
How many have at least two sides painted in different colors.
How many cubes have only one side painted.
How many cubes have no side painted.
- You have 12 black socks and 12 white socks mixed up in a drawer. It's early in the morning and you don't have any light to see the colors. How many socks must you pull out (blindly) to be sure of getting a matching pair?
- I am the owner of a bird store. If I put in one bird per cage, I have one bird too many. If I put in two birds per cage, I have one cage too many. How many cages and birds do I have?
- What is special about the following sequence of numbers?
8 5 4 9 1 7 6 10 3 2 0
- Three closed boxes have either white marbles, black marbles or both, and they are labeled white, black and both. However, you're told that each of the labels are wrong. You may reach into one of the boxes and pull out only one marble. Which box should you remove a marble from to determine the contents of all three boxes?
- You are standing outside a closed door. On the other side of the door is a room that has three light bulbs in it. The room is completely sealed off from the outside. It has no windows and nothing can get in or out except through the door. On the outside of the room there are three light switches that control each of the respective light bulbs on the other side of the door.
Your assignment is to determine which light switch controls which light bulb. You are allowed to enter the room only once, and once you come out, you must be able to state with 100% certainty which light switch controls which light bulb.