Riddles

Riddles

  1. 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.

    Turn one light switch on, wait a few minutes, then turn it off and turn another light switch on. Go into the room and feel the light bulbs. The one that's still warm is connected to the switch that you first turned on, the one that is on was the second switch you turned on, and the last bulb is controlled by the switch that you didn't touch.


  2. An Arab sheikh tells his two sons to race their camels to a distant city to see who will inherit his fortune. The one whose camel is slower will win. The brothers, after wandering aimlessly for days, ask a wise man for advise. After hearing the advice they jump on the camels and race as fast as they can to the city. What does the wise man say?

    The wise man tells them to switch camels.


  3. You have a fox, a chicken and a sack of grain. You must cross a river with only one of them at a time. If you leave the fox with the chicken he will eat it; if you leave the chicken with the grain he will eat it. How can you get all three across safely?

    Take the chicken over first. Go back and bring the grain next, but instead of leaving the chicken with the grain, come back with the chicken. Leave the chicken on the first side and take the fox with you. Leave it on the other side with the grain. Finally, go back over and get the chicken and bring it over.


  4. You're in a room with two doors. There's a guard at each door. One door is the exit, but behind the other door is something that will kill you. You're told that one guard always tells the truth and the other guard always lies. You don't know which guard is which. You are allowed to ask one question to either of the guards to determine which door is the exit. What question should you ask?

    Ask either guard what door the other guard would say is the exit, then choose the opposite door.
    If you ask the guard who always tells the truth, he knows the other guard would lie, so he'll point you to the door leading to death. If you ask the guard who always lies, he knows the other guard would truthfully show you the exit, so he'll lie and point you to the door leading to death.


  5. I was visiting a friend one evening and remembered that he had three daughters. I asked him how old they were. "The product of their ages is 72," he answered. Quizzically, I asked, "Is there anything else you can tell me?" "Yes," he replied, "the sum of their ages is equal to the number of my house." I stepped outside to see what the house number was. Upon returning inside, I said to my host, "I'm sorry, but I still can't figure out their ages." He responded apologetically, "I'm sorry, I forgot to mention that my oldest daughter likes strawberry shortcake." With this information, I was able to determine all of their ages. How old is each daughter? You have enough information to solve the puzzle.

    3, 3, and 8. The only groups of 3 factors of 72 to have non-unique sums are 2, 6, 6 and 3, 3, 8 (both add up to 14). The presence of a single oldest child eliminates 2,6,6.


  6. 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.

    Cubes that have at least two sides painted in different colors are 24 + 8 = 32.
    Cubes that have only one side painted are 24.
    Cubes that have no side painted = 8.
    Cubes that have exactly one side not painted = 0.


  7. An 18-wheeler is crossing a 4 kilometer bridge that can only support 10,000 kilograms and that's exactly how much the rig weighs. Halfway across the bridge a 30 gram sparrow lands on the cab, but the bridge doesn't collapse. Why not?

    Since the bridge is 4 kilometers long, the halfway point would be 2 kilometers. The 18-wheeler would have used much more than 30g of fuel to drive 2 kilometers.


  8. How far can a dog run into the forest?

    Halfway. After that it will be running out of the forest.


  9. You have two buckets - one holds exactly 5 gallons and the other 3 gallons. How can you measure 4 gallons of water into the 5 gallon bucket? (Assume you have an unlimited supply of water and that there are no measurement markings of any kind on the buckets.)

    1. Fill the 3-gallon bucket.
    2. Pour the 3 gallons of water into the 5-gallon bucket.
    3. Fill the 3-gallon bucket again.
    4. Fill up the 5-gallon bucket with the 3-gallon bucket, leaving you with 1 gallon left in the 3-gallon bucket.
    5. Empty out the 5-gallon bucket.
    6. Pour the remaining 1 gallon of water from the 3-gallon bucket into the 5-gallon bucket.
    7. Fill the 3-gallon bucket.
    8. Pour the 3 gallons of water from the 3-gallon bucket into the 5-gallon bucket leaving you with 4 gallons of water in the 5-gallon bucket.


  10. Here is a series of numbers. What is the next number in the sequence? 1 11 21 1211 111221 312211 13112221

    The next number in the sequence is 1113213211, because the rule for creating the next number is to simply describe the previous number. For example, you start of with 1, with is simply one 1, so the next number is 11. Now you have two 1's, so the next number is 21. Now you have one 2 and one 1, so the next number is 1211. The solution is to simply continue describing the previous number using only numbers.


 
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