Something
slightly more mentally challenging. Some are easy, some you probably already
know and others are just.... well you work it out :-). These have been
collected from various parties, competitions, etc over the years so
unfortunately
I don't have the answers to all of them... yet! These puzzles have a section to
themselves as they are not really games or activities, but a little of both and
something else as well. Either have fun trying to solve them yourself or select
a few and give them to teams to work out.
| 1 |
Without lifting pen from paper
join these nine dots with four straight lines
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| 2 |
A man and his son were admitted
unconscious to a local Casualty (Accident and Emergency) department after
a car crash. The Casualty Doctor on duty took one look at them and said
that they although they were the most qualified somebody else would have to deal
with them. Why was this? |
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| 3 |
You have nine ball-bearings, all
of the same size but one slightly heavier than the others, though not
enough to be detected by holding them. You have some balance scales and
are allowed to do only two weighings of any number of ball bearings. How
do you find the heavy one? |
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| 4 |
So you can spell coke, joke,
poke but how do you spell the white of an egg? |
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| 5 |
Name a commonly used used four-letter word ending in E-N-Y (If you find this easy it is because you are seeing it writing. Try it on someone verbally and see them suffer) |
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| 6 |
A farmer has to transport a fox,
a goose and a sack of grain across a river. The boat is so small that
there is room only for him and one of the others at a time, but if he
leaves the fox and goose together the fox will kill the goose, and if the
goose and the sack of grain are left together the goose will eat the
grain. How does he get them all over? |
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| 7 |
Place three silver coins and
three copper coins in a row like this:
Moving only two adjoining coins at a time can you in three moves, change it to this:
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| 8 |
A water lily growing in a
circular pond doubles in size every day. It takes thirty days to cover the
whole pond. How long does it take to cover half the pond? |
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| 9 |
There was a good job going in
the office and the boss could not decide which of the three candidates
should have it, each of them being worthy of it and all of them very
bright indeed. So he set them a problem and the one who solved it would
get the job. He showed them five discs, three black and two white and
said: ?I?m going to put a disc on the forehead of each of you. You
will be able to see the others discs but not your own. There will be no
talking. By pure deduction you will have to work out what colour disc you
have, and the one who does so gets the job.? He withheld the two white
discs and put a black one on each of them. After a time one of the men
stepped forward and successfully claimed the job. How did he figure out
that he had a black disc on? |
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| 10 |
Spot the error in this: ?There was a taxi outside a hotel. A man came out, hit the taxi driver on the head, took all the money out of the meter and started to run off, only to be rugby-tackled by the commissionaire.? |
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| 11 |
If you divide ?100 between a certain number of people, how many people are there and how much does each get? (Study the question, the answer is there.) |
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| 12 |
Driving one stormy night from Birmingham to a small town he had never visited before, a motorist is lost when he comes to a deserted crossroads. Unfortunately the wind had blown the signpost right out of the ground, but being a bright chap he figures out which is the right road to take. How does he do it? |
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| 13 |
Another motorist equally lost came to a fork in the road. There was no signpost so he had to ask at a house which was the correct fork to take him to his destination. In the house were two brothers, one of whom always told the truth and other who always lied. When one of them (he didn?t know which) came to the door he could ask him only one question. What is the single question he could ask which would ensure he found out the right road? |
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| 14 |
When Gilbert was eleven his mother put him into an orphanage. True or false? |
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| 15 |
A person who picks up cigarette butts from the streets finds that he can roll a new cigarette from the tobacco of seven butts. One Saturday he picks up forty-nine butts and on the Sunday decides to smoke all the cigarettes he can make from them. How many cigarettes did he smoke? |
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| 16 |
?The vicar choose The Immaculate Conception as the theme for his sermon. He spoke fascinatingly on this subject of the birth of Christ. A total of ?12.40 was taken at the collection afterwards.? What is wrong with that? |
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| 17 |
Supposing you are captain of a ship and it has three red funnels and it leaves New York on a Tuesday and gets to Southampton on Saturday and on the return trip reaches New York on Thursday, what is the name of the captain of the ship.
All right, you got it but try it on one person - not a group, otherwise
someone will cotton on - it?s astounding that you can repeat it over and over again and your victim still won?t get it. |
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| 18 |
An elm tree was swaying in the wind. It had eight branches and on each tree branch were eight acorns. The wind blew an acorn off each branch. How many are left? |
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| 19 |
A middle-aged brother and sister were host and hostess at a party. A youth pointed to them and told someone that the host was his uncle. ?I think your aunt is a charming person.? Said the other. ?That?s not my aunt.? Said the young man. How come? |
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| 20 |
There is a rope ladder hanging over the side of a ship. Each of the rungs of the ladder are a metre apart. The tide rises at the rate of 80 centimetres an hour. How many rungs are covered after four hours? |
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| 21 |
A boy who lived on the twenty-first storey used to go down in the lift each morning to go to school and when he came home he would take the lift up to the tenth floor and walk the rest. Why? |
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| 22 |
Here?s one for racing experts: what?s the longest race in the flat season? |
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| 23 |
Move one short line to make this correct:
5 + 5 + 1 = 546
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| 24 |
The border between Canada and the United States consists mainly of the 49th Parallel. If a Canadian airliner were to crash exactly on the parallel, in which country would the survivors be buried? (If you think about this for more than five seconds you have been taken in!) |
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| 25 |
What is the frequently used English word containing these letters, just like this: OOKKEE |
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| 26 |
A woman had triplets in July and twins in August - in the same year. How could that be possible? |
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| 27 |
Generally speaking, birds lay their eggs in nests up in trees or down at ground level. Where do peacocks lay theirs? |
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| 28 |
In the Records Office in London there are numerous documents headed "Proclamations of His Majesty Kind George I" published shortly after he came to the throne.? That couldn?t be so. Why not? |
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| 29 |
A youth said: ?The day before yesterday I was fourteen. Next year I?ll be seventeen.? On what day was he speaking and when was his birthday? (No this has nothing to do with Leap Year) |
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| 30 |
Continue the sequence:
192
021
222
324
252
627
2?.?
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| 31 |
How to get the better of someone who thinks he knows everything about cricket! Ask him how many counties there are in the County Championship. |
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| 32 |
A silly one! There is a drain-pipe lying in the road. It is fifteen feet long. A squirrel pokes its head in at one end and then runs around and pokes its head in at the other end. If this takes six seconds and it doubles in speed each trip, how many trips will it have to make before it is poking its head into each end of the drainpipe at the same time? |
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| 33 |
Which State returns a
"Nil Births" every year |
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| 34 |
Man has 7 neck
vertebrae, how many does a giraffe have? |
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| 35 |
What predominant colour
is a peacock?s egg? |
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| 36 |
DONALD
+GERALD
=ROBERT
If D = 5 What are the rest?
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| 37 |
Circles or spiral?
Click image for larger picture
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| 38 |
You are in the
army. You are standing at a gorge which is crossed by a rope bridge. It is
pitch black and you only have one torch. You know the bridge is going to
blow up in 17 mins and you have to get your 3 men and yourself across the
bridge in 17 mins before the bridge blows.
You take 1min to
cross the bridge.
X takes 2 mins to cross
Y is overweight and takes 5 mins to cross
Z is injured and takes 10 mins to cross.
The rope bridge
can only support the weight of two men at any one time. One of you must
always return with the torch as it is impossible to cross the bridge if
you can't see. Whoever crosses always takes the time of the slowest
persons as you have to help them.
How do you save
all you team and do it?? |
Submitted by
Adele Belcher
Apparently the army asks this on its
senior officers testing course and it is almost always completed in 10
mins or less. |
| 39 |
Using only three
straight lines connect these nine dots, without lifting pen from paper or
crossing over another line.
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| 40 |
You want to send a valuable object to a friend. You have a box which is
more than large enough to contain the object. You have several locks with
keys. The box has a locking ring which is more than large enough to have a
lock attached. But your friend does not have the key to any lock that you
have.
Note that you cannot send a key in an unlocked box, since it might be copied. How do you do it?
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Submitted
by Tawanda Gurakumba
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| 41 |
(Variation on question 23)
Remove one short line to make this correct:
5 + 5 + 1 = 546
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Submitted by
Louise Francis |
| 42 |
A woman went to visit her bank manager and she took her young daughter
with her. The bank manager said that the woman's daughter could stay with
his secretary during the meeting. When the woman and her daughter left,
the secretary turned to another secretary and said to her: 'That little
girl was my daughter.' How could that be?
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| 43 |
You have two traditional hourglass type egg timers. One takes seven
minutes for the sand to run through, the other takes 11 minutes. You want
to boil an ostrich egg for exactly 15 minutes. How do you do it? and how
soon after the start of the whole process will the egg be ready?
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| 44 |
A silly questions for you, if you want them, but you need to know a bit
about physics to work these out.
a) Mad Professor Zweistein has managed to build a car that has an
unlimited to speed and incredible breaks that allow it to stop instantly.
He only has one problem, the car is seven metres long and his garage can
only accomodate a six metre car. How fast does Professor Zweistein need to
drive the car so that it will fit into the garage and when does he need to
apply the breaks?
b) During his attempt to get his car into the garage, Professor
Zweistein is caught by a red light camera for driving through an
intersection while the light was red. In court Zweistein defended himself
by saying that at the speed he was travelling the red light from the
traffic light actually looked green (due to the doppler effect). Being a
physics buff himself, the judge decided to take Professor Zweistein at his
word. If the standard rate is $1 per km above the speed limit of 60 km/h,
how much was the speeding fine issued by the judge to Professor Zweistein?
|
Sent in by
J?g Ernst UniSA Chaplain |
| 45 |
You are trapped in the middle of a frozen lake that is so smooth that
there is absolutely no friction so there is no way you can grip the ice.
There is also no wind to propel you along. The only thing you have on you
is a mobile phone, but unfortunately it has no reception so you can't call
anyone for help. How do you get off the ice before you freeze to death?
(posted by J?g Ernst UniSA Chaplain)
|
Sent in by
J?g Ernst UniSA Chaplain |
| 46 |
A butcher is 5' 10". What does he weigh? |
Sent in by
Hannah Belitz |
| 47 |
There are 2 fathers and 2 sons sitting round a table. How many people are
there? |
Sent in by
Katy Sheen |
| 48 |
Which English place name (also the name of a London tube station) contains 6
consecutive constantans? |
Sent in by
Katy Sheen |
| 49 |
What is
YYURYYUBICURYY4ME ? |
Sent in by
Val Gutzmore |
| 50 |
How many
triangles are there?
 |
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| 51 |
Every other day, a cyclist rides a bicycle over the border between the
border of the US and Mexico. a policeman always checks his satchel, but it
holds nothing but a water bottle. Yet, he is smuggling something between the
two countries. What is it? |
Sent in by
Nolan Booth |
| 52 |
There is a man who goes home one day, to see about answering his e-mail,
when he sees Myrtle lying on the floor, dead. There is broken glass, and a
large quantity of water on the floor. What happened? |
Sent in by
Nolan Booth |
| 53 |
Two men are found in a cabin in a hillside, dead. What happened? (Believe
me, there is an answer to this riddle.) |
Sent in by
Nolan Booth |
| 54 |
Can you complete the following common phrases
e.g. "7 C of the R" = 7 Colours of the Rainbow4 = G in A C C (C D)
25 = S of F
18 - Y R (C T - B D)
3 = L in a H
1 = F H H
7 = S R of F N
18 = W A B
1 = S in the K of G M |
Sent in by
Julie Foreman |
| 55 |
There is a man, who goes down into a room every day to check on his frozen
meat, to make sure it doesn't thaw. One day, however, he is killed inside
the room. Noone else entered the room(aside from himself), and there is a
trace of moisture on the floor. The authorities are baffled. Two questions:
What kind of room was it, and, what killed him? (Note, he did not commit
suicide.) |
Sent in by
Nolan Booth |
| 56 |
I was going over to visit my friend, Alfred, when I found him dead at his
desk. There was a tape recorder on his desk. I pressd "play" on the device,
and found he was saying,"...A man just telephoned he was going to come over
in 1 minute to kill me. I have no alternative, but to submit..." Suddenly,
on the tape, there is a shot and a thud. However, I knew that the person who
made the recording was not Alfred, but the killer! How did I know? (Use
logic, please.) |
Sent in by
Nolan Booth |
| 57 |
What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and grey when you throw
it away? |
Sent in by
Nolan Booth |
| 58 |
An electric train is heading north at 60 mph. If the wind is blowing west at
30 mph, what direction is the smoke blowing? |
Sent in by
Nolan Booth |
| 59 |
Divide 500 in half. How many times do you divide the dividend(?) before it
reaches 0? |
Sent in by
Nolan Booth
No answers to this yet so feel free to submit
yours! |
| 60 |
What number is actually possible to divide in half to create(key word!)zero? |
Sent in by
Nolan Booth |
| 61 |
Three brothers shopping for a TV walk past a shop and see a TV on sale for
?30!. Bargain they think only ?10 each as they always share the cost
equally. So in they go to buy the TV, when they get to the assistant to
purchase the TV. He informs them that they are the 1000 customer of the day
and qualify for ?5 discount!!!. so the brothers all hand the assistant ?10
each, the assistant the goes to hand the brothers there ?5 pound change, "oh
we share things equally" says one brother, so they all agree to take back ?1
each and tip the assistant the remaining ?2. However if the brothers all
handed over ?10 each but received ?1 discount, then they only spent ?9
each...so in total they spent 3x9 = ?27 and tipped the assistant ?2, but
27+2 only equals 29??? were did the other ?1 go!!! |
Sent in by
Paul Whittingham,
Scotland, UK. |
| 62 |
2 sons and 2 fathers go fishing. They each catch one fish. The total number
of fish they caught was 3 fish. How is this possible? |
Sent in by
Trista Star |
| 63 |
A man wakes up in the middle of the night and wants a snack, so he goes
downstairs, gets out a sandwich and a glass of milk from the refrigerator.
He eats the sandwich and drinks the milk, then turns out the lights and goes
to bed. In the morning, there are dead people on his lawn. Why? |
Sent in by
Trista Star |
| 64 |
What starts on four legs, then on two, then on three? |
Sent in by
Trista Star |
| 65 |
AEEOEEIEUE... what is the next letter? |
Sent in by
Rachel Pedley
|
| 66 |
A king is searching for a suitor for his daughter, so he collects the three
smartest men in town. He sits them in a circle and tells them he is going to
put a red mark or a white mark on each of their heads while their eyes
are closed. He puts a red mark on all three and tells them to open their
eyes. He then asks them if they see a red dot then they should raise their
hand. They all raise their respective hands. He then says that if you know
the color dot that is on your forehead, then stand up. After a few minutes
one man stands and says the correct color. How does he know?
|
Sent in by
Brian Reilly
|
| 67 |
A man is standing in front of three light switches and then there is a shut
door. He is only allowed to go through the door once and there he will see
three light bulbs. By turning any light bulbs on or off the man must be able
to know which light switch goes with which light bulb. E.g. He can turn two
on and know which switch is for the unlit bulb but will remain uncertain
about the other two.
|
Sent in by
Mark Vaughan
|
| 68 |
A man is pushing his car across London. He eventually arrives outside a
hotel in Park Lane and there discovers he has become bankrupt. How has this
happened?
|
Sent in by
Ian Olliver
|
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