We've got a lot of bright individuals here at TiB, so let's put them to the test, eh? FOCUS: Post a riddle, or a brain-teaser of some sort. Follow it with the answer in a spoiler tag. Let's start with a warm up. John's mother has three children. The oldest is a boy named Herbert, who has brown eyes, and whom everyone calls Herb. The next youngest is a girl named Penelope. Everyone calls her Penny. The youngest child has green eyes and can wiggle his nose. What is his first name? Spoiler John.
ToyToy has 19 sheep which he keeps in his shed for, *ahem*, entertainment purposes. Late one night his shed catches fire, and all but nine of his sheep are burned alive. Two of the survivors have third degree burns, and one suffers from a latex cop outfit being burned into its skin. How many sheep are still alive? Spoiler Nine, dumbass.
This one is actually serious. If you're looking for funny, look elsewhere. Buildup: (skip if you just want to get to the logic problem) Spoiler You are riding along the freeway on your motorcycle, get sideswiped by an asshole driving a Hummer, and plow into an overpass at 70 miles per hour. You find yourself shooting along a supernatural tunnel at a fantastic speed along with all the other poor fucks who just died, many with "Holy shit that just happened" looks on their face. You see this tunnel branch off into three parts. The other people are shifted by some force into going through one of the three tunnels. Unfortunately, there appears to be no force on you. You see the divider looming... SMACK. You wake up to find an angel looking at you. "Hello. I'm an angel. You're one in ten million, my friend. This is the spot where souls are divided between Heaven, Hell, and reincarnation. However, you are so average that we couldn't decide your fate. So we decided to make it a logic puzzle." Seeing a sarcastic remark about to emerge from what's left of your mouth, he shrugs and says, "Hey, I don't make the rules. I just enforce them." There are three men in a row. One is God. He knows everything, and always tells the truth. One is Satan. He knows everything, and always lies. The other guy is some hillbilly named ToyToy we grabbed out in the mountains of West Virginia. He knows nothing, and answers randomly. Who's who? You can ask three yes-or-no questions. They don't have to be to different people, i.e. you can ask two questions to the same guy if you so please. Spoiler First thing to do is draw out the possibilities. They're in a line, so from left to right No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 G S H (God, Satan, Hillbilly) G H S S H G S G H H S G H G S The key to this puzzle is asking different people based on previous responses. If the answer to Question 1 is "Yes," then you ask a certain person. If the answer to Question 1 is "No," then you ask the other guy. Same thing with Question 3. Now, the goal is to find the questions that you need to ask and the guys that you need to ask. Question 1: To the guy on the left: Is the hillbilly to the immediate right of Satan? If the answer is "Yes," then you can narrow it down to four possibilities - G S H, (God's telling the truth) S G H, (Satan's lying) H G S, (Hillbilly answers randomly) or H S G (Hillbilly answers randomly). If the answer is "No," then you can also narrow it down to four possibilities - G H S, (God's telling the truth) S H G, (Satan's lying) H G S, (Hillbilly answers randomly) or H S G (Hillbilly answers randomly). Question 2y: (Question 1 was answered "Yes") To the guy in the middle: Are you a hillbilly? If the answer is "Yes," then you can narrow it down to two possibilities - G S H (Satan's lying) or H S G (Satan's lying). Either way, the guy in the middle has to be Satan. If the answer is "No," then you also narrow it down to two possibilities - S G H (God's telling the truth) or H G S (God's telling the truth). Either way, the guy in the middle has to be God. Question 2n: (Question 1 was answered "No) To the guy on the right: Are you a hillbilly? If the answer is "Yes," then you can narrow it down to two possibilities - G H S (Satan's lying) or H G S (Satan's lying). Either way, the guy on the right has to be Satan. If the answer is "No," then you can narrow it down to two possibilities - S H G (God's telling the truth) or H S G (God's telling the truth). Either way, the guy on the right has to be God. Question 3: To whichever guy that you know: Is the guy on the left the hillbilly? If you're asking Satan, and the answer is No, then you know that the guy on the left is the hillbilly and the other guy is God. If the answer is Yes, then you know that God's the guy on the left and the other guy is the hillbilly. If you're asking God, and the answer is Yes, then you know that the guy on the left is the hillbilly and the other guy is Satan. If the answer is No, then you know that the guy on the left is Satan and the other guy is the hillbilly. And that's the answer.
Here's one from Lewis Carroll: Three sisters at breakfast were feeding the cat, The first gave it sole, Puss was greatful for that. The next gave it salmon, which Puss thought a treat, The third gave it herring, which Puss wouldn't eat. Explain the conduct of the cat. Spoiler That salmon and sole Puss should think very grand Is no such remarkable thing For more of these dainties Puss took up for stand; But when the third sister stretched out her hand Pray why should Puss swallow her ring?
Here's a whole song of riddles and also it's the best thing! Also, these riddles are ridiculous (avoiding the obvious pun): Oh campy Batman...
In circuit theory, there is such a thing as a Thevenin-Norton equivalence, which says that an ideal voltage source in series with a resistor will behave exactly the same as an ideal current source in parallel with a resistor (where there is a formula for determining the relative sizes of the sources). Assuming you have one of these set ups in a black box, with only two wires sticking out, how do you determine whether it's a Thevenin or a Norton set up?
A midget lives on the 20th floor of his apartment building in Seattle. If it is raining outside, he can ride the elevator. If it is sunny outside, he has to take the stairs. Spoiler He cannot reach the button on the elevator without the help of his umbrella.
Who owns the fish? This is Einstein's Riddle On a street there are five houses, painted five different colors. - In each house lives a person of different nationality. - These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke different brand of cigar and keep a different pet. Necessary clues: 1. The British man lives in a red house. 2. The Swedish man keeps dogs as pets. 3. The Danish man drinks tea. 4. The Green house is next to, and on the left of the White house. 5. The owner of the Green house drinks coffee. 6. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds. 7. The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill. 8. The man living in the center house drinks milk. 9. The Norwegian lives in the first house. 10. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats. 11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill. 12. The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer. 13. The German smokes Prince. 14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house. 15. The Blends smoker lives next to the one who drinks water. Spoiler http://www.planetburrito.com/einstein_solution.html
You guys get so serious about this... How do you stick an elephant in the refrigerator? Spoiler Open the door, put the elephant in, close the door. How do you stick a giraffe in a refrigerator? Spoiler Open the door, take the elephant out, put the giraffe in, close the door. The lion king calls a meeting of all the animals in the animal kingdom. Who isn't there? Spoiler The giraffe. He's in your fucking fridge. You find yourself in Africa needing to cross a river swarming full of crocodiles. You have no bridge, no boat and nothing on hand to help traverse. How do you do it? Spoiler Swim. The crocodiles are at the meeting.
Answers are in the spoiler tags, and a hint is in the NSFW tags. A married couple goes to a movie. During the film, the husband strangles the wife. No one notices and he's able to get her body back home without attracting any attention. How did he accomplish this? NSFW HINT: They drove to the movie. Spoiler They were at a drive-in movie. How quickly can you find out what is unusual about this paragraph? It looks so ordinary that you would think that nothing is wrong with it at all and, in fact, nothing. But it actually is a bit odd, But why? If you study it and think about it for a bit, you may just find out. NSFW HINT: I'd like to buy a vowel. Spoiler The letter 'e' isn't used in this paragraph. A deaf-mute goes into a hardware store. He wants to buy a pencil sharpener, so he walks up to the clerk, sticks a finger in his ear and rotates his other hand around his other ear. The next customer is a blind man. How does he let the clerk know that he wants a pair of scissors? NSFW HINT: It has nothing to do with his hands. Spoiler He asks the clerk, "Can I buy a pair of scissors?".
How do you know if your doctor is gay? Spoiler When he gives you a prostate exam, both of his hands are on your shoulders.
You completely fucked that up and gave WAY too much information. This is what it should be. Why is it that a man who lives on the 20th floor in an apartment building sometimes can take the elevator all the way to the 20th floor but other times has to get off the elevator on the 13th floor and walk?
How can you tell if you're gay? Spoiler If when you bend over you see four balls instead of two, you're gay!
There is an airplane flying over the middle east loaded with 300 passengers. A missile comes out of nowhere and clips the wing off the plane. It plummets to the ground and crash lands on the border of Iran and Iraq. Half the passengers are Muslim. Of those, 1/2 are Sunni, and 1/2 are Shiites. The other half of the passengers are made up of 1/3 Jews, 1/6 Christians, 1/6 Hindu, 1/12 Buddhist, 1/12 Catholics, and 1/6 atheists. The passengers are comprised of people from 13 different countries: The US, Canada, Germany, Iran, Israel, Norway, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, North Korea and Brazil. Decide where to bury the survivors, taking into account their heritage and religion. Spoiler You don't bury the survivors. You bury the victims.
To the couple of people who repped me for my last one saying they wasted a couple of hours trying to figure that one out, believe me I did the same thing. Here is another but its slightly easier. After recent events Questionmark is annoyed with his brother Skidmark. Skid thought it would be funny to hide questions wallet. He told Question he could get it back if he finds it. So, first off, skid laid 5 coloured keys down onto the table in a row. One of them is the key to the room. Using the clues can you determine the order of the key, and which keys opens the door to the walllet? Red: this key is somewhere to the left of the key to the door Blue: this key is not at one of the ends Green: this key is 3 spaces from the key to the door (2 spaces) Yellow: this key is next to the door Orange: this key is in the middle Best of luck, I saw this one first years ago, and it was pretty frusterating Spoiler are you sure you wanna give up and go right to the answer? NSFW green red orange blue yellow, and the blue opens the door
I was told this one at camp a long time ago. It helps if you have a pen and paper. Four men are being held in a room. The are situated thusly: #1 is behind a divider and cannot see nor be seen by the other three #2 cannot see any of the other three, but is seen by #3 and #4 #3 can see #2 and is seen by #4 #4 can see #2 and #3, but cannot be seen by any of the other three #1 and #3 have a piece of blue ribbon tied around their head. #2 and #4 have a red ribbon. No man knows the color of the ribbon on his own head. A voice tells them the following: "Two of you have red ribbons, and two have blue ribbons. #1 and #4, neither of you can be seen by anyone. #2, you be seen by #3 and #4. #3, you can be seen by #4. In order to leave this room, one man must state the color of the ribbon on his own head. If you answer wrong, you will all be killed." Who is the first to answer correctly and why? Spoiler #3. He realizes that if he and #2 both had the same color ribbon, then #4 would be able to answer correctly, as they were told that two people have each color. Therefore, #3 knows that he must have a different color ribbon than #2.
I read this one back when I was in elementary school. My parents got me a book called "Aha! Gotcha," by Martin Kramer. Great book. Bob gets convicted for murder and is sentenced to death. The judge tells him, "Today is Sunday. You will be executed at midnight on one of the days from Monday to Friday. It will be an unexpected hanging; you will not be able to predict which day you die. Call it a surprise execution." The judge is known for being extremely scrupulous; he has never lied before, and furthermore he has never been wrong. Bob is taken back to his cell and starts thinking. "The judge said I wouldn't be able to predict in advance which day I get hanged. Well, if midnight on Thursday rolls around and I'm still alive, I'll know in advance that the only day that's left to die on is Friday. So it can't be Friday." Bob crosses Friday off the list. "But wait! If I can't be executed on Friday, then I can't be executed on Thursday, either, because since I've ruled out Friday, if midnight on Wednesday rolls around and I'm still alive, then I'll know that it has to be Thursday. So it can't be Thursday, either." Bob crosses Thursday off the list. "Holy shit! I can use this same logic to rule out all of the days! I can't be executed at all!" At 00:00 on Wednesday, the guards enter his cell, bring him to the gallows, and hang him. He is very surprised. The judge kept his word. Question: Where is the flaw in Bob's logic? Spoiler You can't even rule out Friday using that logic. Looking at it another way, if Bob uses this logic, then when Friday rolls around, he'll be expecting to be set free. After all, it'll be an expected hanging! Of course, when the guards grab him, he'll definitely be surprised. But I was expecting this! You can't hang me! That's how I interpret it, at least. Many other theories have been advanced as to why the condemned man's logic is jacked up, but one thing is for certain - if you can rule out Friday, you can rule out every other day. Therefore the fault in his logic must be in the very first step.
I have one for you guys to think about. There is a room that has 3 light bulbs in it. The switches for these light bulbs are located outside of this room. You cannot see into this room from where the light switches are and are only allowed access to the light switches once and access to the room once. All three switches are originally in the off position. How can you determine which switch controls each light bulb? Spoiler When you go to the light switches turn two of the light switches on. Wait for a few minutes and turn one of the light switches off. Now enter the room and touch the two light bulbs that are turned off. The hot one is the one you turned on then off. The cold one is controlled by the switch you did not touch. The light that is on is the one you turned on and left on.
This one, I believe, belongs to Stephen King, although he may have got it from somewhere else: What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a bed but never sleeps, has a head but never weeps? Spoiler A river. I occur once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a hundred thousand years. What am I? Spoiler The letter M.