posted
There's the one in the first Harry Potter, but I'm looking for some more. Y'all know of any good ones?
For example: What is the largest possible number you can write using only 2 digits - just 2 digits, nothing else?
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
The Einstein riddle, which was introduced to me by a C++ programming teacher. It is as follows:
There are 5 houses of 5 different colors. In each house lives a person of a different nationality. Each of the 5 residents drinks a certain type of beverage, smokes a certain brand of cigar, and keeps a certain pet. None of them have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same beverage.
The question is: Who owns the fish?
Hints:
- The Brit lives in the red house. - The Swede keeps dogs as pets. - The Dane drinks tea. - The green house is on the left of the white house. - The resident of the green house drinks coffee. - The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds. - The resident of the yellow house smokes Dunhill. - The resident of the center house drinks milk. - The Norwegian lives in the first house. - The person who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats. - The person who keeps the horse lives next to the one who smokes Dunhill. - The person who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer. - The German smokes Prince. - The Norwegian lives next to the blue house. - The person who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.
**Einstein wrote this riddle this century. He said 98% of the world could not solve it. It's not hard, you just need to pay attention and be patient.**
I'm sure if you googled, you could find the answer pretty easily, but then that's not a whole lot of fun, is it? I think Einstein was overestimating the difficulty of the riddle, as it's not really very hard.
Posts: 1855 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Oh CRAP! How could you?? I did that riddle in middle school and I got it down to two things I couldn't decide. (Two empty boxes.) I think I finally threw it away in disgust.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
BILBO: (to himself) What have I got in my pocket?
GOLLUM: Not fair! It isn’t fair, my precious, is it, to ask us what it’s got in its nassty little pocketses?
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
arg. THere's a bunch in a book I JUST read, but of course ken took it home so he could read it. I do know one, though. The ones in Hobbit are good, too.
posted
Man, I expected a tougher riddle out of Einstein.
Though it was frustrating for a second when I had the Swede racing towards lung cancer by smoking three different cigarettes.
Posts: 5264 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
Is it written riddles you're looking for, Kat, or numerical ones? I'll post the riddles here, and the answers in another post.
Anyway, here are some word ones:
What has four wheels and flies?
What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a bed but never sleeps,has a head but never weeps?
What has four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs at night?
What is no sooner spoken than broken?
Feed me and I live, give me drink and I die, what am I?
I pass before the sun, yet make no shadow. WHat am I?
What is light as a feather, but no man can hold it for long?
If you break me, I'll not stop working. If you touch me, my work is done. If you lose me, you must find me with a ring soon after. What am I?
What may go up a chimney down, but cannot go up a chimney up?
We are very little creatures, all of us have different features. One of us in glass is set; one of us you'll find in jet. Another you may see in tin, and a fourth is boxed within. If the fifthyou should pursue, it can never fly from you. What are we?
Where may you find roads without carts, forests without trees, cities without houses?
Cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. It lies behind the stars, and beneath the hills. Ends life and kills laughter. What is it?
This thing runs but cannot walk, sometimes singsbut never talks. Lacks arms, has hands; lacks a head but has a face. What is it?
What builds up castles, tears down mountains, makes some blind, helps other to see?
What lives in winter, dies in summer, and grows with it's roots upward?
Man walks over; man walks under; in time of war he burns asunder. What is it?
What has eyes but cannot see? (four answers)
In a tunnel of darkness lies a beast of iron. It can only attack when pulled back. What is it?
Walk on the living, they don't even mumble. Walk on the dead, they mutter and grumble. What am I?
I am emeralds and diamonds, lost by the moon. I am found by the sun, and picked up soon. What am I?
With no wings, I fly. With no eyes, I see. With no arms , I climb. More frightening than any beast, stronger than any foe. I am cunning, ruthless, and tall; In the end, I rule all. What am I?
Out of the eater, came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.
posted
Having read the same book (I'm rereading its sequel right now), I could come answer these.
But you got on the scene first with these and I don't want to spoil your fun.
And besides, my book is at home right now and I won't have my hands on it for another couple of hours. Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Back to the digit one...theres two ways I'd approach that one. Either two digits is a play on subtleties fo the english language and refers to "pick any two digits, like 1 and 0, and then use them to write the biggest number you can think of, because you're only using two different digits".
Or else how bout 9 to the power of 9? Thats two digits and a pretty large number.
posted
I don't think the point is that its really hard, but how few people have the basic logic and mild determination necessary to solve even such a simple puzzle.
Einstein wasn't all that much of a populist.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
My tines be long My tines be short My tines end ere my first report What am I?
If you've played Beyond Zork or are Tom Davidson, you know this one, of course, but I've always liked it.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Here's a riddle that Einstein is associated with:
Two cars start out 100 miles from each other. They travel towards each other, one going 30 mph and the other going 70 mp. When they start, a fly at the 30mph car flies towards the other car. The fly travles 100mph. When it reaches a car, it turns around and flies back towards the other car. It keeps going back and forth until the cars crash into each other. The question is how many total miles did the fly travel?
|| || || || ***SPOILER*** || || || ||
The answer is 100 miles. You know this because after one hour, one car traveled 30 miles, and the other 70 miles. That's when they crashed. Since the fly flew at 100 mph for one hour, it traveled 100 miles.
Somebody told this riddle to Einstein. He thought for a little bit came up with the answer of 100 miles. The person said something to the effect of "Ah, you got the trick. You don't have to calculate it at all. Since the whole thing took one hour, the fly traveled 100 miles"
Einstein got a surprised look on his face, and said (something like) "Oh! I didn't realize that. Clever!"
Einstein had caluclated it all out in his head to come up with the answer. And people say that he wasn't good at math!!!
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
That one's been attributed more plausibly to others.
Einstein, while good at math, was never known for being able to do it in his head at lightning speed.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
I'm always annoyed at riddles that demand that you come up with the exact same story that the writer did. I mean, a man dies surrounded by bicycles? Maybe they fell on him from great height. Maybe he killed himself in a bicycle shop. With the information given, any answer is plausible. I dunno, it seems like such a riddle is only "hard" because you don't have enough information. A riddle is much more clever if it DOES provide you with all necessary information, including information that excludes the obvious wrong answers, and is still difficult to get.
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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dog - I agree but it's the only one I know and I remebered being so POed because I couldn't figure it out. Posts: 1294 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
Anybody have a copy of the game Mindtrap? If so we could have a new Mindtrap thread in honor of MOTO. Anybody know what happened to her, by the way?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
All right, I want some ANSWERS! There are an awful lot of unsolved riddles above. Let's see a little closure, here, can we? <taps foot impatiently>
Posts: 5509 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I am a professional clown. My professional clown name is "What". I can spend 15 minutes with a group of kids, and their parents, asking/telling them "What is my name."
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Too easy peter? Or have you heard that one before? It is better if spoken rather than written oout I think. I like yours Neomen..I will remember that one.
Posts: 181 | Registered: Jan 2004
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PV, First time I've seen it, although reading it made it much easier I think. I was so excited, cuz usually I'm a total dunce when it comes to riddles.
Posts: 995 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Tony and I bought a "word games" book a while back, thinking it would be good fun. Instead it was filled with the most stupid riddles I have ever seen.
Riddles like:
"Mrs Jones sat down one evening to read a book. She turned on her bedside light, but found this didn't help. Why?"
Yes, the power was still on. Yes, it was dark. No, Mrs Jones wasn't blind.
The answer is that Mrs Jones' little son Timmy had snuck inside that afternoon and painted the globe black.
Well, of course! Why didn't I think of that?
I'll try and dig up the book tonight and write out some of them - they are so bad as to be mildly amusing.
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
What if your answer was that her son JIMMY had painted the globe black? Do you get half points?
Posts: 196 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
I will never forget the riddle scene in The Hobbit. Creepiest passage in all literature. I loved it. I knew some of the riddles, too! My favorite:
Alive without breath, as cold as death, all in water never drinking dressed in mail never clinking.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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posted
Yeah, it's Odysseus. Easy stuff, even if you couldn't get the horsemaster and sheepmaster bit, because he was the "deceiver."
Posts: 2258 | Registered: Aug 2003
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I should not post in threads saying I'll post later. I invariably forget about them.
so here are the answers:
What has four wheels and flies?
A garbage truck.
What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a bed but never sleeps,has a head but never weeps?
A river
What has four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs at night?
Man. (Crawls as a child, stands on two legs as an adult, uses a cane when old.)
What is no sooner spoken than broken?
Silence.
Feed me and I live, give me drink and I die, what am I?
Fire.
I pass before the sun, yet make no shadow. WHat am I?
Wind.
What is light as a feather, but no man can hold it for long?
Breath.
If you break me, I'll not stop working. If you touch me, my work is done. If you lose me, you must find me with a ring soon after. What am I?
A human heart.
What may go up a chimney down, but cannot go up a chimney up?
An umbrella.
We are very little creatures, all of us have different features. One of us in glass is set; one of us you'll find in jet. Another you may see in tin, and a fourth is boxed within. If the fifthyou should pursue, it can never fly from you. What are we?
Vowels.
Where may you find roads without carts, forests without trees, cities without houses?
On a map.
Cannot be seen, cannot be felt, cannot be heard, cannot be smelt. It lies behind the stars, and beneath the hills. Ends life and kills laughter. What is it?
Darkness.
This thing runs but cannot walk, sometimes singsbut never talks. Lacks arms, has hands; lacks a head but has a face. What is it?
A clock.
What builds up castles, tears down mountains, makes some blind, helps other to see?
Sand.
What lives in winter, dies in summer, and grows with it's roots upward?
An icicle.
Man walks over; man walks under; in time of war he burns asunder. What is it?
A bridge.
What has eyes but cannot see? (four answers)
A needle, a hurricane, a potato, and a true lover.
In a tunnel of darkness lies a beast of iron. It can only attack when pulled back. What is it?
A bullet.
Walk on the living, they don't even mumble. Walk on the dead, they mutter and grumble. What am I?
Leaves.
I am emeralds and diamonds, lost by the moon. I am found by the sun, and picked up soon. What am I?
Dew.
With no wings, I fly. With no eyes, I see. With no arms , I climb. More frightening than any beast, stronger than any foe. I am cunning, ruthless, and tall; In the end, I rule all. What am I?
Imagination.
Out of the eater, came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.
(this one i don't quite understand, maybe someone wiht more bible study can explain it.) THe answer in my book: THe eater is a lion; the sweetness is honey made by bees which hived in the lion's skull. ::shrug::
THis thread makes me wonder if i should restart my story thread. We've had a lot of newbies since I told those. Maybe after this week is over, when I have some time to hatrack.
Posts: 828 | Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
The last one is Shimshon's (Samson's) riddle. He came across a lion carcass that had become the site of a beehive. He posed the riddle as a challenge, and it has some more subtle meanings too -- but it's been about 15 years since I last learned it in detail . . . Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
how can you make half of 12 equeal 7 with only those numbers?
man my minds gone blank all of a sudden and all the other riddles i know need pictures or need to be spoken and really the one I posted might need to be as well.
Anwser: take the Romen numeral XII(12) and cover the bottem half(or erase what ever pleases you) to get VII.
Posts: 397 | Registered: Apr 2003
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