1. Tricky Travel A man is traveling with a fox, a duck and corn and comes to a river he must cross. The boat is only capable of transporting the man and one of the other three at a time. Question: How can he succeed in getting them all across without letting the fox eat the duck or the duck eat the corn?
2. Answer: First he transports the duck. He returns to get fox, transports fox and brings back the duck. He leaves duck on shore and crosses with corn. He leaves corn with fox and returns to get the duck.
3. An army general needed to get ten soldiers across the river. There was no bridge and the soldiers could not swim. The general saw a rowboat with 2 children inside. The boat could only hold two children or one soldier at once. Question : How did the soldiers and the children get across the river?
4. Answer : First, both children cross the river. One child gets out of the boat; the other returns. The child gets out, the soldier crosses. The soldier gets out, the child returns. Both children cross...etc...
5. A boy lived with his parents on the tenth floor of an apartment building. When leaving for school in the morning, he would use the elevator to get to the ground floor. When returning from school, he would take the elevator to the fifth floor. Then, he would get out of the elevator and climb the stairs to the tenth floor. Question : Why did he not use the elevator to get to the tenth floor?
6. He was too short to reach the elevator button for the 10th floor.
7. A doctor in Plano has a brother in Dallas who is a lawyer. The lawyer does not have a brother who is a doctor in Plano. Question: How is this possible?
9. Mr. Black, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Green are eating at a restaurant. Each is wearing a different color tie- black, brown, and green. Suddenly, the man wearing the green tie says, "Did you notice that our ties are the same color as our names but no one is wearing a tie the color of his own name? "Strange, indeed", says Mr. Black. Question: What color tie was each man wearing?
10. Mr. Black = brown, Mr. Brown = green, Mr. Green = black
11. There are twelve socks in a drawer: six red socks and six blue socks . The room is completely dark. Question: How many socks must you take from the drawer before being ABSOLUTELY sure you have a complete pair of red socks or a pair of blue socks in your hand?ç
17. To paint two white lines dividing a road into three lanes costs $100.00. Question: What will it cost to paint the lines dividing a road into six lanes ?
19. There are ten $5.00 bills, ten $10.00 bills and ten $20.00 bills in a box. A blind-folded person must remove the bills from the box. The contest ends when a person removes three of the same bills (example: three $5.00 bills). Question: What is the most money a person can remove from the box in this contest?
21. A father promises to pay his son $5.00 for each correct answer he gets on his math test. For each incorrect answer, the son must pay his father $8.00. The boy answered twenty-six math questions. At the end, no money was exchanged. Question: How many correct and incorrect answers did he get?
25. Twin Brothers You are travelling down a road to a village. You reach a fork in the road and find a pair of identical twin brothers standing there. One of the brothers always tells the truth and the other always lies.If you are allowed to ask only one question to one of the brothers to find which is the correct road to the village, what is your question ?
26. Answer to the Twin brothers Puzzle Point to one of the roads in the fork and ask the following question to one of the brothers."If I ask your brother if this is the correct road to the village will he say yes or no? "If he answers is "no" then it is the correct way to the village. Think about it - If the brother you are speaking to is the one who always lies, then he will say "no" as he knows that his brother who speaks the truth would anwser "yes". If the brother you are speaking to is the one who speaks the truth, he will say "no" as he knows that his brother will lie about it being the correct road. Either way an answer "no" tells you it is actually the right road. Similarly if you are pointing to the wrong road you will get the answer "yes".
27. Buckets You have two buckets - one holds exactly 5 gallons and the other 3 gallons How can you measure out 4 gallons of water into the 5 gallon bucket ? (Assume that you have an unlimited supply of water and that there are no measurement markings of any kind on the bucket.)
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29. Day-knights and Night-knights There is a great underground empire where knights live.There are two kind of knights; Day-knights who tell the truth by day and lie at night. Night-knights, of course, do it the other way round. Since it is an underground empire, you can't tell the time of day by any natural means. But the knights always know whether it's day or night. So, as a visitor to this strange world, you once meet a knight who tells you "I'm a day-knight and it's night".Since you forgot to wind up your watch a few days ago, you don't know the time. But can you tell from this sentence, whether it's day or night? And can you tell, whether the knight is a Day-knight or a Night-knight?
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31. The dog named Jam is heavier than the dog named Jelly.Copper weighs more than Brandy but less than Pumpkin. Brandy weighs more than Jelly. Pumpkin weighs less than Jam.List the dogs in the order of their weights, starting with the heaviest.
32. The heaviest dog is Jam, the next heaviest is Pumpkin, the next heaviest is Copper, the next heaviest is Brandy, and the least heavy (or the lightest) is Jelly.STRATEGY: Guess and check -- write each name on notecards and move them to test sequence
33. A man named George was hurrying to get ready for a dinner party when Dan rang his doorbell. "I'm just rushing off to a dinner party," said George, "but I'm sure it would be fine if you came along.” So the two went off together. When they arrived at the party, George, who always enjoyed getting people to use their heads, introduced Dan to the other guests with the following rhyme: "Brothers and sisters have I none, But this man's father is my father's son.” How were George and Dan related? Puzzling Relations
35. Digging Dirt How much dirt is in a round hole that is 9 feet deep with a diameter of 3 feet?
36. None. You make a hole by digging out the dirt, so the hole is empty.
37. Athletes in Place Five athletes were returning from a cross-country race. Athlete C placed third, and athlete E placed second. From the following information, can you tell how athletes A, B, and D placed in the race? Athlete A was not last. Athlete A came in after E. Athlete D was not first.
38. Since C was third and E was second, A could only be first or fourth. Since A was behind E, A could not be first; therefore A must be fourth. D could not be first, second, third, or fourth, so D must be fifth. If D is fifth, A fourth, C third, and E second, then B must be first.
39. Beach Ball Marina, her sister, her daughter, and her son are playing volley ball on the beach. Marina's sister is directly across the net from her son. Marina's daughter is diagonally across the net from the best player's sibling. The best player and the worst player are on the same side of the net. Who is the worst player?
40. The worst player is Marina's sister. Draw a diagram, putting Marina's sister and son directly across the net from each other. It doesn't matter whether they're on the left or the right side of the diagram.Now, try putting Marina's daughter on the same side as the sister. The daughter will be diagonally across from the son (the best player's sibling), meaning that the best player is the daughter. Since the daughter (the best player) is on the same side as the sister, the sister must be the worst player. Try putting Marina's daughter next to the son. The Marina will be the best player, but the sister will still be the worst.
41. Fran, Larry, Bob, and Nancy went to the dog shelter. They saw four puppies.Frisky and Pal were black with pointy ears. Snoopy and Wiggles were white with floppy ears. Frisky and Snoopy were sleeping. Pal and Wiggles were playing.Fran didn't want a black puppy. Larry didn't want a puppy with floppy ears. Bob didn't pick a puppy that was sleeping. Nancy took the puppy that Bob and Fran didn't want.Who took which puppy?
43. Whose Footprints? One of the triplets left muddy footprints all over the kitchen floor. Since all three wear the same size shoes, their mom and dad can't tell which triplet should clean up the floor. "I didn't do it," said Annie. "Danny did it," said Fanny. "Fanny is lying," said Danny. Only one of the triplets is telling the truth — the other two are lying. Whose footprints are on the kitchen floor?
44. Annie left the footprints. Remember, only one triplet can be telling the truth. If Danny did it, then both Fanny and Annie are telling the truth. If Fanny did it, then Danny is telling the truth when he says that Fanny is lying. With Annie as the culprit, Annie is lying by claiming she is innocent, Fanny is lying by accusing Danny, and Danny is the one who is telling the truth.
45. Listen to the Band Five friends play together in a band. Each one plays a different instrument. The instruments they play are saxophone, trumpet, clarinet, flute, and drums. Their names are Rosa, Kim, Julie, Keith, and Lily. Can you figure out who plays which instrument from the following four clues? � Rosa plays the sax. � Kim does not play a wind instrument. � Julie does not play the flute or the clarinet. � Keith's instrument is held sideways when it is played.
46. Rosa plays the sax, Kim plays drums, Julie plays trumpet, Keith plays flute, and Lily plays clarinet.
47. Take Me Out to the Ballgame A man took his two sons to a baseball game. Each of the three wore a different kind of shoes and clothing. They were hungry, so each one had either ice cream, peanuts, or a hot dog, but no one had the same thing to eat. By reading the four clues below, you can tell what each one ate at the game and what kind of shoes (loafers, sandals, or sneakers) and clothing (sweater, sweatshirt, or jacket) each was wearing. 1.The father was not wearing loafers. 2.The younger brother was wearing sandals, but did not have ice cream or peanuts. 3.The older brother was wearing a jacket and had ice cream. 4.The person wearing a sweater had a hot dog.
48. Dad was wearing sneakers and a sweatshirt and ate peanuts. Big Brother was wearing loafers and a jacket and had ice cream to eat. Little Brother was wearing sandals and a sweater and ate a hot dog. STRATEGY: Making a chart like the one below. Fill in each square with all the possible answers. As you read through the clues, cross out everything that can't be true and circle everything that you know is true. Keep using a process of elimination as you go along, and you'll be left with only one possible answer in each box.
49. You've Got Character! Four students wrote book reports on the same book. Each student described the main character in his or her report. But their teacher could tell that these students didn't read very carefully, because each one described the main character differently.Annie wrote that his name is Heathcliff, he is short, he has long hair, and that he wears an earring.Bernard wrote that his name is Sherlock and that he is tall, has long hair, and wears an earring.Carolyn wrote that his name is Romeo and that he is medium height, has short hair, and wears an earring.Daniel wrote that his name is Harry and that he is short, has long hair, and never wears an earring.Each student got only one detail out of four right. What is the correct description of the main character of the book?
50. Begin by making a chart like the following: Now begin crossing out details that you know are wrong. Since only one detail in each column can be correct, we know the character doesn't wear an earring, so cross out each "yes" in the earring column. Daniel was right about the earring. Since Daniel can be right about only one thing, cross out "Harry," "short," and "long" in Daniel's row. Since only one detail in each column can be correct, you can cross out "long" the two times it still appears in the hair-length column. Carolyn was right about the hair. Since Carolyn can be right about only one thing, cross out "Romeo" and "medium" in Carolyn's column. We already crossed out "short" in Daniel's row, so cross it out in Annie's row, as well. Since Annie has to be right about one detail, it must be Heathcliff- the character's name. That means Bernard is wrong about the name, so cross out Sherlock. Since Bernard has to be right about one thing, we know the character is tall. Heathcliff, the main character of the book, is tall, has short hair, and never wears an earring.
