Brain EaserPuzzles, brain teasers, and riddles involving creative, out-of-the-box, or lateral thinking
Do some creative thinking and try to solve these 10 clever riddles:
What do you usually have to break before you can use it?
An egg
What do you need to answer even though it never asks a question?
The telephone
I am a 5-letter word. I am normally below you.
If you remove my 1st letter, I am normally above you.
If you remove my 1st and 2nd letters, I am all around you.
What can go through towns and cities, over hills and mountains, but never moves?
A truel is a three-way duel. The three participants take turns firing one shot at whichever opponent they choose, until only one is remaining.
Allison, Ben, and Chase are in a truel, and have varying degrees of accuracy: Allison has a 50% chance of hitting her intended target, Ben has a 80% chance, and Chase has a 100% chance. Allison gets to shoot first, then Ben, then Chase, and repeating in that order until only one person is remaining.
Assume that the accuracy of all participants are publicly known, and everyone is trying to maximize their chances of winning. What is Allison’s optimal strategy, and what is her likelihood of winning under that strategy?
A man wants to enter an exclusive club, but doesn’t know the password. He observes a few other patrons:
Thinking he has figured it out, the man walks up and the doorman says “10”. The man replies “5” but it’s incorrect and he is turned away.
What should the man have said instead?
I am a food with 5 letters.
Take away my first letter, and I become a form of energy.
Take away my first two letters, and I become something you need to live.
Rearrange my last three letters, and I become something you drink.
Tread on the living, they utter not a mumble.
Tread on the dead, they mutter and grumble.
What are they?
A blind man has to take exactly one green pill and one blue pill each day – no more and no less. However one day he accidentally takes out two pills from the green bottle and two pills from the blue bottle, and gets them all mixed up.
Is there any way the blind man can figure out how to take one green pill and one blue pill with what he has, or does he just have to throw away these pills and get new ones?
What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away?
You have 5 short chains of 3 links each, that you would like to connect into one long 15-link chain. To connect links, you need to cut open a link, join it with another link, and then close it.
What is the fewest number of links you need to cut to accomplish this?
I am a solitary word.
If I lose my first letter, I remain the same.
If I lose my first letter again, I still remain the same.
What am I?
Shot two arrows at its center and missed both times,
swung a sword once at its center and hit twice.
What is it?
Three friends decide to split the cost of hiring a cleaner. The agency charges them $30, so they each hand over a $10 bill.
Later the agency discovers the rate was actually $25 instead of $30. They send the cleaner with $5 to reimburse the friends.
It’s hard to split $5 three ways, reasons the cleaner, so he gives the friends $1 each, and keeps $2 for himself as a tip.
But wait – each friend paid $9, for a total of $27, and the cleaner pocketed $2. That’s 27 + 2 = 29, whereas they originally handed over $30. Where did the missing dollar go?
The missing dollar riddle is a classic, well-known riddle of unclear origin – usually with a clerk and a room bill or a waiter and a restaurant bill. But it’s simple yet tricky, and may trip up even savvy puzzle-solvers.