Frustrating Question
John was asking Bob the same question again and again throughout the day and kept getting different answers. What was John’s question?
SOLUTION
John’s question was “What time is it?”.
Category: Insight
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Sequence 1, 3, 7, 12
Which is the next number in the following sequence:
1, 3, 7, 12, 18, 26, 35, 45, 56, ?
SOLUTION
This is the so called Hofstadter Figure-Figure Sequence.
The sequence of the differences between the consecutive numbers in the original sequence is 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11… These are exactly the natural numbers missing from the original sequence. Therefore, the next number should be 56 + 13 = 69.
A Cardinal Points
A cardinal points and says, “thorn, shout, seat, and stew.” Can you explain?
SOLUTION
The sentence is a play on words and anagrams. Thorn, shout, seat, and stew are anagrams of the four cardinal directions of the compass: north, south, east, and west.
Conflicting Words
What unique feature do the following words share?
FRIEND, FEAST, THERE, THOROUGH, FLIGHT, WONDERFUL, RESIGN, ENDURING, PEST, COVERT
SOLUTION
Each of these words contains its antonym as a sub-word:
FRIEND – FIEND, FEAST – FAST, THERE – HERE, THOROUGH – ROUGH, FLIGHT – FIGHT, WONDERFUL – WOEFUL, RESIGN – REIGN, ENDURING – ENDING, PEST – PET, COVERT – OVERT
The Car and the Bird
A car weighing 1500kg (including the driver) starts crossing a 20km long bridge. The bridge can support at most 1500kg and, above that weight, it collapses. If halfway through the bridge, a small bird, weighing 200g, lands on the roof of the car, will the bridge collapse?
SOLUTION
By the time the car reaches the middle of the bridge, it would have used fuel that weighs more than 200g, so the bridge will not collapse.
Bus Driver’s Age
Imagine you are driving a bus. At the first stop, 3 people get on the bus. At the second stop, 5 more get on. At the third stop, 2 get out and 4 get on. At the last stop, everybody gets out. How old is the bus driver?
SOLUTION
You are imagining the story, so the bus driver is as old as you.
Coins and Cups
How can you put ten coins in three plastic cups, so that in every cup there is odd number of coins?
SOLUTION
Drop five coins in the first cup. Than put the other two cups in each other and drop the five remaining coins in them.
Easy Money
The horse got $18, the the bee got $27, the duck got $9, and the spider got $36. How much did the snake get?
SOLUTION
Every animal got $4.50 for every leg it has. Therefore, the snake got nothing.
US Presidents
The 22nd and 24th presidents of the United States of America had the same parents but were not brothers. How can this be possible?
SOLUTION
They were the same person, Grover Cleveland.
Birthday Twins
Darma and Greg are twins, Greg being the older one by just few moments. However, several times in their lives, Darma celebrated her Birthday two days before Greg did. How is this possible?
SOLUTION
Darma and Greg were being delivered on a plane/ship which was passing the 180th meridian. This way Greg got born on 1st of March and Darma got born on 28th of February. Therefore, during leap years, Darma will celebrate her Birthday 2 days before Greg.