Riddles
- You have two buckets - one holds exactly 5 gallons and the other 3 gallons. How can you measure 4 gallons of water into the 5 gallon bucket?
(Assume you have an unlimited supply of water and that there are no measurement markings of any kind on the buckets.)
- You have a fox, a chicken and a sack of grain. You must cross a river with only one of them at a time. If you leave the fox with the chicken he will eat it; if you leave the chicken with the grain he will eat it. How can you get all three across safely?
- You are standing outside a closed door. On the other side of the door is a room that has three light bulbs in it. The room is completely sealed off from the outside. It has no windows and nothing can get in or out except through the door. On the outside of the room there are three light switches that control each of the respective light bulbs on the other side of the door.
Your assignment is to determine which light switch controls which light bulb. You are allowed to enter the room only once, and once you come out, you must be able to state with 100% certainty which light switch controls which light bulb.
- A man is traveling with a fox and two chickens, if he leaves the fox alone with the chickens the fox will eat the chickens. He comes to a river and needs to cross it, he finds a small boat that can carry only him and one animal, how does he get himself, the fox and two chickens across the river safely?
- A boat has a ladder that has six rungs. Each rung is one foot apart. The bottom rung is one foot from the water. The tide rises at 12 inches every 15 minutes. High tide peaks in one hour.
When the tide is at its highest, how many rungs are under water?
- There are 20 pieces of bread to divide among 20 people. A man eats 3 pieces, woman eats 2 pieces and a child eats half piece of bread. Tell the correct combination of men, women and children so that they are 20 people in total and everyone gets the bread. Note that a man cannot eat less than 3 or more than 3. A woman cannot eat less than 2 or more than 2 and the child cannot eat less than half or more than half piece of the bread. You have to tell there are how may are men, women and children in those 20 people.
- My daughter has many sisters. She has as many sisters as she has brothers. Each of her brothers has twice as many sisters as brothers. How many sons and daughters do I have?
- A wise king devised a contest to see who would receive the Princess' hand in marriage. The Princess was put in a 50x50 foot carpeted room. Each of her four suitors were put in one corner of the room with a small box to stand on. The first one to touch the Princess hand would be the winner and become the new King. The rules of the test were that the contestants could not walk over the carpet, cross the plane of the carpet, or hang from anything; nor could they use anything but their body and wits (i.e. no magic or telepathy, nor any items such as ladders, block and tackles etc). One suitor figured out a way and married the Princess and became the new King. What did he do?
- A completely black dog was strolling down Main Street during a total blackout affecting the entire town. Not a single streetlight had been on for hours. Just as the dog was crossing the middle line a Buick Skylark with 2 broken headlights speedily approaches his position, but manages to swerve out of the way just in time. How could the driver have possibly seen the dog to swerve in time?
- A cube of side 4cm is painted with 3 colors red, blue and green in such a way that opposite sides are painted in the same color. This cube is now cut into 64 cubes of equal size.
How many have at least two sides painted in different colors.
How many cubes have only one side painted.
How many cubes have no side painted.