Riddles

That rope one is a toughie. Here’s my answer. First of all, I know the reason 45 minutes is selected is because it is 3/4 hours. And since that’s less than one hour, you know it has something to do with burning ropes faster than from one end. The only way to do that is burning from both ends, which takes half an hour, or 2/4 hours.

So if you do that with one rope, you measure out 2/4 hours, leaving 1/4 to be measured. The only way to measure 1/4 is to get half of a half…

So you have to take one piece of rope, burn it at one end, and after a half hour, burn both ends. That gives you 3/4 hours, or 45 minutes. Of course, the only way you would know when the half hour is up is to use the other rope, burning it at both ends from the very beginning.

Okay… :bored:

  1. Take rope #1 and burn at one end.
  2. Take rope #2 and burn at both ends.
  3. After half an hour, rope #2 is gone.
  4. Burn rope #1 from the other end.
  5. When rope #1 is gone, 45 minutes have past.

What a waste of rope. :sad:

Riddles!!! :grin: Riddles are my specialty.
Here’s one of my favorites, but you’d
probably get it if you read lord of the
rings. Anyways:

Alive without breath,
As cold as death.
Never thirsty, ever drinking,
All in mail, never clinking.
Thinks an island is a mountain,
Thinks a fountain is a puff of air,
So sleek so fair.

You probably got that one right off,
Here’s another one anyways,

Through wind and rain I always play,
I roam the earth, yet here I stay;
I crumble stones, and fire cannot burn me;
Yet I am soft - you can gauge me with your hand.

I think that one’s my favorite. He he. :content:

I’ve heard of these. My favorite’s probably the one about time.

The first one’s a fish, the second one’s the ocean.

Ok try this one…

You are in a cold dark room. :shy: You have only one match. In the room there is also an oil lamp, twigs, paper and some straw. Which one do you light first? HA :cool: :cool_laugh: :grin:

Damn,this tooke me a while gg
The match of course!

Ok,this one´s from me:

Three man get caught in a war.The prisoners are bound at three trees, that form a triangle.
They are told:
“I have 4 flags, 1 is black and 3 are white.Above each of you will be on flag, so that you can´t see it.But you can see the flags that are above the heads of your two companions.Those who guess which colour their own flag is will be let free.If you give your friends a sign, all of you will die”

The prisoners think about it for some time, and suddenly they shout almost at the same time: “Mine is a white flag”
And all of them are freed.

How did they solve the riddle?

Traumgänger

Traumganger, if you look at it from the view of one of the soldiers, it seems easy:

“Hmm, the two people I can see both have white flags over their heads. Since neither is black, I could have a black flag or a white flag over my head. But, if I had a black flag over my head, they would have been able to deduce that they had a white flag over their head (either of them). Since they haven’t said anything, I must have a white flag over my head.”

I like that one! :happy:

A boat is at a dock. The water is 5 feet from the walking area of the dock. Every hour, the water will rise one foot. If after 2 hours the water is 3 feet from the deck of the boat and 3 feet from the walking area of the dock, how close was the water to the deck of the boat originally?

5 feet? Thats probably wrong cause it seems too easy…

Ok Try This one

Aladin wants to marry the kings daughter but the king disagrees. But he does care for his daughter so he decides to put aladin to a test. He tells him that he must pick one of two envolopes. One will contain marry and the other will contain banished. But because of the kings loathing of aladin he summons the genie. He asks the genie to make sure that both envelopes contain banish and who ever opens them will magically dissapear. ALadin hears this and makes a plan. What does he do?

:bored:

Jesta: Picks an envelope, and asks the king to open it for him. Dunno if it’s right… :smile:

Try this one:

A prisoner has 100 balls. 50 white and 50 black. He has 2 jars. The guard is going to take 1 ball from a jar with closed eyes. If it’s white, he’s set free. If it’s black, he’s going to be in jail for the rest of his life. How should he mix the balls to get the highest chance of a white ball? (The jars are shaked, so he can’t put the white balls on top).

Why is a raven like a writing-desk?

This thread truly makes my head hurt. I have a hate-love relationship with riddles.

Here is a few guesses to the recent riddles:

Jabbervock - I can’t even think of a witty comment for an answer to “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?” … Does it have anything to do with Edger Allen Poe?

ulrik_tr - Does the prisoner separate the colors into the separate jars, then give the “white jar” to the guard to guess from? ???

Jesta - I wouldn’t open the envelopes. :grin:

… this is getting easy.

kmcdonald - I … uh … … Hm? … I’m suppose to be genius ya know? but I hate word math problems. :grrr: Is it 3 feet? The water doesn’t rise from the deck of the boat, but it does for the dock. … unless the boat has a hole. :content:

traumgänger - Please tell me how and why the three men guessed the correct answer at the same time. kmcdonald’s explaination confused me … it doesn’t take much. :happy: and I really can’t guess why they all answered at once.

Here is an oldie but goodie. I use to know the answer to this riddle, but I always forget it. It baffles me even to this day. Let me try to recall how it goes:

[i]“This Missing Dollar”
3 salesmen stay in a hotel. They order a pizza which totals $30, so they decide to split the cost. Each man pays $10. The pizzaboy arrives late and quickly makes the transaction. Before the pizzaboy gets to far, he relizes he did not give the men their $5 discount for being late. He returns 5 $1 bills to the three men. The three men were pleased with his honesty and gave him a $2 tip, and kept and split the remaining $3 dollars. Which means the 3 men only paid $9’s each for the pizza.
9 times 3 = $27

  • the 2 for the tip = $29[/i]

Where’s the missing dollar?

I can’t remember the answer … sorry. :smile:

Dreamaddict: No, he mixes the balls, and put both jars side-by-side.
The guard can’t see which jar he reaches his hand in, and the prisoner can’t say what jar the guard should take from.

Well The Alladin Answer is…

He Picks One And Tears It Up And Asks The King To Open The Other one.

I Got a new one for ya

A Window Cleaner was cleaning windows on the fifteenth floor of a sky scraper when he sipped and fell. He only suffered minor bruising. How was this possible when he is not wearing a safty harness and nothing slowed his fall?

:eek: :bored: :eh:

I know that pizza one!

But i heard it with t.v’s.

Its the way you do the math.

three tens make thirty

Minus the five makes 25

Tehn add the £2 for the tip makes 27

Now add the $3 refund Makes 30

HA :happy:

jesta: he was cleaning the window from the inside :smile:

A raven is like a desk??? Hmm… perhaps because nobody likes working on it? g

If this is really a math problem, I think it doesn´t matter how the balls are mixed…
Sooooo… The prisoner puts 25 white balls in each jar,and throws the black balls away?

That´s what I really love&hate about riddles: You never know wether the answer is something logical, something totally absurd or something that is too obvious to be concidered :wink:

@DreamAddict
Sorry,I don´t know if I can explain it any better, kmcdonal was perfectly right.But I´ll try:

3 White flags
1 Black flag

->2 Possbilities:

1.Two have a white and one has a black
Two of the prisoners see the black flag, so they immediately say “Mine is a white” since there isn´t a black one left.

2.Everyone has a white
Nobody says anything, since they all see 2 white flags.BUT if any had a black flag, the other two would know that theirs is white (see possibilitie 1).So, nobody can have a black one.

New riddle follows

A man is on a journey, he wants to find the hidden land.At some point, the pass splits into two (left and right).At each side is a guard, and in the middle is a sign that says:

“Only the smartest people shall find our hidden land.You can ask our guards for the way, but you can only ask ONE question.One of the guards is always lying, the other one always says the truth.”

How can the man reach the hidden land?

traumgänger: No, he shall use ALL the balls.