Riddle: There are two numbers whose product added to the sum of their squares is 109, and the difference of whose squares is 24. What are the two numbers?
Answer: 5 and 7. (5)² = 25(7)² = 49(5x7)+25+49=10949-25=24
Riddle: Two schoolgirls were traveling from the city to a dacha (summer cottage) on an electric train. "I notice," one of the girls said "that the dacha trains coming in the opposite direction pass us every 5 minutes. What do you think-how many dacha trains arrive in the city in an hour, given equal speeds in both directions?" "Twelve, of course," the other girl answered, "because 60 divided by 5 equals 12." The first girl did not agree. What do you think?
Answer: If the girls had been on a standing train, the first girl's calculations would have been correct, but their train was moving. It took 5 minutes to meet a second train, but then it took the second train 5 more minutes to reach where the girls met the first train. So the time between trains is 10 minutes, not 5, and only 6 trains per hour arrive in the city.
Riddle: There is a certain club which is for men only. There are 600 men who belong to this club and 5% of these men wear one earring. Of the other 95% membership, half wear two earrings and the other half wear none. How many earrings are being worn in this club?
Answer: Six hundred. We know that 5%, or 30 of the men are wearing one earring. Of the other 95%, or 570, we know that half are wearing two earrings and the other half none. This is the same as if they all wore one.
Math Riddles
Riddle: Can you combine plus signs and five 2's to get 28? Can you combine plus signs and eight 8's to get 1,000?
Answer: 22+2+2+2=28; 888+88+8+8+8=1,000
Riddle: Eight years ago, Bill was eight times the age of his son Bill Jr. Today, if you add their ages together, they add up to 52. How old are Bill and his son?
Answer: Bill is 40, and Bill Jr. is 12.
Math Riddles
Riddle: Janie's friends were chipping in to buy her a wedding shower present. At first, 10 friends chipped in, but 2 of them dropped out. Each of the 8 had to chip in another dollar to bring the amount back up. How much money did they plan to collect?
Answer: $40 (10 at $4, or 8 at $5).
Riddle: A nonstop train leaves Moscow for Leningrad at 60 mph. Another nonstop train leaves Leningrad for Moscow at 40 mph. How far apart are the trains 1 hour before they pass each other?
Answer: 100 miles (60+40)
Math Riddles
Riddle: One-fourth of the population of a newly discovered planet has 4 legs while the rest have two legs. There are 60 legs in total. What is the population of the newly discovered planet?
Answer: 4 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10 legs and 4 inhabitants. Repeat this six times to use up all 60 legs and you end up with 24 total inhabitants.
Riddle: Three matches are sitting on a table. Without adding another make for three matches four. You are not allowed to break any of the matches. How can this be done?
Answer: Shape the 3 matches into a roman numeral four.
Riddle: Place three matches on a table. Tell a friend to add two more matches to make eight. How can this be done?
Answer: Add two matches to make a roman numeral eight.
Riddle: A man ordered a length of rope by telephone from his nearest hardware shop. But when he went to collect the rope, he found that the assistant had miswritten the order by interchanging feet and inches. As a result of this, the rope was only 30 percent of the length that the man wanted. What length did he want and what length did he get?
Answer: The man ordered 9 feet 2 inches of rope, and got 2 feet 9 inches.
Riddle: Three point one four, one five nine two six five, three five eight nine... What am I?
Answer: Pi - π.
Riddle: What is significant about 3661 seconds past midnight on 1st January 2001?
Answer: The time and date will be 01:01:01 on 01/01/01.
Riddle: If two's company and three's a crowd, what are four and five?
Answer: Four and five is nine.
Riddle: A boy has as many sisters as brothers, but each sister has only half as many sisters as brothers. How many brothers and sisters are there in the family?
Answer: Four brothers and three sisters.
Riddle: I am a place, in a state. I am an answer to a math problem. The math problem is: To get a cube, you multiply something by 6. What do you multiply by?
Answer: You Times Square!
Riddle: How can you measure nine minutes with have two hourglasses, one four minute and one seven minute?
Answer: Turn over both hourglasses at once. When the four-minute hourglass runs out, turn it over. When the seven-minute hourglass runs out, turn it over. When the four-minute timer runs out this time (eight minutes have elapsed), the seven-minute hourglass has been running for one minute. Now turn over the seven minute timer back over. When the timer runs out, nine minutes have elapsed.
Riddle: Tara has $29.00 dollars. She bought 4 coloring books that cost $3.00 each, 4 boxes of Crayola crayons that cost $2.00 each. She spends the rest of her money on markers. How much money did she spend on markers?
Answer: She spent $9.00 on markers.
Riddle: A 300 ft. train is traveling 300 ft. per minute must travel through a 300 ft. long tunnel. How long will it take the train to travel through the tunnel?
Answer: Two minutes. It takes the front of the train one minute and the rest of the train will take two minutes to clear the tunnel.
Riddle: Tom volunteered to be the chief organizer for the world's tether ball championships. There were 657 contestants from around the world. The tournament was set up whereby the winner would advance and the loser would be eliminated. Since there was an odd number of participants, the initial pairing leaves one player out. That player gets a bye and automatically advances to the next round. How many matches will Tom have to schedule to determine the tether ball champion?
Answer: 656 matches will be needed.