Riddle: Given two 2s, "plus" can be changed to "times" without changing the results: 2 + 2= 2 x 2.
The solution with three numbers is easy too: 1 + 2 + 3= 1 x 2 x 3.
What is the answer for 4 numbers and for 5 numbers?
Answer: Solution for 4 numbers:
1 + 1 + 2 + 4= 1 x 1 x 2 x 4.
Solution for 5 numbers:
1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 5= 1 x 1 x 1 x 2 x 4
1 + 1 + 1 + 3 + 3= 1 x 1 x 1 x 2 x 4
1 + 1 +2 + 2 + 2= 1 x 1 x 2 x 2 x 2
Riddle: My only timepiece is a wall clock. One day I forgot to wind it and it stopped. I went to visit a friend whos watch is always correct, stayed awhile, and then went home. There I made a simple calculation and set the clock right.
How did I do this even though I had no watch on me to tell how long it took me to return from my friend's house?
Answer: Before I left, I wound the wall clock. When I returned, the change in time equaled how long it took to go to my friends house and return, plus the time I spent there. But I knew the latter because I looked at my friends watch when I arrived and left.
Subtracting the time of the visit from the time I was absent from my house, and dividing by 2, I obtained the time it took me to return home. I added this time to what my friend watch showed when I left, and set the sum on my wall clock.
Riddle: A girl is twice as old as her brother and half as old as her father. In 50 years, her brother will be half as old as his father. How old is the daughter now?
Answer: 50 years old.
Riddle: If a stopper and a bottle cost $2.10 and the bottle costs $2.00 more than the stopper.
Then what does the stopper cost?
Answer: Five Cents.
Riddle: Lazy Larry agreed to work on a job for his brother-in-law for thirty hours at eight dollars an hour, on the condition that he would forfeit ten dollars per hour for every hour that he idled. At the end of the thirty hours Larry wasn't owed any money and didn't owe his brother-in-law any money either. How many hours did Larry work and how many hours did he idle?
Answer: Lazy Larry worked 16-2/3 hours and idled 13-1/3 hours. 16-2/3 hours, at $8.00 an hour amounts to the same amount as 13-1/3 hours at $10.00 per hour.
Riddle: An officer wishing to arrange his men in a solid square found by his first arrangement that he had 39 men left over. He then started increasing the number of men on a side by one, but found that 50 additional men would be needed to complete a new square.
How many men did the officer have?
Answer: The officer had 1975 men. When he formed a square measuring 44 by 44, he had 39 men over. When he tried to form a square 45 x 45, he was 50 men short.
Riddle: There are 4 borthers 3 of them want to buy a television which is 30 pounds. Each of them pay 10 pound each they give the money to the fourth brother and asked him to go into town and buy the television. When he got there the man said there was 5 pounds off so the fourth brother took the 5 pound and television and left. He decided to make some money out of this so he took 2 pounds and give the other 3 pounds to his brothers. So the 3 brothers only payed 9 pounds each. 3 times 9 is 27 were is the last pound?
Answer: Add 3 on to 25 = 28 then add 2
Riddle: A house has 6 stories, each the same height. How many times as long is the ascent to the sixth floor as the ascent to the third?
Answer: 2 1/2 times (5/2, not 6/3).
Riddle: A bird has a head 9cm long. The tail is equal to the size of the head plus a half of the size of the body. The body is the size of the head plus the tail.
How long is the bird?
Answer: 72cm. Th head is 9cm. The tail is 18 + 9= 27cm. The body is 9 + 18 + 9= 36cm. 9 + 27 + 36= 72cm.
Riddle: A man had a bar of lead that weighed 40 lbs., and he divided it into four pieces in such a way as to allow him to weigh any number of pounds from one to forty. What are the weights of the four pieces?
Answer: 1, 3, 9, 27, are the weights of the four pieces.
Riddle: Mr. Grumper grumbles about bad time-keeping trains like everybody else. On one particular morning he was justified, though. The train left on time for the one hour journey and it arrived 5 minutes late. However, Mr. Grumper's watch showed it to be 3 minutes early, so he adjusted his watch by putting it forward 3 minutes. His watch kept time during the day, and on the return journey in the evening the train started on time, according to his watch, and arrived on time, according to the station clock. If the train traveled 25 percent faster on the return journey than it did on the morning journey, was the station clock fast or slow, and by how much?
Answer: The station clock is 3 minutes fast. The morning journey took 65 minutes, and the evening journey therefore took 52 minutes, and the train arrived 57 minutes after it should have left, that is, 3 minutes early.
Riddle: This number added to it's square, and the digits of that summation added together, bring it back to itself. What is it?
Answer: 3. 3 squared is 9. 3+9=12. Take the two digits of the summation and add them; 1+2=3. In short; 3-9-12-3. This can also work with the number 0 and 9.
Riddle: If 6 doubloons are worth 1 1/2 ducats, how many ducats are 27 doubloons worth?
Answer: 6 3/4 ducats (27/6=4 1/2. 4 1/2 x 1 1/2= 6 3/4)
Riddle: How can you insert the numbers 1-9 inclusive each only, into the calculation to arrive at the answer 100?
( - ) + + - - - = 100
Answer: ( 7 - 5 )² + 96 + 8 - 4 - 3 - 1 = 100
Riddle: Two wine merchants arrive at the gates of Paris. One has 64 and the other 20 barrels of wine. Since they have not enough money to pay the custom duties, the first pays 40 francs and 5 barrels of wine. The second pays 2 barrels of wine but receives 40 francs in change.
What is the value of each barrel of wine and what is the duty payable?
Answer: The value of a barrel is 120 francs and the duty is 10 francs a barrel.
Riddle: It takes the town hall clock 6 seconds to strike 4 o'clock in the afternoon. How long does it take to strike midnight?
Answer: 22 Seconds.
Riddle: Mr. and Mrs. Smith were walking home from the shopping mall with their purchases when Mr. Smith began to complain that his load was too heavy. Mrs. Smith turned to her husband and said, "I don't know what you're complaining about because if you gave me one of your parcels, I would have twice as many as you and if I gave you just one of mine, we would have equal loads." How many parcels was each carrying?
Answer: Mrs. Smith was carrying seven parcels and Mr. Smith was carrying five.
Riddle: My age today is three times what it will be three years from now minus three times what my age was three years ago. How old am I?
Answer: Don't be too confused, the answer is 18 years old.
Riddle: A man has nine children, born at regular intervals. The sum of their squares of their ages is equal to the square of his own age.
What are the ages of the children?
Answer: 2 - 5 - 8 - 11 - 14 - 17 - 20 - 23 - 26
Riddle: Jack had only $2, but he needed $3 for his cab fare home. He went to a pawn shop and pawned his $2 for $1.50. Jack then bumped into Don and told him that he would sell him his $2 pawn ticket for $1.50. Don agreed. Jack started out with $2 and he ended up with $3. Who is out the extra dollar and why?
Answer: Don is out the extra dollar. Before the pawn broker will return the $2 to the ticket holder, he will want the $1.50 which he advanced returned to him. Don will give the pawn broker the ticket and the $1.50, and the pawn broker will then return the $2.
