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"What" Riddles - Next 10 of 3040.
Riddle:
My last five letters refer to a raised line on the surface of something; my whole refer to a thin tube containing ink inside a pen. My first three & four letters both refer to vehicles. I am a word of nine letters. What Word am I?
Answer: A Cartridge.
Riddle:
In the 1950s, two young men, surrounded by a crowd of onlookers, stood on a round piece of wood preparing to do battle. Neither man carried any weapons of any kind, as they were both planning to use their feet to defeat their opponent. Sharp spikes on the bottoms of their boots turned their feet into the tools they would use to dispatch their adversary. One kick to the body or head could cause irreparable damage; but neither man ever struck the other with their spiked boots. In fact, not one physical blow was landed during the contest, and yet, one man was eliminated and sent to a watery grave. I thought these types of barbaric spectacles designed to satisfy the visual lusts of onlooking crowds had stopped after the gladiatorial days of ancient Rome. On the other hand, perhaps this scenario is not as violent as it appears to be. Exactly what was going on here?
Answer: The two combatants were engaged in a log rolling contest during a lumberjack competition. The spiked boots aided them in keeping their footing on the slippery logs.
Riddle:
There was no mention of it in any of the newspapers, but a queen recently moved to a small farm in the state of Iowa. To assist her, a group of about 20 diligent workers was assigned to help the queen with the farm work which needed to be done, as the queen was not accustomed to performing any type of menial, manual labor. It may seem a bit strange, but in her new home, there were no cows or chickens or farm animals of any kind, and the surrounding soil was very sandy, so no crops could be grown there. This really didn’t matter though, as there was no farm machinery for the workers to use anyway. At the queen’s insistence, those diligent workers spend their days digging tunnels all over the farm; but they are not seeking treasure or anything of value. These tunnels sometimes collapse on the workers, killing a few; but the queen shows little concern and these deaths are never reported to the police or to any law enforcement agency. Who does this queen think she is? She must feel she is above the law and has no respect for the lives of those who serve her! Where is the justice for these workers? Or, perhaps, the queen shouldn’t be held responsible after all. What exactly is going on here?
Answer: The queen was an ant which was purchased and added to an ant farm owned by a child in the state of Iowa. About 20 worker ants were added to the ant farm shortly thereafter.
Riddle:
I can be tight but you can cut me. What am I?
Answer: A corner.
Riddle:
You have 52 playing cards, 26 red, and 26 black. You draw cards one by one. A red card pays you a dollar. A black one fines you a dollar. You can stop any time you want. Cards are not returned to the deck after being drawn. What is the optimal stopping rule in terms of maximizing your expected payoff? Also, what is the expected payoff following this optimal rule?
Answer: The solution to this problem is, in my opinion the most difficult to understand of all the puzzles. Indeed I was unable to solve it and didn't receive a complete solution until two years after originally posting it. The final solution, in the form of the spreadsheet was sent to me by Han Zheng. For this reason I have left on the page the thoughts i had before I had the final solution as they represent an easier to understand and more simplistic approach. Also the reasoning may help you arrive at the final solution by yourself or help you understand it. I would recommend reading that answer before you dive into the full answer. But an important thing to note are that as the player we can't lose this game as we can gamble till all the cards are drawn and our net position is zero. From our earlier analysis it is clear we need a dynamic quit rule. A singal value is not sufficent. We must, at each stage consider what cards are remaining, and therefor the probability of a positive or negative outcome from drawing again. For the explanation i will ask you first to consider a deck containing only 6 cards, 3 +ve & 3 -ve (note i'm no longer calling the cards black and red, it confuses me.)
Riddle:
Spelled forwards is a type of rodent that you might find in drains, spelled backward is something that you cannot touch but see it everyday at night. What is this word?
Answer: Rats, star.
Riddle:
I have four digits, I own a lot of cash money money, I'm kept a secret, but used on the daily. What am I?
Answer: Pin number.
Riddle:
A rock group with four members,
Each of whom are dead;
But people still come to see us,
Though an album was never released.
What am I?
Answer: Mt. Rushmore
Riddle:
I have a single waving hand I'm present in places across the land On fairer days, I depart I shorten with a broken heart. What am I?
Answer: A flag.
Riddle:
In this place, people lie, people cry, and people ask why. In this place, people sleep, people weep, and people's solitude, they keep. What is it?
Answer: "Graveyard" or "Cemetery" - Reasoning: Both "people lie" and "people sleep" are indications of many people using this place to lie down, or to sleep, which in itself is an odd thought. Crying and weeping indicate that this is a sad place, and the continued use of "people" allows this to mean not just those who are lying down or sleeping, but those who come to visit them there, (i.e. mourners). People come to ask the person grave why they did what they did that resulted in their death, as a form of mourning, or to ask their chosen God or Gods why they took that person to their grave. And peoples solitude refers to people sleeping on their own, or the mourners usually coming the mourn privately.
