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"A" Riddles - Next 10 of 4615.
Riddle:
There are five doors in front of you in the following order: black, blue, black, black, blue. Only one door will lead you to freedom, and you only have one chance to pick it. Assuming that all three hints are true, can you pick the correct door? 1) The correct door is black. 2) The correct door is not next to the leftmost or the rightmost door. 3) The correct door is not in the middle.
Answer: The leftmost door is the correct door. There are only three black doors, so it's one of them (we can eliminate doors two and five because they are blue and not black). The fourth door should be eliminated next because it's next to the rightmost door, which contradicts the second hint (we can't eliminate the first door because it's not correct to say that the leftmost door is next to itself). And the middle door is a trap, too. Therefore, the first door is the best choice.
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:
The Queen lives in a beautiful castle with her only son and a sheep-dog named Sir FooFoo. One day the Queen decides to go out for a spot of tea with some friends. She leaves her eight-year-old son in the care of her trusted servants. The 18 servants are: Harold the health instructor, Griffith the gardener, Tiffany the private tutor, Philip the photographer, Magdalina the maid, Boris the Butler, Geraldo the groundskeeper, Bernadette the barber, Sandy the sweeper, Anastasia the accountant, Constantine the carpenter, Joel the jester, Lucy the launderer, Sadie the seamstress, McKenzie the musical instructor, Lawrence the lawyer, Dorothy the dentist, Devon the doctor, and Surlamina the Secretary of State. When the Queen came home she discovered her son was missing and that he was kidnapped. The Queen came to a conclusion that it must've been one of her servants who kidnapped her son because he was too young to leave on his own and Sir FooFoo was harmless. The Queen interviewed all of her servants to see which one was responsible for the kidnapping. The alibis are as follows: Harold was lifting weights, Griffith was planting roses, Tiffany was checking homework, Philip was taking pictures of the botanical garden, Magdalina was making the beds, Boris was cleaning the banisters, Geraldo was supervising Griffith , Bernadette was trimming Sir FooFoo's hair, Sandy was sweeping in the corners, Anastasia was managing the Queen's affairs, Constantine was building a birdhouse, Joel was coming up with the jokes, Lucy was doing the laundry, Sadie was designing a dress for the Queen, McKenzie was playing the flute, Lawrence was suing the bank, Dorothy was preparing to extract the Queen's tooth when the Queen came home, Devon was examining an x-ray of the Queen's arm, and Surlamina was being a Secretary of State . Who is the kidnapper?
Answer: Surlamina is responsible for the kidnapping because there is no Secretary of State in a monarchy. It is believed that Surlamina kidnapped the Queen's son because she was not given a real job.
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:
Why did the eagle not fly over the sea?
Answer: Because if it flew over the sea it will be a seagull.
Riddle:
You can give me, but you cannot take me. It takes one to give me, but two to make me. The biggest circle I begin. And it is I that lies within. To all living things, I give breath. But I am not "god" nor "life" nor "death". And like the Phoenix from an urn, through me from ashes, it returns. What Am I?
Answer: Birth.
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.
