Post your favorite riddle or paradox

[TheAtheistReverend]

Spoiler

I only know this because I saw it sometime somewhere. Nothing. It's a good one.

Most of the ones I remember are "common" ones. That is one of my favorite oldies.

 

[olbriar]

For a good reason... it's a good one! I've been trying to come up with another...

Not a riddle:

A rancher passed away leaving his three sons 13 horses to be divided this way. The oldest a half of the horses, the middle son a third, and the youngest a quarter. The boys were fighting about how to settle the matter when a stranger rode up. After hearing their plight he got off his horse and got on one of the thirteen. He tells the boys.. this is easy.. now there are twelve horses. The oldest gets a half or six horses. The middle boy gets a third of twelve, four. And three horses for the youngest is a quarter of twelve. Now six plus four plus 3 equals thirteen... problem solved. He gets back on his horse and rides off into the sunset.

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

That was a rancher that couldn't do math. Or he was trying to set his boys on each other.

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

Another favorite:

What gets wetter and wetter as it dries?

 

[olbriar]

Another favorite:

What gets wetter and wetter as it dries?

Spoiler

paper towel

 

[olbriar]

If a hole is exactly one foot wide one foot long and one foot deep, how big is half a hole?

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

If a hole is exactly one foot wide one foot long and one foot deep, how big is half a hole?

Spoiler

Trick question! That's like asking if you have a ten cubic foot hole in the ground and fill it halfway with dirt, how much dirt is in the hole? None! The hole just got smaller

What has one eye but still can't see?

 

[olbriar]

Spoiler

Trick question! That's like asking if you have a ten cubic foot hole in the ground and fill it halfway with dirt, how much dirt is in the hole? None! The hole just got smaller

What has one eye but still can't see?

Spoiler

needle

 

[Davdi]

Here's an easy one -You are in a room with two closed doors, in fron of each door is a man. One always tells the truth, the other always lies.

One door leads to freedom and riches, the other leads to certain horrible death.

You can ask ONE question only, to whichever man you choose.

What is the question that guarantees you freedom and riches?

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

Here's an easy one -You are in a room with two closed doors, in fron of each door is a man. One always tells the truth, the other always lies.

One door leads to freedom and riches, the other leads to certain horrible death.

You can ask ONE question only, to whichever man you choose.

What is the question that guarantees you freedom and riches?

ANSWER:

Spoiler

Ask one man what the other would tell you if you asked him which door leads to riches. Choose the other door.

I like that one because I can never just remember the answer, I have to figure it out every time.

Riddle me this...

There is a ship floating in a bay that has a rope ladder hanging from the side. The ladder is 18 feet long with each rung centered every 9 inches. The bottom rung is just touching the water.
With the tide coming in, raising the water level 6 inches per hour, how long until the water reaches the fourth rung?

 

[olbriar]

Riddle me this...

There is a ship floating in a bay that has a rope ladder hanging from the side. The ladder is 18 feet long with each rung centered every 9 inches. The bottom rung is just touching the water.
With the tide coming in, raising the water level 6 inches per hour, how long until the water reaches the fourth rung?

Spoiler

The ship will rise with the tide and the ladder rung touching will remain the same.

A bum spends his days collecting cigarette butts. He spends his evenings unwrapping the cigs, taking the remaining tobacco, and rolling new cigarettes.
It takes seven butts worth to make a new cig. Today he collected 49 butts.
How man cigarettes can he make?

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

Spoiler

The ship will rise with the tide and the ladder rung touching will remain the same.

A bum spends his days collecting cigarette butts. He spends his evenings unwrapping the cigs, taking the remaining tobacco, and rolling new cigarettes.
It takes seven butts worth to make a new cig. Today he collected 49 butts.
How man cigarettes can he make?

Spoiler

8

There are seven apples, two pears, and an orange. If I take away two apples and a pear, how many pieces of fruit do I have?

 

[olbriar]

Spoiler

8

There are seven apples, two pears, and an orange. If I take away two apples and a pear, how many pieces of fruit do I have?

Spoiler

three

If a horse of a given strength is tied to one end of a rope and the other end is attached to a wall.. and the horse nearly breaks the rope when pulling with all his might. Will the rope break when another horse of equal strength is attached to the rope instead of the wall and they both pull with all their might?

 

[dan330]

any more??? love this stuff

 

[TheAtheistReverend]

Spoiler

three

If a horse of a given strength is tied to one end of a rope and the other end is attached to a wall.. and the horse nearly breaks the rope when pulling with all his might. Will the rope break when another horse of equal strength is attached to the rope instead of the wall and they both pull with all their might?

I'm going to say

Spoiler

No, because if the horse can't break the rope by itself, it can't provide enough force whether it's a brick wall or another horse, it will fail.

 

[dan330]

I remember that an unmovable object.. provides a force only equal but opposite to the force put on it.

so.. what ever the horse did to the wall.. the wall acted like it was another horse of equal strength.

so.. answer would be NO.

 

[Milo Willamson]

If you where locked in a room for twenty four hours,
only having a deck of cards, twinkie bars, and also a radio,
would you survive?

 

[Steven58]

If you where locked in a room for twenty four hours,
only having a deck of cards, twinkie bars, and also a radio,
would you survive?

Only if the room had enough air.

 

[Deleted User]

..... but, but .... no phone? no wifi? Impossible!

 

[Milo Willamson]

Note I did not exclude wifi or oxygen needs, think a real room with huge windows, spread across 1 mile by one mile.

 

[Milo Willamson]

If you where locked in a room for twenty four hours,
only having a deck of cards, twinkie bars, and also a radio,
would you survive?

If there was a silent laughter, or to think about this again.


Radio does apply either music or even wifi, you can adapt towards it, you can have the twinkies as a second breakfast, seeking it out, I did not limited anyone to an appliance (i.e. Icebox, fridge, firestarter.) Nor I simply applied the windows where locked either, deck of cards, it is embended within gambling, so I had made you think it was embeded with a simple task like this, you can choe into different looking through the glass different types of spells they can cast, even an escape path. You can really deeply within the longest time and area too. In that mental trident, your own mind is either given within the facts that no one even applied their envoirment either.


That is my answer folks to those who have scratched your heads in.

 

[Hadron]

I really only scratched my head about what the problem was: you can survive much longer than 24 hours without food or water, so even if you don't consider Twinkie bars as food(*) I didn't really see the issue.

(*) I've never eaten a Twinkie, don't think I've ever seen one, so can't say whether I would count them as food. I've spent a fair amount of time in the States, but don't tend to visit the confectionery aisle when I'm there.

 

[Milo Willamson]

No kidding, Twinkie's taste like spounge cake, I have not had one in around a year, but I do remember the taste of it
I was thinking of a food that can last forever ontop of my head..


So any other guesses?

 

[Hadron]

So any other guesses?

I'm still trying to understand in what way it's a riddle or paradox?

Is the radio stuck on some channel that's so awful that you are driven to inventing some way of killing yourself using a deck of cards? That's the only threat to survival I've been able to come up with, and as a clearer-minded thinker I'd personally try to kill the radio instead.

Spoiler: With apologies to Douglas Adams, again

That last was an indirect reference to The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

"...the average Vogon will not think twice before doing something so pointlessly hideous to you that you will wish you had never been born - or (if you are a clearer-minded thinker) that the Vogon had never been born."

 

[Milo Willamson]

I'm still trying to understand in what way it's a riddle or paradox?

Is the radio stuck on some channel that's so awful that you are driven to inventing some way of killing yourself using a deck of cards? That's the only threat to survival I've been able to come up with, and as a clearer-minded thinker I'd personally try to kill the radio instead.

Spoiler: With apologies to Douglas Adams, again

That last was an indirect reference to The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

"...the average Vogon will not think twice before doing something so pointlessly hideous to you that you will wish you had never been born - or (if you are a clearer-minded thinker) that the Vogon had never been born."

Not at all, the radio can be used in different frequencies at your own will, how do you kill someone with cards?
That would be so odd to see..