Brain Teaser and Trick Questions: Think!

1. You have a dime in an empty wine bottle. The bottle is corked. Your job is to get the dime out without taking the cork out. You must do this without damaging the bottle in any way. Draw a diagram of how you would do it.
2. Explain the following true boast: "In my bedroom, the nearest lamp that I  usually keep turned on is 12 feet away from my bed. Alone in the room, without using wires, strings, or any other aids or contraptions, I can turn out the light on that lamp and get into bed before the room is dark."
3. In a certain city, 5% of all persons in town have unlisted phone numbers. If you select 100 names at random from the city's phone directory, how many of the people selected will have unlisted phone numbers?
4. You have a glass filled to the top (no lid). You hold it straight out in front of you and you let it fall to the floor. How is it possible for the glass to fall without spilling any water?
5. You are in a mountain cabin, and it is freezing and dark. The cabin has an old kerosene lamp, an oil heater, and a wood burning stove. You have only one match. Which do you light first?
6. An archeologist reported that he had discovered two gold coins in the desert near Jerusalem dated 439 B.C. His fellow scientists refused to believe him. Why?
7. Some months have thirty days; some have thirty-one. How many have twenty-eight?
8. A farmer had seventeen sheep; all but nine died. How many are left?
9. Massachusetts is a difficult word to spell. Can you spell it correctly?
10. How many animals of each species did Moses take aboard the ark with  him? (Note: It asks how many animals, not how many pairs.)
11. Here is a question on international law: If an international airliner crashed exactly on the U.S.-Mexican border, where would they be required to bury the survivors?
12. Which is better--an old one-hundred-dollar bill or a new one?
13. When the day after tomorrow is yesterday, this day will be as far from Friday as this day was from Friday when the day before yesterday was tomorrow. What day is it?
14. Which is correct:  "18 plus 19 is 36", or "18 plus 19 are 36"?
15. You have two coins that total 15 cents, but one of them is not a nickel. How is that possible?
16. Why are 1989 pennies worth almost $20?
17. How is it possible to name the capital of each and every one of the United States in less than a minute?
18. Answer this question with only one word: Is hurdle a noun or a verb?
19. What question can a person ask all day long, always get completely different answers, and yet all the answers could be correct?
20. By inserting two punctuation marks (both the same one), make the following equation correct: 560 = 600.
21. Take five pennies from 100 pennies, and what do you have?
22. There was a road around a circular lake. A man and his brother each started in the same place and drove around the lake at exactly the same speed, but in opposite directions. The first brother went clockwise around the lake at 40 mph, and the trip took him an hour and 20 minutes. The second brother went counterclockwise around the lake--also at exactly 40 mph--but his trip only took him 80 minutes. Each traveled exactly the same distance: 53.33 miles. How is that possible?
23. Can you arrange four 5's, using mathematical symbols, so they equal 6?
24. A baseball game was held, and the final score was 1-0, yet not a single man crossed home plate. How was that possible?
25. John was born December 28, yet his birthday always comes in the summer. How can this be?
26. From what five letter word can you take two letters away and have one left?
27. Can you prove half of 8 is 3?
28. What is the volume of dirt in a hole 6 feet long, 8 feet deep, and 4 feet wide?
29. Can you take three letters away from a four letter word and yet not change its meaning?
30. A pen and a bottle of ink cost $1.10. The pen costs exactly $1.00 more than the ink. What does each cost?
31. There is a horse tied to a 10 foot rope. There is a bale of hay 19 feet away. The horse is able to eat the hay, and yet not break the rope. How?
32. How many seconds are there in a month?
33. A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full  of assassins with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions  that haven't eaten in 3 years. Which room is safest for him?
34. A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year. But they were not twins. How can this be?
35. A heavyset man who works in the butcher's shop is 6'2" tall. what does he weigh?
36. A man dressed entirely in black and wearing a black mask, is standing in the middle of a crossroad. All of the streetlights at the intersection are broken. A car speeds down the road, heading straight for the man, yet it turns in time and doesn't hit him. The lights of the car were not on. How does the car manage to miss him?
37. You are driving a city bus around town. You pick up 3 people on your first stop, drop off 2 people and pick up 5 at the next one. You then pick up 3 people drop off 4. How old is the bus driver?
38. There are two plastic jugs filled with water. How could you put all of this water into a barrel, without using the jugs or any dividers, and still tell which water came from which jug?
39. Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday?
40. This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so plain you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is unusual though. Study it, and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out. Try to do so without any coaching!
41. Can you name a sport in which the participants do not know the score, the spectators do not know the score, and no one knows the winner until the contest is over.
42. There is only one substance in the world that weighs more in its liquid form than it does in its solid form.
43. Name three sports where the winning team goes backwards.
44. How is it possible for a man to be his own grandfather?
45. There are two plastic jugs filled with water. How could you put all of this water into a barrel,without using the jugs or any dividers, and still tell which water came from which jug?
46. On my way to the fair, I met 7 jugglers and a bear, every juggler had 6 cats, every cat had 5 rats, every rat had 4 grouses, every grouse had 3 mouses, every mouse had 2 louses, every louse had a spouse. How many in all are going to the fair?
47. Johnny's mother had four children. The first was April, the second was May, and the third was June. What was the name of her fourth child?
48. Why is it against the law for a man living in North Carolina to be buried in South Carolina?
49. If a daddy bull weighs 1,200 pounds and eats twelve bales of hay each day, and a baby bull, who    weighs 300 pounds eats three bales of hay each day, how much hay then should a mommy bull eat if she weighs 800 pounds?
50. Dragon Lewis. Rearrange this name to form a single word.
51. The peacock is a bird that does not lay eggs. How do they get  baby peacocks?
52. How far can you walk into the woods?
53. Six glasses are in a row. The first  three are filled with juice, and the last three are empty. By moving only one glass, can you arrange  them so that the full and the empty glasses alternate?
54. What is the only word in the English language, that when all the letters are capitalized, looks the same from the front, back, above and below?
55. Using the words DROVES and NEWS write seven words using each letter once.
56. A farmer in California own a beautiful pear tree. He supplies the fruit to a nearby grocery store. The store owner has called the farmer to see how much fruit is available for him to purchase. The farmer knows that the main trunk has 24 branches. Each branch has exactly 12 boughs and each bough has exactly 6 twigs. Since each twig bears one piece of fruit, how many plums will the farmer be able to deliver?
57. How many times can you subtract 6 from 36?
58. A boat has a ladder hanging off the side that has six rungs. Each rung is one foot apart. The bottom rung is one foot from the water. The tide rises at 12 inches every 15 minutes. High tide peaks in one hour. When the tide is at it`s highest, how many rungs are under water?
59. Natives on a strange island are either Truth-sayers or Liars. You come across three of them and ask the first, "Are you a Truth-sayer or a Liar?" He mumbles something that you don't understand. The second one says (about the first one) "He says that he's a Truth-sayer." The third one says (about the second one) "He's lying." Who's lying and who's telling the truth?
60. A sundial is a timepiece that has the fewest number of moving parts. Which timepiece has the most moving parts?
61. What's the least number of chairs you would you need around a table to sit four fathers, two grandfathers, and four sons?
62. If everybody in the world jumped off a cliff, would you? Why or why not?
63. How do you spell Boston backwards?
64. A baker can roll the dough left over from 4 cookies into 1 cookie. He started out with 4 balls of dough; enough for 16 cookies. How many cookies is he ultimately able to bake?
65. A rooster lays an egg which rolls down an extended 45-degree incline. How far will the egg roll after thirty seconds?
66. A man dove into the water with no tank, no snorkel, or any other device which allowed him to breathe, yet he stayed down there to live for the rest of his life. How is this possible?
67. What is 3/7 chicken + 2/3 cat + 1/2 goat?
68. You buy it to eat, but you don't eat it. What is 'it'?
69. How many letters are in the alphabet?
70. What state is round on both sides and high in the middle?
71. Find a four-letter word that sounds like a three-letter word, but is spelled like another four-letter word that sounds different.
72. How many F's are in the following sentence? See if you can get it right with only one reading. Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of years.
73. In which six-letter country can the following capitals be found? Athens, Delhi, London, Nassau,Oslo, and Peking.
74. What belongs to you, yet everyone uses more than you?
75. If a farmer has 3 fields. He has 5 haystacks in the left field and 4 haystacks in the right field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in the center field?
76. I am a rock group that has 4 members, all of whom are dead, one of which was assassinated. What am I?
77. Hoops, Tiny, and Ron are the guard, center, and forward of their three-man basketball team, although not necessarily in that order. In the championship game, the guard, an only child, scored the fewest points. Ron, who dates Hoops' sister, scored more than the center. What position does each player play?
78. Since we've been discussing paradoxes this week, here's one. What's at the end of infinity?
79. How do you spell mousetrap with only 3 letters? (haha)
80. AALLLOUGNINCEACELSSSEANRYTELNETCTEERS If you cross out all unnecessary letters in the above string of letters, a logical sentence will remain. Can you read it?
81. What does GHOTI spell? (Hint: Rough women lotion.)
82. What do the following eight words have in common? crabcake, laughing, calmness, canopy, stupid, hijack, first, deft.
83. Glenn and Steve took turns driving on a trip to Boston and back. Glenn drove the first 40 miles and Steve drove the rest of the way to Boston. On the way back, Glenn started to drive, and then Steve drove the last 50 miles. Which of the two drove more, and how much more did he drive?
84. A man walked into Sam and Ellas's Cafe and sat down at a table exactly two and one quarter feet from the window. The first waitress with straight hair came over to take his order, but he sent her away and asked for the waitress with curly hair to take his order.  He ordered a cucumber and cheddar cheese sandwich, a cup of Cuban coffee, and a chocolate chelsea bun.  After taking the order, the curly haired waitress immediately said,  "You must be in the army."  She was right, but how did she know?
85. You are locked in the back of a car with a baseball bat. How do you get out without breaking anything?
86. Which doesn't fit. Seven, Which, Button, Battery, Run, This, Bounce, Is, or That?
87. Jason decided to give his bike 3 coats of paint. Which coat would go on the first?
88. A man is trapped in a room. The room has only two possible exits: two doors. Through the first door there is a room constructed from magnifying glass. The blazing hot sun instantly fries anything or anyone that enters. Through the second door there is a fire-breathing dragon. How does the man escape?

 

Also check out some Wacky Wordies.