A PUZZLE A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY!
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On Valentine’s Day:
A woman gets into an accident and can’t remember who she is or her family.The police ask her if there’s anyone they could call. She thinks for a bit and says, “On Valentine’s Day, we had pie and talked about a George Orwell book.” The police think nothing of it at first, but then one of them realizes the significance of what she said. The knowledgeable officer dials a 9-digit phone number and reaches the woman’s husband. What is the phone number?
John’s Car
John and his wife own a car that fits a maximum of 5 people. He drives Molly to work everyday. On his way, he drops his three kids off at school, and his mom at the mall. How did everyone fit in the car?
Making Muffins
You’re making muffins and need to add 1/3 (one third) of a cup of sugar to the batter. You check the cupboards and find that you only have the following measuring cups: a 2/3 (two thirds) cup, and a 1/2 (half) cup. The muffin recipe requires exactly 1/3 of a cup of sugar. How can you accurately add this amount to the batter?
The Angry Astrologist
The angry astrologist has locked you up in a series of rooms. With your superior thinking abilities, you escape them one by one, until you reach the final room. There’s a locked door with an electronic keypad with the numbers 0 to 9, and it only takes 4 digits. In the middle of the room, there’s a table with information about the zodiacs:
AQUARIUS – January-February
PISCES – February-March
ARIES – March-April
TAURUS – April-May
GEMINI – May-June
CANCER – June-July
LEO – July-August
VIRGO – August-September
LIBRA – September-October
SCORPIO – October-November
SAGITTARIUS – November-December
CAPRICORN – December-January
You look around for more clues and stumble across something rather interesting. Above the door are three drawings from left to right: a set of scales, two fishes swimming in a circle, and a goat. Suddenly, the angry astrologist announces, “You have five minutes to escape. But if you enter the wrong code, you’ll be in for a huge surprise! Since my favorite holiday is coming soon, I’m feeling generous, so here’s a hint…just kidding! No hints! Hahahahaha!” The angry astrologist always talks in riddles, so you’re quite sure there was a hint in what she said. Time is running out! Can you figure out the 4-digit code?
Mystery Man
Can you figure out who this is?
I’m big, I’m small
I can spit fireballs
When I’m on the TV
kids want to play with me
My brother’s not as popular
‘cause he wears a green hat
I have a red one
I can only tell you that
Lily’s Birthday
Lily is having a birthday party at her house in a few days. In order to be invited, people have to bring with them a gift. But it can’t just be any gift, it has to be something Lily approves. Very soon, a list is going around with names of people who have been invited and what they’re bringing:
APPLES – Amelia
BALLOONS – Bob
CAKE – Eric
EGGS – Joanne, Steve, Pete
HOTDOGS – Beth
NOODLES – Jonathan, Eileen
Sally wants to go to the birthday party. What can she bring in order to be invited?
Lost Time
Jack is a truck driver from Springfield, Illinois. On one of his trips to Louisville, Kentucky, something bizarre happened. He left Springfield at 8:00 PM and arrived in Louisville 4 hours later. Then he checked into a motel and slept for 8 hours. When he woke up the following day, it was already
10:00 AM. How did that happen?
Next Tuesday
If tomorrow is two days before Tuesday, how many days before it’s Tuesday
two days from today?
Strange Sentences
Which of the following sentences is the odd one out?
A) Matrices are too hard!
B) Maracas, ukuleles, saxophones, Irish castanets.
C) Human intentions strange; they often remember yesterday.
D) Stars, planets, asteroids, comets. Endless.
E) So, can I eat now (chewing everything)?
Lara’s Choice
While hunting for treasure, Lara comes across an area with three tunnels (A, B, C), each with a label next to its entrance.
A) A tunnel full of cute, but very hungry, man-eating bunnies.
B) A tunnel full of poisonous gas with no cure.
C) A tunnel full of laser-shooting robots programmed to kill everything and
everyone on sight.
Which tunnel should she choose?
A Simple Word Game
Marty wants to play a word game with his friends. He writes down a few words and tells them how much they are worth in points:
MATH – 1 point
TREE – 1 point
HAND – 2 points
BOMB – 5 points
WING – 0 points
FINS – 0 points
He gives them this clue, “Count the fields, get the points.” How many points is WORD GAME worth?
A Strange Party
There are 100 very strange people at a party. They will only shake hands with someone if the other person says ‘hello’ to them first. At the end of the party, how many people will have shaken hands with each other?
Three Different Jobs
Three people named Mary, Alice, and Steve all have different jobs as either a nurse, an elementary school teacher, or a police officer. If Mary is afraid of blood, and neither she nor Steve likes kids, what is Steve’s job?
New Math
Your quirky teacher comes up with a new Math operation called “@” and wants to see if you can figure out what it does. She writes the following examples on the blackboard:
8@5 = 31340
9@3 = 61227
10@9 = 11990
What’s the answer for 7@6?
Family Day
A family of 5 is at home doing various chores and activities around the house. The mom, Amanda, is in the kitchen preparing food. The dad, John, is in the garage repairing the car. Tracy is in the basement playing ping pong. Max is mowing the lawn in the backyard. The 5th family member is Peter. Where is he and what is he doing?
Milk And Eggs
Mary has a password-protected smart phone, but she’s not very good at remembering numbers. She decides to come up with a simple mnemonic, “My favorite things are MILK and EGGS.” Her password is 4-digits long. What is it?
Two Lies And A Truth
You’re babysitting three kids: Mary, Mark, and Mindy. Their parents tell you 2 of them like lying and 1 of them only knows how to tell the truth. You ask the kids, “Which one of you is the smartest?”
Mary says, “I’m not.”
Mark says, “Mindy is.”
Mindy says, “Mark is lying.”
Who’s telling the truth?
Penguin Escape
3 zookeepers and 3 penguins arrive at a river which they must cross to get back to the zoo. There’s a boat they can use, but it can only hold up to 3 of them at once. Since penguins can’t row, it’s up to the zookeepers to do all the work. However, there’s a problem! A zookeeper must always been present to
watch the penguins, and, each zookeeper can only keep an eye on 2 penguins at a time. If there are no zookeepers on a side of the river where there are one or more penguins, the penguins run off. If there are 3 penguins on one side with only 1 zookeeper present, the penguins also escape. How can the zookeepers plan their trip across the river so that they all arrive back at the zoo with all the penguins?
Cute Little Things
Can you figure out this riddle?
Grab one of these from the night sky
And flip it around
You’ll get these cute little things
That make kiss-y sounds
What are these cute little things?
ANSWER KEYS
On Valentine’s Day : The phone number is: 214-314-1984.Valentine’s Day is on February 14, which is 214.Pie is a Math term commonly represented as three digits: 3.14.George Orwell wrote a book called 1984.
John’s Car: Molly is the name of the car.
Making Muffins: Here are the steps to get a quarter cup of sugar into the batter:
* Fill the 2/3 cup with sugar
* Pour the sugar from the 2/3 cup into the 1/2 cup until the 1/2 cup is full. This leaves you with 1/6 of a cup of sugar in the 2/3 cup (Simple fractions:2/3 – 1/2 = 1/6)
* pour the 1/6 of a cup of sugar into the batter
* empty the 1/2 cup back into the sugar bag
* Repeat the above steps. You have now poured 1/6 of a cup of sugar into the batter TWICE, which gives you exactly 2/6, which is 1/3 of a cup of sugar
The Angry Astrologist: The correct code is 1031.The drawings on the wall represent the zodiacs: a set of scales = Libra, fishes= Pisces, goat = Capricorn. The table shows you which months those signscorrespond to.
LIBRA – September-October or 9-10
PISCES – February-March or 2-3
CAPRICORN – December-January or 12-1
Since the drawings are from left to right, you have several combinations to work with. The code can be any of the following:
9-2-1
9-2-12
9-3-1
9-3-12
10-2-1
10-2-12
10-3-1
10-3-12
You can eliminate all the non-4-digit codes, leaving you with only four possibilities. The final clue is in the angry astrologist’s announcement. She mentions, “my favorite holiday.” The only 4-digit code that is a holiday is 10-3-1.
Mystery Man : It’s Mario!
Lily’s Birthday: Guests must bring items that start with the last letter of their name. Forexample, “Eric” ends in C, so he brings cake.Sally can bring anything that starts with the letter Y: yogurt, yam, yoyo, etc.
Lost Time: Springfield and Louisville are in different time zones. Louisville is 1 hour ahead. After driving for 4 hours, it was 12:00 AM in Springfield, but already 1:00 AM in Louisville. That night while Jack was sleeping, Daylight Saving Time happened, and clocks moved forward by 1 hour. He slept for 8 hours and lost 1 hour, so he woke up at 10:00 AM.
Next Tuesday: 1 day. If tomorrow is two days before Tuesday, then tomorrow is Sunday. Then
today is Saturday. Two days from today is two days after Saturday, which is Monday. Counting from Monday, the number of days before it’s Tuesday is 1.
Strange Sentences: The odd one out is D. It is the only sentence in which the first letters of each
word doesn’t spell a school subject.
A) Matrices are too hard! (MATH)
B) Maracas, ukuleles, saxophones, Irish castanets. (MUSIC)
C) Human intentions strange; they often remember yesterday. (HISTORY)
D) Stars, planets, asteroids, comets. Endless. (SPACE)
E) So, can I eat now (chewing everything)? (SCIENCE)
Lara’s Choice: Lara should choose tunnel A. The bunnies are “man”-eating, and she is a
woman.
A Simple Word Game: “Field” refers to an enclosed area in a letter. For example, the letter A, D, and
O have one field, so they are worth 1 point. The letter B has two fields, so it is worth 2 points. Therefore, WORD GAME is worth 4 points.
A Strange Party: None. One of the two people that can shake hands with each other will
always be the first to say “hello,” or they all remain quiet.
Three Different Jobs: Since Mary is afraid of blood, she can’t be the nurse. And since she doesn’t like kids, she can’t be the elementary school teacher. So she must be the police officer. Steve doesn’t like kids, so he can’t be the elementary school teacher. And since Mary is the police officer, Steve must then be the nurse.
New Math: The “@” operation means three different Math operations: subtraction,
addition, and multiplication.
Example:
8@5 = {8-5}{8+5}{8×5} = {3}{13}{40} = 31340.
So 7@6 = {7-6}{7+6}{7×6} = {1}{13}{42} = 11342.
Family Day: He’s in the basement playing ping pong with Tracy.
Milk And Eggs: To solve this, you must know to which number key the letters in MILK and EGGS correspond:
1 = [blank]
2 = ABC
3 = DEF
4 = GHI
5 = JKL
6 = MNO
7 = PQRS
8 = TUV
9 = WXYZ
0 = [blank]
So, MILK = 6455, and EGGS = 3447.“MILK and EGGS” means you add the two numbers.
6455 + 3447 = 9902.
The phone’s password is 9902.
Two Lies And A Truth: Mindy is the one telling the truth.
Case #1:
Mark is lying, and Mindy confirms this by telling the truth. Mary is also lying
and is the smartest of the group.
Mary says, “I’m not.” – LIE
Mark says, “Mindy is.” – LIE
Mindy says, “Mark is lying.” – TRUTH
Case #2:
If Mary is telling the truth, then she’s not the smartest. If Mark is lying, then
Mindy is also not the smartest. But that means Mindy must be telling the
truth (that Mark is lying), and we can only have 1 truth teller.
Mary says, “I’m not.” – TRUTH
Mark says, “Mindy is.” – LIE
Mindy says, “Mark is lying.” – LIE
Case #3:
If Mary is lying, it means she’s the smartest. But if Mark is also telling the
truth, then Mindy is also the smartest, which is not possible.
Mary says, “I’m not.” – LIE
Mark says, “Mindy is.” – TRUTH
Mindy says, “Mark is lying.” – LIE
Penguin Escape: There are 3 zookeepers and 3 penguins. Here’s the plan to cross the river:
* 2 zookeepers and 1 penguin CROSS the river
* 1 zookeeper RETURNS
* 1 zookeeper and 1 penguin CROSS the river
* 1 zookeeper RETURNS
* 2 zookeepers and 1 penguin CROSS the river
All 3 zookeepers and penguins return to the zoo.
Cute Little Things: The answer is RATS.
“Grab one of these from the night sky” What’s in the night sky? Stars. “One of these” would be a STAR.
“And flip it around” If you flip STAR around, you get RATS.
Reference:
Wiggins, JJ. (2017). The Ultimate Riddles Book: Brain Teasers Word Riddles Logic Puzzles Math Problems Trick Questions. LAL
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