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PUZZLER 1:

A farmer had a 40 pound stone that he used to weigh 40 pounds of feed with a balance scale.  A neighbor borrows the stone and when he returns it, the neighbor says, "I'm terribly sorry, I dropped the stone and it broke into four pieces."  The farmer says, "Don't worry, you actually did me a favor."  The farmer then explains that the pieces of the broken stone could now be used to weigh any item in one pound increments from one pound to 40 pounds. So, if he wants to weigh something that's one pound, two pounds, fifteen pounds, twenty-three pounds, thirty-four pounds, he can do it with those four pieces of stone and the balance scale in one weighing.

What are the weights of the four individual pieces of stone?  And how does the farmer's system work?  ANSWER.

PUZZLER 2:

A king summons the 3 known wisest men to his court, and he administers the following test.  He sits them in a circle, facing each other, and he says, "I'm going to put either a red hat or a white hat on each of your heads."  They can see each other, but they can't see what's on their own head.  The king says "If you can see a red hat, raise your hand."  They all raise their hands.  Then the king says, "If you can tell what color hat you have on, stand up."  Time goes on, one guy looks at another guy, who looks at the other guy.  The other guy looks at him.  Finally one guy stands up.

What color is his hat? How does he know?  ANSWER.

PUZZLER 3:

The king again invited 3 wise men to confront his hats.  This time, there was a two-eyed man, a one-eyed man, and a blind man.  The king told them that he had 3 red hats and 2 white hats, and that he would place one hat on each of their heads.  The king asked the two-eyed man, who could see the others' hats, if he knew what color his hat was.  The man said, No.  The king then asked the one-eyed man what color his hat was.  He also could see the color of the others' hats, and he also replied that he didn't know.  Finally, the king asked the blind man what color his hat was.

How did the blind man know what color his hat was?  ANSWER.

PUZZLER 4:

On a cold and windy night, 4 people are trying to cross a small rope bridge across a wide ravine.  To cross, they need the use of a flashlight, of which they only have one.  The bridge is only wide enough for two of them to cross at any time, and the ravine is too wide for them to toss the flashlight across.  Son will take 1 minute to cross the bridge, Father will take 2 minutes, Grandpa will take 5 minutes, and Toddler will take 10 minutes.  If two of them cross together, they must go across at the slower one's pace, so that both may use the flashlight.

How can they all make it across in 17 (seventeen) minutes?  ANSWER.

PUZZLER 5:

There are three regular toggle light switches.  Two are dummies and are attached to nothing.  The other is connected to an ordinary lightbulb in a closet on the third floor.  You are allowed to play with all three switches as much as you want; however, you are only allowed to go up to the third floor closet once to check the bulb.

How can you tell which of the three switches is the working switch?  ANSWER.

PUZZLER 6:

You come to two doors and are told by a grizzled gnome that one door leads to happiness and the other path leads to miserable death.  In front of each door is a sentry.  You are told by the gnome that one sentry always answers truthfully, and the other sentry always, always lies.  Furthermore, both sentries know about the other sentry's truthfulness or lack thereof.  The gnome tells you further that you are only allowed to ask one and only one question of one and only one of the sentries.

What do you ask, and which door do you take? ANSWER.

PUZZLER 7:

Christine leaves home at the same time everyday to pick up her son Paul from school.  She gives herself enough time so that she pulls up to the school just as Paul is getting out.  Today, Paul was unexpectedly let out an hour early, and instead of waiting for his mother, Paul decides to walk home along the same route as his mother travels.  Christine leaves home today at her usual time traveling along the usual route and comes upon Paul walking in the opposite direction.  She picks up Paul and they return home, arriving twenty minutes earlier than usual.

How long was Paul walking? ANSWER.

PUZZLER 8:

There was once a prisoner that was condemned to die.  And the warden came to visit him and said to him, "Kid, I've taken a shine to you, and being a betting man, I decided that I'm going to give you a fighting chance.  You're odds of dying tomorrow are 100%.  But I would like to increase your odds by giving you two shoe boxes.  One box has 50 white marbles, and the other has 50 black marbles.  I'm going to come in tomorrow morning, and I'm going to pick a marble.  I'm going to be blindfolded, so I can't see the boxes or the marbles.  I'm going to pick a marble out, and if it's white you live, but if it's black, you die.  You can do anything you want with the 100 marbles.  You don't have to leave them in the two shoe boxes as I have.  You can put them all in one box, or you can divvy them up in any way between the two boxes, but you must use all the marbles.  You can't hide them.  If you try to cheat, you lose this chance I'm giving you."

Can the prisoner improve his chances to better than 50-50?  ANSWER.

PUZZLER 9:

Potatoes are 99% water and 1% non-evaporating potato stuff.  If you take 100 pounds of potatoes and set them out on your back porch to dry, the water portion starts to evaporate.  After awhile, enough water has evaporated so that the potatoes are now 98% water.

If you were to weigh those potatoes when they are 98% water, how much would they weigh?  ANSWER.

PUZZLER 10:

A woman has two children.  If you know that one of her children is a boy, what are the odds that the other one is also a boy?  ANSWER.

PUZZLER 11:

You are given a three gallon jug, a five gallon jug, and a water faucet.  You are allowed to fill and empty the jugs as much as you like.  However, you are not allowed to "guestimate" or eyeball the amounts.

How can you get exactly four gallons of water in the five gallon jug? ANSWER.

PUZZLER 12:

You have 10 ounces of water in one glass (A), and 10 ounces of wine in another glass (B).  You take one ounce of water from water glass A and put it into wine glass B, stir it, and then take one ounce of the water-wine mixture from B and put it into water glass A.  You again have 10 ounces in each glass.

Is the amount of wine in glass A greater than, less than, or equal to, the amount of water in glass B? ANSWER.

PUZZLER 13:

There are two islands in the middle of a navigable river.  There are five bridges linking the two islands to each other and each island to either side of the river.


A storm comes and it may have wiped out none of the bridges, all of the bridges, or any number of the bridges.

What are the chances that someone on one side of the river can still make it to the other side?  ANSWER.

PUZZLER 14:

You are given three doors from which you must choose.  One has a very good prize behind it.  The other two have silly prizes.  You choose one door.  The MC then opens one of the unchosen doors and shows you that it had a silly prize.  The MC then offers you the choice of sticking with your original choice, which is still hidden, or switching to the other unopened door.  What should you do?  ANSWER.

PUZZLER 15:

You have 12 balls, numbered one through twelve.  They appear similar in all respects, except you are told that one is a different weight.  You have to determine which ball is odd in 3 weighings using a balance scale, and whether it is heavier or lighter than the rest.  ANSWER.

PUZZLER 16:

Two Bedouins were traveling across the desert on their way to a distant village. In the middle of the day, they sat down to eat the loaves of bread they had brought with them for lunch. One had five loaves. The other had three, making a total of eight. Just as they're getting ready to eat, a stranger comes along and asks if he might share their meal. He said, "I have plenty of money but, unfortunately, no food." The two agree to divide their loaves equally among the three of them. After the meal is finished, the stranger lays down eight coins of equal value for what he had eaten and goes away. The Bedouin with the five loaves picks five coins and leaves three for the other guy. But the other guy says, "No, no, no, no. Look, we both shared our loaves. We should each get four coins." Since they couldn't agree, they call in a magistrate who happened to be road testing out a camel. The magistrate listens to the story and figures out who should get what. So the question was, was the first guy right, was the second guy right, or were they both wrong? And what's the fair way to divide up the money? Well, it turns out they're both wrong. And the magistrate figures out how they should divide up the money. How does he do it?  ANSWER.

PUZZLER 17:

The camp cook is going to make homemade pancakes for everyone, but he needs to add to the recipe exactly two gallons of water. So you are sent to the well to fetch two gallons of water with no measuring device. When you get to the well, you discover there are two jugs there. One says 13 gallons, and the other says seven gallons. How do you come back with exactly two gallons of water?  ANSWER.

PUZZLER 18:

Last month Francine and Roxana decided that they were going to take a trip up north to see the foliage. So they get in the car and Roxana drives the first 40 miles. Francine drives the rest of the way. On their return trip, they head home on the same road that they used to get there. Roxana drives the first leg of the trip, and Francine drives the last 50 miles home. Who drove the most miles and how many more did that person drive?   ANSWER.

BAD PUZZLES

BAD PUZZLE 1:

A sheriff rode into town on Friday at exactly 12 noon.  The same sheriff rides out of town three days later at exacly 12 noon on Friday.  How can this be??? ANSWER.

BAD PUZZLE 2:

Three traveling salesmen decided to go in thirdseys on a $30 motel room.  They each paid the innkeeper $10.  The innkeeper later decided that he wanted to keep them as repeat customers, so he gave $5 to the bellboy to return to the salesmen.  The bellboy didn't know how to divide $5 three ways, so he instead gave the salesmen $3 and pocketed the remaining two.  The salesmen have now each paid $9, the bellboy's pocketed $2.  What happened to the other dollar???  ANSWER.

BAD PUZZLE 3:

You have five apples in a basket.  You are approached by five children.  You give each of the children one apple, and when you are finished, there is still one and only one apple in the basket.  How can this be???  ANSWER.

BAD PUZZLE 4

A man says, "You know, guys, there's a road right near my house that runs directly north and south." We said, "Well, sure that's no big deal." And he says, "Well, I can put my car on this road and point it north, drive a mile and when I'm done I'm a mile south of where I started." (CLUE: The man does not start at the North Pole.) ANSWER.