Who Is The Engineer Riddle
A train goes between Chicago and New York. The brakeman, the fireman and the engineer are named Smith, Jones and Brown. (The names are not necessarily in order). There are also three passengers named Mr. Smith, Mr. Jones and Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown lives in New York. The brakeman lives halfway between New York and Chicago. Mr. Jones earns exactly $20,000 per year. Smith beat the fireman at their last game of golf. The passenger who lives in Chicago has the same name as the brakeman. The brakeman's next door neighbor is a passenger on this train and earns exactly three times as much as the brakeman. What is the name of the engineer?
Hint:
Determine the known facts. Also notice that the passengers are noted with the title Mr., where as the brakeman, engineer and fireman are identified by their last names only. 1. Mr Brown Lives in New York City 2. The brakeman lives midway between NY and Chicago 3. Mr. Jones earns exactly $20K per year 4. Smith beat the fireman at their last game of golf. 5. The brakeman's next-door neighbor, who is a passenger, earns exactly three times the brakeman's salary. 6. The passenger who lives in Chicago has the same name as the brakeman. According to #1 and #2, the brakeman's neighbor cannot be Mr. Brown. According to #5, the brakeman's neighbor also cannot be Mr. Jones, because $20,000 is not evenly divisible by three. This leaves Mr. Smith as the next door neighbor to the brakeman. Mr. Smith lives halfway between New York and Chicago (#2) as does the brakeman. Since Mr. Brown lives in New York, by process of elimination, it is now known that Mr. Jones lives in Chicago. According to statement #6, this means that the brakeman is named Jones. According to statement #4, the fireman cannot be Smith, so the fireman must be must be Brown, which leaves Smith as the engineer. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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The Train Of Love
A young man, living in Manhattan, New York, has two girlfriends. One lives to the North, in the Bronx, and the other lives to the South, in Brooklyn.
He likes both girls equally but can only visit one each weekend. He therefore leaves it to chance and takes the first train that arrives when he reaches the train station.
Even though the man arrives at a totally random time every Saturday morning and the Brooklyn and Bronx trains arrive equally often (every ten minutes), he finds himself visiting the girl in Brooklyn on average nine times out of ten. How could the odds so heavily favor taking the Brooklyn train?
He likes both girls equally but can only visit one each weekend. He therefore leaves it to chance and takes the first train that arrives when he reaches the train station.
Even though the man arrives at a totally random time every Saturday morning and the Brooklyn and Bronx trains arrive equally often (every ten minutes), he finds himself visiting the girl in Brooklyn on average nine times out of ten. How could the odds so heavily favor taking the Brooklyn train?
Hint: Think of a way the train schedules might favor one train over the other.
The Brooklyn train leaves exactly 1 minute before the Bronx train.
Let's say the Brooklyn train arrives at 09:00, 09:10, 09:20, etc. and the Bronx train arrives one minute after at 09:01, 09:11, 09:21, etc. Consider the ten minute interval from 09:00 to 09:10. If the man arrives between 09:00 and 09:01, the 09:01 Bronx train will be the first to arrive (assuming that he doesn't arrive at exactly 09:00). If the man arrives between 09:01 and 09:10, the 09:10 Brooklyn train will be the first to arrive. In any ten minute period, the Brooklyn train will be the first to arrive in nine of the ten minutes. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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Let's say the Brooklyn train arrives at 09:00, 09:10, 09:20, etc. and the Bronx train arrives one minute after at 09:01, 09:11, 09:21, etc. Consider the ten minute interval from 09:00 to 09:10. If the man arrives between 09:00 and 09:01, the 09:01 Bronx train will be the first to arrive (assuming that he doesn't arrive at exactly 09:00). If the man arrives between 09:01 and 09:10, the 09:10 Brooklyn train will be the first to arrive. In any ten minute period, the Brooklyn train will be the first to arrive in nine of the ten minutes. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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The Hijacker Riddle
A man hijacks an airplane transporting both passengers(8 of them) and valuable cargo. After taking the cargo, the man demands nine parachutes, puts one of them on, and jumps, leaving the other eight behind. Why did he want eight?
Hint:
If the officials thought he was jumping with a hostage, they would never risk giving him a faulty parachute. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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The 100 Seat Airplane
People are waiting in line to board a 100-seat airplane. Steve is the first person in the line. He gets on the plane but suddenly can't remember what his seat number is, so he picks a seat at random. After that, each person who gets on the plane sits in their assigned seat if it's available, otherwise they will choose an open seat at random to sit in.
The flight is full and you are last in line. What is the probability that you get to sit in your assigned seat?
The flight is full and you are last in line. What is the probability that you get to sit in your assigned seat?
Hint: You don't need to use complex math to solve this riddle. Consider these two questions:
What happens if somebody sits in your seat?
What happens if somebody sits in Steve's assigned seat?
The correct answer is 1/2.
The chase that the first person in line takes your seat is equal to the chance that he takes his own seat. If he takes his own seat initially then you have a 100% chance of sitting in your seat, if he takes your seat you have a 0 percent chance. Now after the first person has picked a seat, the second person will enter the plan and, if the first person has sat in his seat, he will pick randomly, and again, the chance that he picks your seat is equal to the chance he picks someone your seat. The motion will continue until someone sits in the first persons seat, at this point the remaining people standing in line which each be able to sit in their own seats. Well how does that probability look in equation form? (2/100) * 50% + (98/100) * ( (2/98) * 50% + (96/98) * ( (2/96) * (50%) +... (2/2) * (50%) ) ) This expansion reduces to 1/2.
An easy way to see this is trying the problem with a 3 or 4 person scenario (pretend its a car). Both scenarios have probabilities of 1/2. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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The chase that the first person in line takes your seat is equal to the chance that he takes his own seat. If he takes his own seat initially then you have a 100% chance of sitting in your seat, if he takes your seat you have a 0 percent chance. Now after the first person has picked a seat, the second person will enter the plan and, if the first person has sat in his seat, he will pick randomly, and again, the chance that he picks your seat is equal to the chance he picks someone your seat. The motion will continue until someone sits in the first persons seat, at this point the remaining people standing in line which each be able to sit in their own seats. Well how does that probability look in equation form? (2/100) * 50% + (98/100) * ( (2/98) * 50% + (96/98) * ( (2/96) * (50%) +... (2/2) * (50%) ) ) This expansion reduces to 1/2.
An easy way to see this is trying the problem with a 3 or 4 person scenario (pretend its a car). Both scenarios have probabilities of 1/2. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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Fifty One Bicycles
Hint:
The man was playing a poker game and cheated. The bicycles are a type of card. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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YES NO
Americans In A Pub Riddle
There were two Americans sitting in a British Pub. One of them was the father of the other one's son. How could this be so?
Hint:
Add Up To 100 Riddle
With the numbers 123456789, make them add up to 100. They must stay in the same order. You can use addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Remember, they have to stay in the same order!
Hint:
A Farmer In California
A farmer in California owns 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?
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Making Glass Riddle
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Losing Skin Riddle
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A Girflriend And A Wife
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The Dog Or Your Wife Riddle
If your dog is barking at the back door and your wife is yelling at the front door, whom do you let in first?
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Boyfriend And A Husband Riddle
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Three Rivers Riddle
There are three rivers and after each river lies a grave. A man wants to leave the same number of flowers at each grave and be left with none at the end. However, each time he passes through a river, the number of flowers he has doubles. How many flowers does he have to start with so that he is left with none at the end? And how many does he leave at each grave?
Hint:
This problem has an infinite number of solutions modeled by the equation 8a=7n, where a is the amount of flowers the man starts with and n is the number of flowers he leaves at each grave. The simplest and possibly trivial solution would be to start with 0 flowers and leave 0 flowers at each grave. A more significant solution would be to start with 7 flowers and leave 8 at each grave. Any positive integer multiple of this solution also satisfies the conditions. For example, the man starts with 14 flowers and leaves 16 at each grave; so, 14 doubles to 28, and 28-16= 12; 12 doubles to 24, and 24-16= 8; 8 doubles to 16, and 16-16= 0. The result is the same if the man starts with 21 flowers and leaves 24 flowers at each grave, or starts with 28 and leaves 32. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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The Mountain Of Two Paths
You walk up to a mountain that has two paths. One leads to the other side of the mountain, and the other will get you lost forever. Two twins know the path that leads to the other side. You can ask them only one question. Except! One lies and one tells the truth, and you don't know which is which. So, What do you ask?
Hint:
You ask each twin What would your brother say?. This works because.... Well let's say the correct path is on the left side. So say you asked the liar "What would your brother say?" Well, the liar would know his brother was honest and he would say the left side, but since the liar lies, he would say right. If you asked the honest twin the same question, he would say right, because he knows his brother will lie. Therefore, you would know that the correct path was the left! Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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