Ten Matchsticks
You have these fifteen matchsticks. Remove six of them and leave ten.
SOLUTION
Remove 6 matchsticks and leave 9 that spell the word TEN.
Category: Insight
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Color Venn
What does this Venn diagram depict?
SOLUTION
Each of the numbers corresponds to a letter from the alphabet:
1 – A, 4 – D, 5 – E, 7 – G, 14 – N, 15 – O, 18 – R
The three colors in the Venn diagram are GREEN, RED, YELLOW, and what is depicted is the letters they share.
Frustrating Question
John was asking Bob the same question again and again throughout the day and kept getting different answers. What was John’s question?
SOLUTION
John’s question was “What time is it?”.
Sequence 1, 3, 7, 12
Which is the next number in the following sequence:
1, 3, 7, 12, 18, 26, 35, 45, 56, ?
SOLUTION
This is the so called Hofstadter Figure-Figure Sequence.
The sequence of the differences between the consecutive numbers in the original sequence is 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11… These are exactly the natural numbers missing from the original sequence. Therefore, the next number should be 56 + 13 = 69.
A Cardinal Points
A cardinal points and says, “thorn, shout, seat, and stew.” Can you explain?
SOLUTION
The sentence is a play on words and anagrams. Thorn, shout, seat, and stew are anagrams of the four cardinal directions of the compass: north, south, east, and west.
Conflicting Words
What unique feature do the following words share?
FRIEND, FEAST, THERE, THOROUGH, FLIGHT, WONDERFUL, RESIGN, ENDURING, PEST, COVERT
SOLUTION
Each of these words contains its antonym as a sub-word:
FRIEND – FIEND, FEAST – FAST, THERE – HERE, THOROUGH – ROUGH, FLIGHT – FIGHT, WONDERFUL – WOEFUL, RESIGN – REIGN, ENDURING – ENDING, PEST – PET, COVERT – OVERT
The Car and the Bird
A car weighing 1500kg (including the driver) starts crossing a 20km long bridge. The bridge can support at most 1500kg and, above that weight, it collapses. If halfway through the bridge, a small bird, weighing 200g, lands on the roof of the car, will the bridge collapse?
SOLUTION
By the time the car reaches the middle of the bridge, it would have used fuel that weighs more than 200g, so the bridge will not collapse.
Bus Driver’s Age
Imagine you are driving a bus. At the first stop, 3 people get on the bus. At the second stop, 5 more get on. At the third stop, 2 get out and 4 get on. At the last stop, everybody gets out. How old is the bus driver?
SOLUTION
You are imagining the story, so the bus driver is as old as you.
Coins and Cups
How can you put ten coins in three plastic cups, so that in every cup there is odd number of coins?
SOLUTION
Drop five coins in the first cup. Than put the other two cups in each other and drop the five remaining coins in them.
Easy Money
The horse got $18, the the bee got $27, the duck got $9, and the spider got $36. How much did the snake get?
SOLUTION
Every animal got $4.50 for every leg it has. Therefore, the snake got nothing.