Riddle Thread.

[kane.malakos]

A young man, a young woman, a small child, and an old man are in a cave when it suddenly starts to collapse. In order to exit the cave, they have to cross a bridge that can only hold two people at the same time. What's more, they only have one flashlight, and they need the flashlight to cross the bridge. Therefore, the only way to get everyone across is to send two people across and then one person back with the flashlight, so that they can use it to get two more people across (one of whom will then have to come back with the flashlight, etc). If they were going by themselves, it would take the young man 2 minutes to cross the bridge, the young woman 3 minutes, the small child 5 minutes, and the old man 7 minutes. However, since they only have one flashlight, the two people on the bridge can only move at the pace of the slower person. They have 18 minutes before the cave collapses on them. How do they all get across the bridge?

Took me a while to remember how to do this one, but here goes.
1. Man and woman go across - 3 minutes
2. Man comes back - 2 minutes
3. Child and old man cross - 7 minutes
4. Woman comes back - 3 minutes
5. Man and woman go across - 3 minutes

3+2+7+3+3=18 minutes

 

[Nuuu]

What starts with e, ends with e, and contains only one letter?
...It's not the letter e.
Goodnight people.

An envelope.

The fox-bag-chicken riddle: A farmer has a fox, a chicken, and a bag of seeds. If the wolf is alone with the chicken, it will eat it. If the chicken is alone with the seeds, it will eat them. The farmer has to cross a river and can only bring one thing at a time. How does he get all of them over?

Take the chicken over, go back, take the grain over, take the chicken back to the beggining, take the wolf to the other side, and then take the chicken over. I can thank runescape for having a quest involving this.

 

[Bobbity]

In a room with only 2 exits are two guards, of which one will always tell the truth, and one will always lie, and you do not know which is which. One exit leads to certain death, the other to freedom. You may ask ONE guard ONE question. What do you ask to guarantee your freedom?

But if you ask only one of them about the doors then you still have a 50% chance of living. If you ask a question to find out whether they lie or not, you've still got no help on the doors. You need more questions.

And this should probably have gone in Forum Games.

No silly, you ask them what the other would say, then you go the other way. That's one of the sphinx's riddles, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[LikeDustInTheWind]

Why did the plane crash?

It was all The Others' fault.

 

[Aethren]

An animal wakes up on four legs, has two legs during lunch, three legs during dinner, and sleeps on zero. What is it?

 

[Nuuu]

An animal wakes up on 4 legs, has two legs during lunch, and dies with 0. What is it?

it'd be a human right? when born you crawl, mid-life you walk, when you die, you lie down. If i'm right, i would have added on supper, you walk on 3.

 

[Droppa Deuce]

I have many names, but am only called one
My duty is mischief, it is so much fun
If you can guess who I am, rewarded you'll be
Or I'll curse ye forever, until I set ye free

 

[Faladorian]

There was a man who was walking. There was heavy rain and it was very muddy. The man looks back to see his footprints, but they aren't there. Why?

He was inside

 

[The Thinker]

OT: What runs but never walks? XD

Water. Or a fridge. Or colors. Or genetically inherited traits (they run in the family).

 

[Theron Julius]

Here is a riddle taken from Kurt Vonnegut's fantastic book The Sirens of Titan.

A man is locked in a room with nothing but a calander and a matress, how does he survive?

He eats all of the mattress but the springs and uses one of them as a lock pick and escapes. Presumably he isn't killed or maimed during the escape and is able to reintegrate into society.

OT:

I am always hungry, I must be fed. Were I to lick the hand that fed me, it would soon turn red.

 

[kane.malakos]

I am always hungry, I must be fed. Were I to lick the hand that fed me, it would soon turn red.

Fire.

 

[Nyan Cat]

Oh, oh! I have one!

Then who was phone?

 

[RandallJohn]

An old one:

A dozen royals gathered round, entertained by two who clowned.
Each king there had servants ten. But none of them were also men.
The smallest servant sometimes might defeat the king in a fair fight.
A weapon stout, a priceless jewel, the beat of life, a farmer?s tool.

 

[The Thinker]

An old one:

A dozen royals gathered round, entertained by two who clowned.
Each king there had servants ten. But none of them were also men.
The smallest servant sometimes might defeat the king in a fair fight.
A weapon stout, a priceless jewel, the beat of life, a farmer?s tool.

Playing cards.

Here's a riddle:

If this was a purely hypothetical question, what would it be?

 

[dementis]

Since no one seemed to try my other one, here's another!

There was a man who was walking. There was heavy rain and it was very muddy. The man looks back to see his footprints, but they aren't there. Why?

He's walking backwards?

 

[RandallJohn]

Since no one seemed to try my other one, here's another!

There was a man who was walking. There was heavy rain and it was very muddy. The man looks back to see his footprints, but they aren't there. Why?

He is walking on his hands, therefore leaving no FOOTprints?

 

[The_Chief]

1. You have two old-fashioned hourglasses. One contains five hours of sand, one contains eight. How would you go about timing eleven hours?

2. You have an old-fashioned pair of scales. Given that you must weigh a series of objects with integer masses between 1 and 40 grams, inclusive, what is the lowest number of weights needed to weigh any given object?

i know im late to the game but i know the first one.
let the eight one run out, then turn it over and run down the 5 one. when the five one runs out, then it will be eleven hours.

 

[Jerious1154]

This the hardest riddle I've ever heard that doesn't require guesswork or random wordplay:

100 logicians are abandoned on a desert island by pirates. 50 have blue eyes and 50 have brown eyes. None of them knows their own eye color, but they can see the eyes of everyone else. The pirates leave them a note that says the following: "Every night at 8:00 sharp we will come by in our boat. At that time, if anyone correctly guesses their own eye color they will be allowed off the island. If anyone guesses their eye color incorrectly, we kill everyone. We will stop coming to the island after the first person, or group of people, gets off. Everyone else will be left there. By the way, at least one of you has blue eyes".
Since these people are logicians, you can assume that they will figure out their own eye color as soon as it is logically possible to do so. How many people guess their eye color and get away, and on what night do they do so?

 

[Kuroneko97]

The fox-bag-chicken riddle: A farmer has a fox, a chicken, and a bag of seeds. If the wolf is alone with the chicken, it will eat it. If the chicken is alone with the seeds, it will eat them. The farmer has to cross a river and can only bring one thing at a time. How does he get all of them over?

I've heard this one so many times, but a good one nonetheless. You first take the chicken, and when you return, choose the bag or fox- I'm going with fox. When you drop off the fox, take the chicken with you. Then drop off the chicken and take the bag. Lastly, return for the chicken, and cross one more time.

Somebody beat me, But I wanted to contribute.

As for a riddle, here is one.

A poor man was at a bar. He sees a rich man take 50's out his pocket to pay the cashier. The poor man says to the rich man "I know all the songs known to man." The rich man laughed and said, "I bet you all the money in my pocket that you can't sing a song with my daughter's name in it, Sarah Lee Greyson." The poor man went home rich and the rich man went home poor. What song did the man sing?