You have an empty wine bottle with a cork that has been secured at the top in a normal way. There is a metal ring inside the bottle that is suspended by a string.
How can you make the metal ring drop to the bottom if you are not allowed to touch anything - not the bottle, not the cork, not the thread and not the ring?
1 rabbit saw 9 elephants while going to the river. Every elephant saw 3 monkeys going toward the river. Each monkey had 1 parrot in each hand. How many animals are going towards the river?
In Greek mythology, the Sphinx sat outside of Thebes and asked this riddle of all travellers who passed by. If the traveller failed to solve the riddle, then the Sphinx killed him/her. And if the traveller answered the riddle correctly, then the Sphinx would destroy herself. The riddle:
What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?
Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx destroyed herself.
The day before the 1996 U.S. presidential election, the NYT Crossword contained the clue “Lead story in tomorrow’s newspaper,” the puzzle was built so that both electoral outcomes were correct answers, requiring 7 other clues to have dual responses.