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.
If nine thousand, nine hundred nine dollars is written as $9,909,
how should twelve thousand, twelve hundred twelve dollars be written?
If a shopkeeper can only place the weights on one side of the common balance. For example, if he has weights 1 and 3 then he can measure 1, 3 and 4 only. Now the question is how many minimum weights and names of the weights you will need to measure all weights from 1 to 1000? This is a fairly simple problem and very easy to prove also.
In a science lab, a petri dish hosts a healthy colony of yeast for an experiment. Now every minute, all the yeast cells divide into two. At noon, there was just a single cell of yeast and at 1:22, the Petri dish was half full. Can you calculate when the dish will be full of yeast?
A river should be crossed by a father, a mother and their two sons and two daughters.
There are some rules that should be followed while crossing the river. There can be only two people in the raft while crossing. The daughters cannot be with their father unless there is the presence of the mother. The sons cannot be with their mothers unless the father is present. Unless the guard is on the board, the criminals cannot be with any of the family members. Only the adults like the father, the guard, and the mother knows to use the raft.
How will they cross the river?
The richest man in the city Mr Rechard is kidnapped. James Bond is appointed to the case. At the crime scene, a note is found written by Mr Richard. The note read:
"First of January, Fourth of October, Fifth of March, Third of June."
James Bond knew that somehow, the killer's name was hidden in the note. The following were the suspects:
Jack Richard, the son and the heir of property.
John Jacobson, the employee of Richard.
June Richard, the wife of Richard.
James Bond took only a few moments to deduce the killer's name. Can you tell who was the killer?
Replace the (?) with the correct mathematical signs to make the expression equal to 59.
18 ? 12 ? 4 ? 5 = 59
First, think of the colour of clouds. Next think the colour of snow. Last, think of the colour of the moon. Now, what do cows drink?
You measure my life in hours
I serve you by expiring
I vanish faster when I am thin
and slower when I am thick
The wind is my energy
What am I?
What two things can you never eat for breakfast?
Place a mathematical symbol between the numerals 5 and 9 in such a way that the resulting number is greater than 5 but smaller than 9.
The word ladder puzzle was invented by Lewis Carroll, author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.