Here Come My Wife and Daughter

Two men are standing on one side of a bridge and two women are approaching them. One of the men says, "Here comes my wife and daughter" to which the second man replies, "Here comes my wife and daughter". If they have not married the same woman and the women aren't pregnant, how is this true?

Solution »

The men are widowers and married each others' daughter.

6 glasses in a row

There are six glasses in a row. The first three are full of water, and the next three are empty. By moving only one glass how can you make them alternate between full and empty?

Solution »

Pour the water from the 2nd glass into the 5th glass.

What's wrong with this paragraph?

This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious as to just how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so ordinary and plain that you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is highly unusual though. Study it and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out. Try to do so without any coaching.

Solution »

The letter e, the most common letter in the English language, never appears in the entire paragraph

Who kill the man on a Sunday morning?

A man was killed on Sunday morning. His wife found the body and called the police. The police arrived and questioned the chef, maid, butler, and gardener. Their alibis were:
Chef - making breakfast
Maid - getting mail
Butler - setting table
Gardener - watering plants
The police immediately arrested the criminal. Who was it and how did they know?

Solution »

The maid. Mail isn't delivered on Sunday

What is special about the following number sequence?

8, 5, 4, 9, 1, 7, 6, 10, 3, 2, 0

Solution »

It's the numbers 0-10 in alphabetical order.

Prisoner's Probability to Live

You are a prisoner sentenced to death. The Emperor offers you a chance to live by playing a simple game. He gives you 50 black marbles, 50 white marbles and 2 empty bowls. He then says, "Divide these 100 marbles into these 2 bowls. You can divide them any way you like as long as you use all the marbles. Then I will blindfold you and mix the bowls and marbles up. You can then choose one bowl and remove one marble. If the marble is white, you live, but if the marble is black...you die.

How do you divide the marbles up so that you have the greatest probability of choosing a white marble?

Solution »

Place 1 white marble in one bowl, and place the rest of the marbles in the other bowl (49 whites, and 50 blacks).


This way you begin with a 50/50 chance of choosing the bowl with just one white marble and living. But even if you choose the other bowl, you still have an almost 50% chance of picking one of the 49 white marbles. There are no guarantees in life, but this is your best bet at surviving.

Two Guards

You're in a room with two doors. There's a guard at each door. One door is the exit, but behind the other door is something that will kill you. You're told that one guard always tells the truth and the other guard always lies. You don't know which guard is which. You are allowed to ask one question to either of the guards to determine which door is the exit. What question should you ask?

Solution »

Ask either guard what door the other guard would say is the exit, then choose the opposite door.


If you ask the guard who always tells the truth, he knows the other guard would lie, so he'll point you to the door leading to death. If you ask the guard who always lies, he knows the other guard would truthfully show you the exit, so he'll lie and point you to the door leading to death.

Three Daughters

I was visiting a friend one evening and remembered that he had three daughters. I asked him how old they were. "The product of their ages is 72," he answered. Quizzically, I asked, "Is there anything else you can tell me?" "Yes," he replied, "the sum of their ages is equal to the number of my house." I stepped outside to see what the house number was. Upon returning inside, I said to my host, "I'm sorry, but I still can't figure out their ages." He responded apologetically, "I'm sorry, I forgot to mention that my oldest daughter likes strawberry shortcake." With this information, I was able to determine all of their ages. How old is each daughter? You have enough information to solve the puzzle.

Solution »

3, 3, and 8. The only groups of 3 factors of 72 to have non-unique sums are 2, 6, 6 and 3, 3, 8 (both add up to 14). The presence of a single oldest child eliminates 2,6,6.

Twin Brothers

You are travelling down a road to a village. You reach a fork in the road and find a pair of identical twin brothers standing there. One of the brothers always tells the truth and the other always lies.

If you are allowed to ask only one question to one of the brothers to find which is the correct road to the village, what is your question ?

Solution »

Point to one of the roads in the fork and ask the following question to one of the brothers.

"If I ask your brother if this is the correct road to the village will he say yes or no?"

If he answers is "no" then it is the correct way to the village.

Think about it -

If the brother you are speaking to is the one who always lies, then he will say "no" as he knows that his brother who speaks the truth would anwser "yes". If the brother you are speaking to is the one who speaks the truth, he will say "no" as he knows that his brother will lie about it being the correct road. Either way an answer "no" tells you it is actually the right road. Similarly if you are pointing to the wrong road you will get the answer "yes".