1260 Challenging Brain Teasers Page 13 of 84
Brain teasers, they make you think, they make you laugh, they make you wonder, and they make you ponder.
181. Without bouncing, how can you throw a ball such that it comes back to you?
182. Bob, Steve, Tom and Vince are weight-lifters. Vince can out lift Tom, but Steve can out lift Vince. Tom can out lift Bob, but Steve can out lift Tom. Therefore:
1. Both Bob and Steve can out lift Vince.
2. Vince can out lift Bob but can't out lift Tom
3. Vince can out lift Bob by more than he can out lift Tom
4. None of the above
Which of the above is correct?
183. The following 12 letters can be anagrammed into a four-word phrase meaning "in excellent condition."
F F D D A A I I T S E L
184. You are working on some estimates for your boss. You can come up with a very good package for your new little widgets, but the packaging may be too expensive. The cost of the widget and the packaging is $1.10, and the widget is $1.00 more than the package. How much will you tell the boss that the package for each widget will cost?
185. What do the dead eat, that the living would die if they ate it?
186. One-third of an hour after a candle was lit, the other end was also lit. It took a further one-third of an hour for the candle to burn out. If the candle was lit at both ends at the start, and one end was quenched when only the middle one-third of the candle remained, how long in all would it take to burn the candle out?
187. The words DEFT, CANOPY, and STUN all have one characteristic in common, which has nothing to do with the number of letters, vowels, consonants or syllables in any of the words. What is it?
188. In a cellar there are 3 light switches (A, B and C) in the "off" position. Each switch controls 1 of the 3 light bulbs in the room above. How can you determine which switch is for which bulb with only one inspection (you may go upstairs only once to inspect the bulbs)?
189. After standing in the rain for about 20 minutes at your bus stop, a group of buses show up. The first one is too crowded, and you end up taking the last one. There was one bus ahead of another bus, one bus behind another bus, one bus behind two buses, and one bus with two ahead of it. What is the smallest number of buses there could have been in the group?
190. Three cars had driven into a parking lot at the same time, and the three drivers left them all for the attendant to park. Unfortunately, he can't remember which driver drove which car. However, he is sure of the following facts:
1. Colin drove the BMW if and only if Mr. Cooper drove the Avenger.
2. Alan drove the Cortina if and only if Mr. Cooper drove the BMW.
3. Colin is Mr. Brown if and only if Mr. Andrews drove the BMW.
4. Brian is Mr. Andrews if and only if Colin drove the BMW.
5. Mr. Cooper drove the Avenger if and only if Alan is Mr. Brown.
6. Colin is Mr. Brown if and only if Alan drove the Cortina.
Can you deduce the first and last names for each car's driver?
191. Mona and Allen went shopping for groceries. They spent half of what they had plus $2.00 at the butcher shop. At the dairy, they spent half of what was left, plus $5.00. At the bakery, they spent half of what was left. The remaining $5.00 was spent on coffee and cake. How much did they start with?
192. You have a huge box of beautiful decorated tiles, enough to provide a border in two rooms. You really can't figure out how to arrange them, however. If you set a border of two tiles all around, there's one left over; if you set three tiles all around, or four, or five, or six, there's still one tile left over. Finally; you try a block of seven tiles for each corner, and you come out even. What is the smallest number of tiles you could have to get this result?
193. Certain words have other complete words contained within them. For example, BEVERAGE has EVER embedded in it. Given here are ten pairs of definitions, the first definition of each pair referring to the included word, and the second definition referring to the longer word. How many can you decipher?
a. source & native inhabitants
b. corrosion & thwarted
c. reliable & not hastily
d. neat & marriage
e. health resort & media
f. uproar & country lovers
g. vindicate & cleanser
h. ring & revolt
i. stupid person & clergyman's robe
j. make certain & blame
194. The name of an American city is hidden in the sentence below. Can you find it? (The letters are in consecutive order.)
The bear protected himself by hiding his den very cleverly.
195. Can you figure out the phrase that represents what happens when a lecturer bores a group of Oxford University professors? (this is a palindrome.)
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