1260 Challenging Brain Teasers Page 7 of 84
Brain teasers to get those brain cells working. There are many types to work on, can you solve most of them
91. A man went into a bank with exactly $1000, all in dollar bills. He gave the money to a cashier and said, "Put this money into ten bags in such a way that if I call and ask for a certain number of dollars, you can hand me one or more bags, giving me the exact amount called for, without having to open any of the bags." How was the cashier able to do this?
92. If Brazil is east of New York, cross out all the W's and X's. If not, cross out all the A's. If Henry VIII lived in the same century as Columbus, cross out all the Y's. If not, cross out the M's and N's. If Golden Gate Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the world, cross out all the S's and E's. If not, cross out all the I's and Z's. What word do you have left?
M X Y E Z W N X Y Z S I I X Y A Z W X I
93. When the following words are unscrambled, which is the odd man out?
THRONE GREAT FOWL BRAZE
94. An officer wishing to arrange his men in a solid square found by his first arrangement that he had 39 men left over. He then started increasing the number of men on a side by one, but found that 50 additional men would be needed to complete the new square. How many men did the officer have?
95. All the vowels have been removed from a popular proverb and the remaining letters broken up into groups of four (with three nulls, the X's). Replace the vowels to read the proverb.
LLTH TGLT TRSS NTGL DXXX
96. What is the four digit number in which the first digit is the regulation number of players on a basketball team, the second and third digits are the product of three times the first digit, and the last digit is the sum of the second and third digits.
97. A glass is one-third full of wine. Another glass, with equal capacity, is only one-quarter full of wine. Each glass is then filled to the brim with water, and the contents of both glasses are poured into a jug. Half of the mixture is now poured into one of the glasses. What proportion of the wine and what proportion of the water are now in the glass?
98. You're down to your last few dollars; so you decide to break into your household piggy bank. You manage to extract quite a few coins, for a total of $16. To your surprise, you have exactly the same number of half dollars, quarters, and nickels. How many of each coin do you have?
99. Reduce the high-flown language below to a common saying:
It is possible to make a choice of the persons with whom one wishes to associate socially, but that option is not available in the case of consanguineous individuals.
100. Kevin treated his girlfriend to a bus ride, but because of his limited resources they had to walk back. Now, if the bus goes at an average speed of 9 miles per hour and they can walk back at the rate of three miles per hour, how far did they ride so that they made it back in eight hours?
101. If Susan is 10, Arabella is 20, and Jim and Neal are both 5, but Richard is 10, how much is Jennifer by the same system?
102. What two words, formed from different arrangements of the same nine letters, will complete the sentence below?
There are several _____________to looking __________in order to draw conclusions about the future.
103. It's common knowledge that food can be presented in a variety of different ways. For example, PARSLEY can have its letters re-arranged so that it is presented as PLAYERS; and BROTHS can be presented as THROBS. Listed below are a dozen types of foods, presented in a variety of ways. Can you untangle the letters and arrive back at the foods we started with?
a. trance b. unpaste c. unstrip d. scuttle e. chariot f. orblets g. assuage
h. aridness i. harmonicas j. segregates k. mentioners l. solemn
104. The office team is out racing at the skating rink during a long lunch hour. Samantha beat Jim. Louise was not last. Dennis was beaten by Jack and Louise, in that order. Jim was not first. Jack lost to Jim. Who won?
105. A census taker asked a housewife how many people lived in her house and what their ages were. The woman told him that three daughters lived in the house, that the product of their ages was 36, and that the sum of their ages was the number of the house next door. The census taker went next door and looked at the number on the door. When he came back, he told the housewife that the information she had given was insufficient, whereupon she replied, "My oldest daughter is sleeping upstairs." The census taker thanked her and promptly figured out the daughters' ages. What were they and how did he know?
