Today's Daily Brain Teaser 2/01/09

Can you tell what word goes in front of all of these words?

river
belly
stone
pages
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/31/09

A "Tom Swifty" is a pun based on Tom's extraordinary expressiveness: "Hand me the eggbeater," said Tom stirringly. A "Tom Swifty" punning sentence is encoded below. All the vowels, including Y, have been removed, and the letters broken into groups of three. Reconstitute the sentence.
THR SNW TRS DTM DRL.
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/30/09

We asked the stationmaster how long the train would be in the station. He answered,"222222." We also asked about the train on the next track and he answered, "2222222." What did he mean?
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/29/09

Even though the Walt Disney Company now owns TV networks, film companies, record labels, sports franchises, music publishing, theme parks, and two or three of the major planets, it's impor­tant to remember-as Walt himself always said-"It all started with a mouse." Following are ten points of Disneyana. True or false:
1. Steamboat Willie was the first Mickey Mouse Cartoon.
2. Mel Blanc-the vocal genius behind Warner Bros.' Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck-has his voice in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
3. The animated Fantasia ran into censorship problems over nudity.
4. Walt Disney could never draw Mickey Mouse.
5. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs literally scared children incontinent when it was released in
1937.
6. During World War II, Mickey Mouse starred in an army training film about VD.
7. After Walt died in 1966, they discovered a film he had made in advance. It was designed to be shown to his chief executives in the company screening room after he was gone. The men entered and sat in their assigned seats. Walt then spoke to each of them individually from the screen, staring right at them, and told them how they were to run the company over the next five years.
8. Secret messages are hidden in Disney animated features.
9. Real-life people sometimes make guest appearances in animated features.
10. Walt Disney, who died in 1966, is frozen.
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/28/09

2 CRYPTOGRAMS
1. INPGLO NR YPUNROBFPGMK, VLG MUYYNEORR NR UVFIO YPUNRO.
-UPNRGFGZO

2. QZ XQG QFV LYB GOZ ZOZJK VQFWW JZZB QMJ ZUZPKXQZPZ.
-GJFP SQFKKFJ
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/27/09

Find two ten-digit numbers, each containing the digits from 0 to 9 once and once only, with the property that successive pairs of digits, from left to right, are divisible in turn by 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, and 10.
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/26/09

Take the number of states before Alaska and Hawaii were added. Double that and add the number of "winds." Then subtract the number of Ali Baba's thieves, not counting Ali Baba. Divide by the number of days in May minus 1. Cube the result. What do you get?
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/25/09

A girl has as many sisters as she has brothers. But each brothers has twice as many sisters as brothers. How many brothers and sisters in the family?
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/24/09

You have three Q-Tips. You clean your ear with one, and you see that your earwax has covered 78% of the cotton tip on one side and 15% of the 78% on the other side of that same Q-Tip. When you clean your other ear you see that 154% of the 15% on the other one has covered this Q-Tip and 67% of that Q-Tip is covered. Which Q-Tip is the cleanest?
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/23/09

1. "We eat what we can, and we can what we can't."
Can you explain who could make this statement?

2. What are the missing numbers?
31, 62, __, 25, 56, __ ,19

3. Which is better: One raise per year of $2000 or a raise of $500 every six months for an indefinite time?
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/22/09

A burglar broke into a house, intending to steal from it. While still in the house, he called the police. Why?
CLUES
Q: Did he call a co-conspirator on the police force?
A: No.
Q: Before breaking in, had he intended to call the police?
A: No.
Q: Was he arrested?
A: Yes.
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/21/09

Three men took part in a robbery of the post office, and they were arrested later while abandoning the stolen car they used.
They had worn face masks, but witnesses had noted some useful details, such as height and hair color, as well as the names they called each other and the part each one played in the holdup. The details were sketchy, but good enough for the detective in charge of the case to piece together a rough description of each one: name, height, hair color, and which one was the driver, the lookout and the gunman. Can you do the same?
Here is what the witnesses said:
1. The gunman was shorter than the lookout.
2. The one called Jim was shorter than the driver.
3. Jim was taller than the redheaded man.
4. Mush was taller than the dark-haired man.
5. Tim was shorter than the blond.
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/20/09

In the paragraph below, each blank must be filled by a five-letter word, and the words are all anagrams of each other (the words all contain the same five letters, in different order). Can you fill in the blanks?

Quaint _____ this hotel supplies,
That don't appear upon the bill.
I speak of roaches, _____, and flies.
You _____ and slap. They're with you still.
At _____ each guest _____ pained screams
That ought to plague the owner's dreams.
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/19/09

Timothy and two friends are digging identical holes in a field.
When Timothy works with Urban, they dig 1 hole in 4 days. When Timothy works with Vincent, they dig 1 hole in 3 days. When Urban works with Vincent, they dig 1 hole in 2 days. When Timothy works alone, how long does it take him to dig 1 hole?
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/18/09

Alexa likes strawberries, blueberries, and apples. She put bananas, apples, oranges, cherries, and blueberries into a basket. There are 36 fruits in the basket total. There are 7 bananas, 4 apples, 11 oranges, 8 cherries, and the rest blueberries. What is Alexa's chance of picking out a fruit that she likes?
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/17/09

The Order of the Garter, a prestigious award for English knights, was founded this day in 1349. (It's the day of Saint George, patron saint of England and fabled dragon slayer.) See if you deserve an award by unscrambling the following thirteen letters into a common English word.
ATCSDRIEINONO
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/16/09

A perplexing problem is how to get yourself, a fox, a chicken, and a bag of grain across a river. Your boat is only large enough to carry you and one of the others at any one crossing. Yet, if you leave the fox alone with the chicken he will devour it. And should you leave the chicken alone with the grain you would inevitably have to take both at once since the one would be inside the other. How can they all be taken safely across without any unwanted lunch stops during the process?
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/15/09

1. What is the only type of war you can spell with roman numerals?

2. In Roman numerals, five is V and eleven is XI. What is the numeral for nineteen?

3. Put the characters C - D - M - L - X in the right order from least to greatest - but not alphabetically.
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/14/09

1. What is the value of one-half of two-thirds of three-quarters of four-fifths of five-sixths of six-sevenths of seven-eighths of eight-ninths of nine-tenths of 30?

2. Unscramble the below 4 words. 
D L O G
C H A L E
E X I R I L
C U T L E T E

3. Which gives the largest result: multiplying together all the numbers from 1 to 10 or all the even numbers from 1 to 16?
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/13/09

1. 20 = Y that RVW S

2. 3 = P C in the C W

3. 63 = S & S on the A F
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/12/09

1. There are many English words to which you can add one s to make plural nouns. There are very few that become singular again if you add another s. Can you name two?

2. Four of the words below have one significant feature in common which distinguishes them from the fifth word. Which is the odd man out?
REACT TRACE CATER SCARE CARTE
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/11/09

What king can you make if you take
the head of a lamb
the middle of a pig
the hind of a buffalo
and the tail of a dragon?
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/10/09

Between noon and midnight, but not counting these times, how often will the minute hand and hour hand of a clock overlap?
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/9/09

A computer buff called Hacker owns several computers. All but two of them are Apples, all but two of them are Commodores and all but two of them are IBMs. 
How many computers does our friend Hacker own?
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/8/09

Raymond, a business executive in a large company, needed a department head. After placing a classified ad, he reviewed the responses sent on to him from the personnel department. When a colleague mentioned a potentially suitable friend of hers who was looking for work, Raymond tracked him down, interviewed him, checked references, and hired him. Then he complained vigorously to the personnel department. Why?
CLUES
Q: Had the friend seen the advertisement?
A: Yes.
Q: Had the friend followed its instructions and applied for the position?
A: Yes.
Q: Did the personnel department exactly follow the instruc­tions that Raymond had given?
A: Yes.
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/7/09

If Boston is east of New York, cross out all the A's. If not, cross out the R's. If Paris is south of New York, cross out all the 0's. If not, cross out the I's. If Sri Lanka is in Asia, cross out the B's and U's. If not, cross out the C's. The remaining letters will tell you whether you've found the right answer.
CAAOIIABURRIAUEIBBCIAUT
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/6/09

A criminal is sentenced to death. Before his execution, he is allowed to make a statement. If his statement is false, he will be hanged, and if his statement is true, he will be drowned. What should he say to confuse the jury and thus save his life?
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/5/09

1. How is it possible for two fathers and two sons to divide 21 one-dollar bills evenly among themselves, with each receiving an equal number of bills?

2. You have fifty coins totaling $1.00. You drop one down an open drain while tossing the coins in your hand. What is the chance that you have lost a quarter?
Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser 1/3/09

What does this mean?



Solution

Today's Daily Brain Teaser

The following coiled sentence contains an idea that every motorist agrees with. Start at the right spot and move, letter by letter, in any direction to find the sentence.

VEOET
EUYLP
RYSLA
HTROM
INAAD
GEXRT
ECOEI
POTFD
THWOL
Solution