Do you like puzzles and riddles? I like quizzes - especially of the pub variety, as you know. Every now and then, I also like to solve a riddle or puzzle coming my way, without ever actively looking for them. For instance, I'm not someone who buys books full of them, and I nearly always skip the puzzle page in my weekly paper's magazine.
Yesterday, my Mum had two riddles for me which she found in an Advent calendar that was a gift from one of her reading volunteers.
The riddles are fun and easy enough, and when later in the evening, RJ gave me a mental puzzle to solve, I had more fun and thought, why not share these three questions with you and see what answers you come up with.
1. Which word is always spelled wrongly?
2. Which birds hatch from eggs but never lay any eggs themselves?
3. Imagine three boxes of fruit. One contains only oranges, the second only apples, and the third both apples and oranges. You can't see the fruit, as the boxes are closed.
All three boxes are labelled ("Oranges", "Apples", "Apples and Oranges"). But none of the labels is on the correct box.
You have to label the boxes correctly, but you are allowed to lift the lid and take out ONE fruit of ONE box only (without looking at the contents of the entire box).
How do you go about it?
(I told you, they are all easy. I answered the first two instantly, and took about 20 seconds to figure out the last one.)
Post your answers in your comments - but in order to not spoil the fun for yourself, don't read what others have commented before you :-) (A bit like with Yorkshire Pudding's pub quiz post the other day.) Have fun!
Addendum: The solution to # 3 can be found in a comment to this post.
I feel kind of dumb! I've only figured out #2. lol!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of an advent calendar that has riddles inside, though!
Now I feel better...I kept thinking,"Wrongly... shouldn't the word be,"incorrectly"? Haha. I guess it was too obvious!
DeleteIndeed, Jennifer, sometimes the answers are too obvious for us to believe them to be correct :-)
DeleteWrongly
ReplyDeleteRoosters
Will have to think about number 3 when I have more time. Off to babysit for Stephen just now!
I love trivia and watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy nearly every night.
Two points for you, Kristi!
DeleteI got the first two easily. As for no. 3, I would get someone else to open the boxes. After all, I'm the only one restricted to opening just one box....or is that cheating?
ReplyDeleteYour no. 3 is certainly a creative solution, but not quite the intention ;-)
DeleteI got the first two without a problem but that last one, I don't know, I might be able to figure it out in 20 YEARS! HA HA!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you'll get the last one quickly, too, as soon as you really apply your mind to it :-)
DeleteGot the third one now, but it's 7pm and I feel more like taking a nap than thinking about boxes of oranges and/or apples. But fun.
ReplyDeleteIf I took a nap at 7 pm I'd be up all night after that! But I imagine babysitting Stephen was exhausting - although a lot of fun, undoubtedly.
DeleteFirst question - WRONGLY is always spelled wrongly!
ReplyDeleteSecond question - Male birds do not lay eggs!
Third question - Apples and oranges have distinctive smells. I would separate the three boxes and then sniff at them. With my fine sense of smell I would soon be able to tell which was which. Of course the mixed box would have a mixed smell.
Another very creative approach to the third question, and of course you got the first two right.
DeleteI am hopeless at puzzles. I could only get the first one. Sorry!!!
ReplyDeleteOne out of three is better than none out of three, Jenny :-)
DeleteHere is the solution to No. 3:
ReplyDeleteLet's call the three boxes A (for apples), O (oranges) and AO (mixed).
Remember: they are all wrongly labelled. Therefore, label A can be on either box O or AO. Label O can be on box A or AO. Label AO can be on box A or O.
Take one fruit out of the box labelled AO.
If it's an apple, you know you have found box A. If it's an orange, you know you have found box O. You know it can NOT be box AO, because the label says "AO", and all labels are on the wrong boxes.
Let's assume you found box A. Peel off the "AO" label and replace it with the correct label, label A.
Now you have one unlabelled box (the one that had label A before), one correctly labelled box (A) and one that still has the wrong label (O). And you have one label (AO) not attached to any box at the moment, because you've just taken it off box A.
All remains now is to put label O on the unlabelled box and the AO label on the box that formerly had the (wrong) label O.
Easy, wasn't it? As I said, it took me less than half a minute to figure it out when RJ asked me that question on the phone the other night.
Got the first two right away, but got stuck somewhere halfways in the reasoning with the third. So I cheated and read your solution :) I might have got there if I'd left it for a while, I think.
ReplyDeleteI had a book of riddles in my childhood that had belonged to my dad. I'm not sure what happened to it... I know it was torn and tattered and barely kept together even then. - She said, and then had an idea and went to look in a special place, and found it. Maybe I can use it for a blog post of my own! :)
Sounds intriguing! Please do post a few riddles for us - it's such fun to try and solve them :-)
DeleteJust did, Meike :)
DeleteYou know, I really like small easy kind of puzzles but if it is something along the lines of a LOGIC problems, my brain simply turns off, I guess. I MIGHT have worked out the apples/oranges puzzle if FORCED to, but my brain just tells me, oh for Pete's sake, just open the dang box and find out what is inside!! I am terrible, I know! :-)
ReplyDeleteI don't call that terrible, Kay - just practical :-)
DeleteI have to be in the mood for logical puzzles, and I happened to be in the right mind set when RJ asked me that question. It was fun working it out, and so I thought I'd share it here with you.
'Wrongly' and male birds straight away but the third one is still defeating me after about five minutes. I'd have to give some serious thought to it and at the moment Christmas cakes are taking precedence over serious thought. I'm going to look seriously silly if everyone else found it easy.
ReplyDeleteAs for puzzles in general I do crosswords all the time but generally speaking avoid any other puzzles or things like quizzes. I have a reasonable general knowledge but fire a question at me and my mind freezes: it just doesn't work like that.
Now I've read the comments I see I'm not alone. As for your explanation I suspect given a lot of time (and the inclination) I'd have got there. However I prefer Kay's solution!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting, isn't it, how we CAN make our minds work if we want to, but how there are different kinds of riddles/puzzles/questions etc. that appeal to different types of minds.
DeleteAt this time of year, I am not surprised to read that Christmas cakes have precedence over serious thought :-)
I have today off and will be visiting what is known as a very picturesque Christmas market in a town about 1 hour's drive from here with two friends from Librarian school.
Good riddles and as with most riddles, the simplest answer is the one we look for last. This is my favourite:
ReplyDeleteTwice three of us are ten of us, and six but three
Eight of us are five of us, what can we be?
If this is not enough, I’ll tell you more
Eleven of us are six and five but four
I looked at yours last night, and thought I can't come up with a solution because it was late and I was tired. But this morning, I still can't come up with the answer.
DeleteMeike, I know the solution...but only because I typed it into a search engine and found it! I told you I am terrible! :-) And I would never have figured it out, not ever!
ReplyDeletePlease tell me, Kay! It doesn't look as if Shooting Parrots will come back and reply, and I can't NOT know the answer now that the riddle has been asked here :-)
Delete