Jack Goldstein - 101 More Amazing Brainteasers

101 More Amazing Brainteasters

Jack Goldstein

101 More Amazing Brainteasers

First published in 2016 by

Jack Goldstein Books

www.jackgoldsteinbooks.com

Digital edition converted and distributed by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

Copyright 2016 Jack Goldstein

The right of Jack Goldstein to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

All answers within this book are believed to be correct at the time of printing. If you find an alternative answer or believe anything within this book to be wrong, please contact the publisher who will be happy to adapt future versions of this book.

Introduction

This book is designed to be fun for all ages; sometimes the solution to a question might be easy for some and difficult for others, whereas other times a puzzle might stump everyone in the room! For some questions, theres a bit of a trick involved - although most just need you to think hard; with a bit of persistence the answer will eventually come to you. Many of the puzzles in this book have been adapted from those dating back thousands of years - it is interesting to think that you might be thinking about one in exactly the same way that someone from ancient Greece or Rome did! The most important thing though is to have fun; whether you can solve every puzzle in seconds or you have to look up the answer for every single one, as long as you enjoy the experience then thats all that matters. So get your thinking caps on and have fun...

Jack Goldstein

December 2016

Questions

What Is It? - Part 1

Each of these questions is a riddle; all you need to do is guess the common thing that is being referred to. Good luck!

1. I hold two people together but only touch one.
2. Im tall when Im young, but short when Im old.
3. I never ask questions yet Im usually answered.
4. The more of me there is, the less you see.
5. Im paid to shoot people and blow them up, yet I never cause any harm.
6. The thing I am has wheels and flies, yet I never leave the ground.
7. The one who made me doesnt want me; the one who bought me doesnt need me; the one who uses me doesnt even know Im there.
8. I run up and down the stairs without ever moving.
9. Im often broken without being touched.
10. I always go to bed with my shoes on.

Easy When You Know How

Think a while before you answer these. Often the solution is all to do with reading the question carefully...

1. The owner of a pet shop sold a parrot to a customer with the promise that it would repeat anything it heard. The customer tried and tried many different phrases to get the parrot to talk, but it wouldnt. He returned it to the pet shop, and although the owner gave him his money back, he proved that he hadnt lied. How?
2. My friend has no superpowers, but he can jump higher than a lamp post. How?
3. A young girl in the middle of an empty football pitch kicks a normal ball six metres away, and without using any tricks it comes straight back to her. How is this possible?
4. A man is trapped in a room with just two possible exits, each one a door. The first leads to a room with a fire-breathing dragon who never sleeps and who kills everyone who dares come even near the door. The second leads through a hallway made very cleverly out of magnifying glasses so that anyone who steps into it is instantly burned to death by the rays from the sun. How does the man escape?
5. What can travel around the world whilst staying in the same corner?
6. A rope ladder is hanging over the side of a boat. There are ten rungs on it, each one spaced 40cm apart. The tide is rising at 20cm per hour. How long will it be before the bottom three rungs are covered?
7. A sundial could be said to be the timepiece with the least number of moving parts. At the other end of the scale, what well-known timepiece has the most number of moving parts?
8. A girl who is learning to drive turns down a one-way street; she sees a line of cars driving towards her - yet no-one was breaking the Highway Code. How so?
9. A woman is relaxing in her hotel room. Theres a knock at the door which she answers. A man is standing there and says Oh, Im sorry, I thought this was my room and walks away. The woman called security because she immediately knew he was lying. How?
10. A famous highwayman was finally caught after many years of plundering. He was however such a folk antihero that although the judge sentenced him to death, he said that the man could choose the way he was to die. Which method did the highwayman ask for?

Read These Carefully

Things may not always be what they seem...

1. Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the tallest mountain on earth?
2. A woman standing at the top of a tall ladder drops a freshly-laid chickens egg onto a concrete floor, yet it doesnt crack. How did she do it?
3. In Switzerland, you cant take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not?
4. Sara needed to go to the local store to buy some ingredients. She started writing them down: milk, oranges, pepper, ketchup, baking soda, rum, cheese, iron filings and chopped liver. What was she making?
5. If you throw a red stone into the blue sea, what will it become?
6. Heres a very famous rhyme: As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Each wife had seven sacks; each sack had seven cats; each cat had seven kits; kits, cats, sacks and wives... how many were going to St. Ives?
7. Think of words ending in -gry. Angry and hungry are two of them. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word?
8. Railroad Crossing: Care Required. How do you spell that without any Rs?
9. A man goes eight days without sleeping and yet shows no ill effects. How did he do this?
10. At a conference, a scientist announces that he has just created an amazing invention that lets anyone see straight through a wall. Amazingly, another scientist stands up and declares that most people he knows already have one. How so?

Sequences

Can you spot patterns? Here are some letter and number sequences to test you.

1. Lets start with this. Which number comes next: 7, 8, 5, 5, 3, 4, 4...?
2. This mystical sequence shouldnt be too hard to predict: A, T, G, C, L, V, L, S...?
3. Heres a tricky celebratory sequence for you to figure out: H,B, T, Y, H, B, T, Y, H, B...?
4. How about this one: R, O, Y, G, B, I...?
5. Another puzzle that could take months: A, A, D, F, J, J, J, M, M...?
6. You should be getting the hang of this now; what comes next: 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 5, 7...?
7. Hows this: A, K, Q, J, T, N, E...?
8. A very tricky numbers-related sequence now: 3, 7, 10, 11, 12, 17...?
9. More numbers: 2, 2, 4, 12, 48, 240...?
10. And finally: 11, 14, 9, 12, 5, 20...?

Letter & Word Puzzles

Here are some puzzles about words and letters.

1. This question could also have been placed in the previous sequences section. What comes next in this list: B, C, D, E, G...?
2. Re-arrange the following letters so they spell just one word: O O E W S T D N U J R
3. Which word is pronounced differently when written in capital letters?
4. Calmness, first, hymnody, sighing, stuck and unopened ... What do those words all have in common?