Brain teaser thread

[loinburger]

Wutang is not wicked, and Cheese is not beautiful.

[Combat Ingrid]

I think I got it: What does a man from Barcelona know?

[NeOmega]

nothing... doh.

[Immortal Wombat]

nothing

[loinburger]

Yup, nothing.

Ingrid's turn.

[Combat Ingrid]

I'm going to bed so I give you an easy one:

Two hunters leave their camp and are headed for bear hunting. They walk 10 km south, then 10 km east. They kill a bear. They walk 10 km north and get back to their camp, exactly where they left. Question is...what was the color of the bear?

[Immortal Wombat]

white

[NeOmega]

White, they were on the south pole.

[Combat Ingrid]

Your turn

[NeOmega]

Doh!

[Immortal Wombat]

There are an infinite number of places where their camp could be, but only one of them is in a region where bears live. The north pole.

The north pole has white bears

[Combat Ingrid]

Btw, how do you move south from the south pole?

[Immortal Wombat]

ok, this is a real b!tch of a question, and its been posted here before, but if anyone wants to explain how they got the answer () they are more than welcome.

A rope over the top of a fence has the same length on each side. It weighs one third of a pound per foot. On one end hangs a monkey holding a banana, and on the other end a weight equal to the weight of the monkey. The banana weighs two ounces per inch. The rope is as long (in feet) as the age of the monkey (in years), and the weight of the monkey (in ounces) is the same as the age of the monkey's mother. The combined ages of the monkey and its mother are thirty years. One half the weight of the monkey, plus the weight of the banana, is one fourth as much as the weight of the weight and the weight of the rope. The monkey's mother is half as old as the monkey will be when it is three times as old as its mother was when she was half as old as the monkey will be when it is as old as its mother will be when she is four times as old as the monkey was when it was twice as old as its mother was when she was one third as old as the monkey was when it was as old as its mother was when she was three times as old as the monkey was when it was one fourth was old as it is now.

How long is the banana?

[NeOmega]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Dude..... Why? I'm not wasting my time on that one.

Double doh.... I saw the new riddle was up, but also knew time was short, I panicked :P

[JohnM2433]

I know how to solve the dwarf problem for any number of dwarves, putting the ones with blue hats on the left and the ones with red hats on the right, even if they do not know how many there are of each hat.

One dwarf stands up against the wall. One by one, the remaining dwarves follow these rules:

1. If all the dwarves by the wall are wearing blue hats, go stand to their right.
2. If all the dwarves by the wall are wearing red hats, go stand to their left.
3. Otherwise, go stand between the dwarves by the wall wearing blue hats and the dwarves by the wall wearing red hats. (The dwarves already in line take this cue to move over, making room for more dwarves.)

It should be clear that no dwarf's actions will change the line's arrangement from the desired one, so when they are all done, it will still be in the desired arrangement. Even with the problem given as it was originally, it didn't even occur to me that they should count the hats; this was what I came up with. Of course, with either strategy, if your fellow dwarves aren't smart enough to figure out what to do, you're doomed. Luckily, you do know where you should go in line when the others are lined up correctly (the "middle", in the general case).


It's impossible to divide up land into five contiguous pieces that all touch each other. In fact, it's impossible to make a 2D map that requires five colors, if only adjacent countries require different colors (IIRC). I think a computer program was used to finally prove that theorem. Four pieces is trivial, unless they have to be the same shape as well as the same size.