A king has 1000 bottles of wine and one has been poisoned. Even a sip of the poisoned wine is enough to kill a person.
The king asks the royal jailor to identify the poisoned wine bottle by testing them on the prisoners.
It takes up to 24 hours for the poison to take effect. There are unlimited number of prisoners at the jailer’s disposal. What is the minimum number of prisoners the jailer needs to identify the poisoned wine bottle in 24 hours?
Riddle AnswerYou have two ropes. Each rope can burn in exactly one hour. The ropes are not of the same length or width. Both ropes are also not of uniform width or thickness. The ropes are thick at certain places and thin at other places. Thus, a rope that is half burnt will not necessarily have taken 30 minutes to burn.
By burning the ropes, how do you measure exactly 15 minutes worth of time?
Riddle AnswerFour people need to cross a rickety rope bridge to get back to their camp at night. Unfortunately, they only have one flashlight and it only has enough light left for seventeen minutes. The bridge is too dangerous to cross without a flashlight, and it’s only strong enough to support two people at any given time. Each of the campers walks at a different speed. One can cross the bridge in 1 minute, another in 2 minutes, the third in 5 minutes, and the fourth takes 10 minutes to cross.
How do the campers cross the bridge in 17 minutes?
Riddle AnswerYou have two jugs. One holds exactly 3 gallons and the other 5 gallons of water. You have unlimited supply of water. How do you fill 4 gallons of water into the five-gallon jug?
Riddle Answer