A rich merchant had collected many gold coins. He did not want anybody to know about them. One day, his wife asked, “How many gold coins do we have?”
After pausing a moment, he replied, “Well! If I divide the coins into two unequal numbers, then 32 times the difference between the two numbers equals the difference between the squares of the two numbers.”
The wife looked puzzled. Can you help the merchant’s wife by finding out how many gold coins they have?
Riddle AnswerA medieval king needed to work out how he could recruit fighting men for the battle ahead. However, there were so many distractions around the castle, his thinking became confused. So in order to change his daze into knights, he asked for a secluded walk to be made so he could ponder in peace.
The head gardener was given the job of planting lines of high bushes. First, he planted a line running 100 paces east. Then from the end of that line he planted a line 100 paces north, then 100 west, 98 south, 98 east, 96 north, 96 west, and so on. This made a square spiral path 2 paces wide.
If the king intended to walk down the middle of the path, how long was the path?
Riddle AnswerSuppose that you have a triangle with 3 ants on different vertices (corners) of the triangle. What is the probability that either 2 of the ants or all of the ants collide if all 3 ants start walking on the sides of the triangle?
Riddle AnswerThe Mongolian Postal Service has a strict rule stating that items sent through the post must not be more than 1 meter long. Longer items must be sent by private carriers, and they are notorious for their expense, inefficiency, and high rate of loss of goods.
Boris was desperate to send his valuable and ancient flute safely through the post. Unfortunately, it was 1.4 meters long and could not be disassembled as it was one long hollow piece of ebony. Eventually he hit on a way to send it through the Mongolian Postal Service. What did Boris do?
Riddle AnswerAli and Zoe reach into a bag that they know contains nine lottery balls numbered 1 to 9. They each take one ball out to keep and they look at it secretly. Then, they make the following statements, in order:
Ali: I don’t know whose number is bigger.
Zoe: I don’t know whose number is bigger either.
Ali: I still don’t know whose number is bigger.
Zoe: Now I know that my number is bigger!
Assuming Ali and Zoe are perfect logicians, what is Zoe’s smallest possible number?
Riddle Answer