Here are 10 of my favourite puzzles. The answers are below – see how many you can solve and post your score below (be honest!). Good luck….
1) A rope ladder is hanging over the side of a ship, with the bottom rung just touching the water. The rungs are 25com apart. How many rungs will be under the water when the tide has risen 1 metre?
2) How many calendar months have 28 days?
3) If you are running in a marathon and you overtake the person in second position, what position are you in?
4) I have many keys but few locks. I have space but no room. You can enter, but you cannot come in. What am I?
5) You enter a dark house in the middle of the night. Inside is an oil lamp, a gas fire and a stove full of wood. You only have one match. What do you light first?
6) What gets wetter as it dries?
7) What is as light as a feather, but even the strongest man cannot hold it for more than a few minutes.
8) What sport begins with a ‘T’ and has 4 letters?
9) What occurs once in every minute, twice in every moment, yet never in a thousand years?
10) The maker does not need it, the buyer does not want to use it, and the user doesn’t see it. What is it?
And just before we get to the answers, here is a picture of my new book, 101 Bets You Will Always Win, which has lots more puzzles. Just thought I would mention it. Anyway, here are the answers….
ANSWERS
- None. The ship will rise with the tide!
- They all do.
- Second position.
- A keyboard.
- The match
- A towel
- His breath
- Golf
- The letter M
- A coffinAnd remember to post your score!
Richard Wiseman 
For #4 my computer keyboard has locks, for capitals and numbers.
It has few locks, not no locks.
4, 8, and 10 stumped me. My answer for 6 was “sponge”.
Same here, 4, 8 and 10. My answer for 6 was “Ice”
Brain ran out of steam after the first six. Should’ve had #9.
#4 is demonstrably wrong. What did I do the get this? – I THINK YOU NEED A BETTER QUESTION. 😉
You do realize that it says few locks right? few can be a little bit or 1. what is wrong with the question anyway? If you found this page, then you would have had to type it on a CPU, tablet, I-pad, and phone. digital or not.
I scored 7, I had heard some before. Also the golf one it begins with a ‘tee’ not a ‘T’.
🤔
I got 8. Missed #1 (duh!) and #8, which was a little iffy…
I scored 7. Did not find 6. 8 and 10.
I got 7 out of 10 (missed 6, 7 and 8), but i also argue no 7 could also be my answer – snow.
only if they aren’t wearing gloves and it’s freezing point.
7 out of ten, missed 4, 6 and 8. Great, doctor Wiseman!
I got all but #10, even though I’m sure that I’ve heard it, before.
#8 took me a minute.
9. Missed the coffin!
9. Got all but #6. (as previously noted per #4, however, many keyboards have locks…)
Got 5.
I scored 6/10. I could not solve 4, 6, 8, 10. Had fun though. 🙂
#5. if there’s a gas fire, it’s already lit. i’d use it to light wood from the stove, and then use the match to light the lamp.
A far better answer to the Question about the sport that begins with a T and has four letters is:
TENNIS
For we have the T at the beginning and then the four letters E, N, I and S. (Yes the N is repeated but that is allowed by the careful wording of the puzzles).
And thus we have a better improved answer that does not rely on the spelling of a verbal pun (T verses Tee) and so forth.
10/10
Although I’m sure I’ve heard at least 5 or 6 of them before. Maybe my memory isn’t as bad as I often think it is.
No. 10 took me a minute or two though.
I got all but #2. It’s odd the way I can’t stop my brain making assumptions.
I had heard a couple of them before mind.
9/10. I missed the coffin answer. But the coffin, not at all. 🙂
Only four! Doh!!
Martin
I think I got them all but thought of “grave” rather than “coffin”. I thought both “golf” and “tennis” are eligible for the sport, and couldn’t make up my mind which answer was wanted. And for “towel” I thought “absorbent things you use use to dry something else” because I thought sponges, chamois cloths, towels, mops, tissues, handy towels etc – all get wetter as they dry – as, indeed, does the air when it dries up a puddle… If you can think of lots of eligible answers do you have to settle on just one? They were all new to me it took me about 10-15 minutes to finish.
I got all 10, but I recognized all of them (in one form or other) from years of doing puzzles.
I am not good in this job… ı got 7 I could not solve 4, 6,10. Had fun though.Thaks ı lot to share this.. it was enjoying…
Thank you
http://www.biokama.com
8 out of 10. Alternative solution to #8: TRANsport (TRAN has 4 letters and begins with a T)
5/10 lol
q10 can be money
I got seven out of ten, missed 1, 4, and 6, but I have heard some of them before.
This was a lot of fun, but I didn’t get one, four, or six.