Jump to content
I Forge Iron

Riddles and Puzzles


jayco

Recommended Posts

Here's an old time 'thinking puzzle' that might be fun to work through.

I only know a couple, so feel free to post a possible answer .............or maybe you know of a different riddle or puzzle we can work on.

Fox,Goose,and Corn
A farmer had three items to take to town to sell. A fox, a goose, and a sack of corn. The only way to town was to cross an old rickety bridge.
Because the bridge was so rickety, he could only carry one thing at a time across the bridge. To further complicate matters,he could not leave the fox alone with the goose, for the fox would surely eat the goose if given a chance.Also, he can't leave the goose alone with the corn,because the goose would eat the corn! The fox will not eat the corn.
So can the farmer get all three items across the bridge?....Safe and sound?.........And if he can how does he do it?

Have fun!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

now there was a farmer with 17 horses in his will he left 1/9th of his horses to his third son, 1/3rd to his second son and 1/2 of his horses to his first son. And $1000 to the person who could sove the problem with out a remaining horse(s) or partial owner ship.

this was told to me by a 96 year old man (hint it was solved by an old blacksmith with a mule)

Link to comment
Share on other sites



Fox,Goose,and Corn
A farmer had three items to take to town to sell. A fox, a goose, and a sack of corn. The only way to town was to cross an old rickety bridge.
Because the bridge was so rickety, he could only carry one thing at a time across the bridge. To further complicate matters,he could not leave the fox alone with the goose, for the fox would surely eat the goose if given a chance.Also, he can't leave the goose alone with the corn,because the goose would eat the corn! The fox will not eat the corn.
So can the farmer get all three items across the bridge?....Safe and sound?.........And if he can how does he do it?

Have fun!


He takes the goose across first. Then takes over the corn. The fox follows, as he wants the goose!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Skunkriv, you got the 'Fox,goose, corn' riddle correctly.
( I never thought of the 'moonshine'!)

Keykeeper......your alternative answer certainly saves some steps! Never thought of that one either!

Habu 68......at my house 'pi r round-cobbler r sq.

The 17 horses riddle? I'm still working on that one! It's a tough one!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Habu 68.........the farmer probably figured it would be impossible to give each of his sons fractions of horses, so instead 'pretended' he had 18.......making the dividing much easier.

He gave the 3rd. son 2 horses(1/9 of 18)
He gave the 2nd. son 6 horses(1/3 of 18)
He gave the 1st. son 9 horses(1/2 of 18)

2 + 6 + 9 = 17 horses

And what about the 18th horse?
Well, there never was an 18th horse.....
It was just a 'pretend' horse!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The story goes that the old blacksmith offered to Loan the use of his mule, and placed him in the paddock. Once the calculations were made they no longer had need of the mule so the blacksmith collected his money and his mule and went back to his smithy. Still grinning.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

pun intended

Can you do it?
You have a cylindrical can of the sort that baked beans are sold in. You want to fill it exactly one quarter full of water but you have no measuring instrument and the can is not graduated in any way (though you can scratch it yourself if you wish).
How should you proceed

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure about this answer but it would be close enough to "exact" for me.

Fill can full.
Empty half of the water out by tilting the can to 45 deg.
Mark the half full mark
Eyeball and mark halfway between the bottom and the half full mark
Fill to that mark


very close
Link to comment
Share on other sites

a cylindrical can

Place a wire into the can, and mark on the wire the depth of the can. Remove the wire and and divide the depth distance into half, then half again, (1/4 depth). Place the wire into the can and fill to the 1/4 depth mark. It would be only as accurate as the volume of the wire, say a drop or so of water in error.

If wire is not allowed, use the paper label from the can.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure about this answer but it would be close enough to "exact" for me.

Fill can full.
Empty half of the water out by tilting the can to 45 deg.
Mark the half full mark
Eyeball and mark halfway between the bottom and the half full mark
Fill to that mark


Not necessarily 45
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jane Higgins was walking down the high street when she bumped into an old friend. "Hello, I haven't seen or heard from you since graduation back in 1982!" said Jane, "what's happened to you?"

"Well, I got married in 1989 to somebody you wouldn't know. This is our son", said the friend who was holding hands with a little boy.
"Hello and what's your name?" said Jane to the boy.
"It's the same as Daddy's".
"Ah so it's Peter is it?" said Jane

How did Jane know?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After emptying out half the water by tilting the can as Paragon described, stand the can vertical and pierce a small hole at the water level. Plug the hole with your finger and fill to above half full. Empty out the water to half-full as you did before, then remove your finger. As long as the hole is facing directly downwards, the can will drain to one quarter full.

Alternatively, since you have no measuring instruments, precision and accuracy are not that important and you might as well just guess. After all, how are you gonna be proven wrong? ;)

Oops! Too slow - and wrong to boot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Depending on how you ask the questions, you can force the answer you seek! Remember 43% of polls are wrong, the other 78% are made up! Don't jump to the answer, just scroll down. Take this test mentally, don't write down your answers, and don't shout them out.

1. Pick a number from 2 to 9. It can be 2 or it can be 9, or any number in between.
2. Take that number that you've chosen, and multiply it by 9.
3. That should give you a two digit number. Take those two digits and add them together.
4. Take the resulting number and subtract 5 from it.
5. Take that number and correspond it to the alphabet, numbering the letters. A =1, B=2, C=3, and so on...
6. Take your letter, and think of a country that begins with that letter.
7. Take the last letter in the name of that country, and think of an animal.
8. Now, take the last letter in the name of that animal, and think of a color.

After you get your answer check the next post

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...