C'mon!! Someone post! I must solve a riddle, because I have heard a few good ones for you all to go crazy over!

Haha, I remembered it was silver from somebody telling it to me a while ago, but I wanted a back-up, so you weren't like, what was your resoning?

Here's mine: Pretty easy in my opinion..

I'm a thing of letters four with close ties to snow.
Just half of my first my third letter will show.
One fifth of my fourth my first you may call.
Of my second 'tis best to say nothing at all.

What am I?

Is it rain?

Because rain is four letters and closely tied to snow....
If you cut the "r" in half horizontally, it looks like the third letter "i"
And one fifth of the "n" looks like the first letter "r"
And I'm not sure about the last line, haha.

I hope its right...

Anjali

Nope, ronozzy_82, that's not right! Nice guess though! Think on different terms..

Note: Mods, I wasn't going to post this because I knew it was too short, but I felt bad as they posted that guess a while ago..

Think in different terms, huh?

Well, since one of the clues is that one letter is one fifth of the other, it makes sense that we're actually talking about roman numerals.

It helps to narrow it down a bit once we realize that roman numerals, when translated into the arabic numerals we use, either begin with a one or a five. So if the third letter is half of the first, and we can't divide a number that starts with five by two and get a number that begins with a one or a five, it makes sense that the first number starts with 1. This means that the third number starts with a 5. This also means, since the fourth number is five times the first that the fourth number starts with a five.

Now, there are only four letters used to denote numbers that begin with 1: I = 1, X = 10, C = 100, and M = 1000. Also, there are only three letters used to denote numbers that begin with 5: V = 5, L = 50, and D = 500. Since half of one is not a roman numeral and five times 1000 is also not a roman numeral, that means the first letter can either be X or C.

This means that the word is one of the following:

X_VL
C_LD

Since COLD has something to do with the snow, I'll go with COLD--final answer.

(I neglected the second letter in my reasoning since roman numerals don't have a way of expressing 0 to my knowledge, but O does work just fine in this case.)

Ahh, the wise Albus-wan has returned! With the wonderful deduction skills and all! What a great mind....

Anyway, now that I look back at the riddle from the numeric point of view, the last clue of the riddle makes complete sense:

Of my second 'tis best to say nothing at all.

Nothing: Zero: 0, the number: O, the letter
Different numerals (Roman and Arabic), yes, but sticking to the same theme of numbers.

Great riddle Peyton! Now we just need confirmation of Albus-wan's answer....




_daviD

Yep, that;'s totally right.
Glad I picked a good one for once.
You're up, Albus-wan.

All right, let's go with this one.

A plane crashed. Every single person on the plane died but two people survived. How is this possible?

I don't expect that it will take long for people to get this one, but I won't be able to confirm for about 12 hours.

They were married, the single people died...kind of like that one about a plane crashing on the US, Mexican border, where do they bury the survivors

Great job, crsdba. I knew it wouldn't take very long to get this one, but it's sometimes nice to increase your repertoire of riddles (not all the riddles on here can just be told--some you actually have to write down).

Anyways, you're up Chris.

Here goes, another not-so-hard one

I have many feathers to help me fly. I have a body and head, but I'm not alive. It is your strength which determines how far I go. You can hold me in your hand, but I'm never thrown. What am I

Good luck

Hmm...I actually haven't seen this one before (which is getting rare for this type of riddle), and the answer isn't immediately apparent to me.

My first thought is a fan, but only because I made a fan that was supposed to resemble a traditional Native American fan, and I'm sure this can't be right since fans are almost never made out of feathers normally (to my knowledge anyways). I also can't think of how that would have a body or head.

My second thought is a dandelion, though that obviously goes against the clue which says it is not alive. Of course it does die once you pick it, it has many feather-like parts, It has a head and a body, and you don't throw it--you blow it.

I'm guessing neither of these is correct though, so I'll keep thinking.

Hmm...quite difficult. I'm going to say a story: it has feathers, or details, that determine what it is and how far it goes. It has a body and a head (title) but you wont throw your story, otherwise it will never be published and you will grow old with only 27 cats to keep you company.

Ah, I think I know it. Is it an awrrow, because arrows usually have feathers, no? The body would be the stick, and the head the pointy part. It's not alive. And it's up to the shooter how far it goes. It can be held in a hand, but you don't throw it, you shoot it using the bow.
?

It looks like Peyton beat me to it. I just wrote a post guessing arrow, so if crsdba says it's right, it will be Peyton's turn again.

The only strike agains the arrow guess is that it can be thrown, and you might even say that the bow actually throws the arrow, but all in all it seems to fit quite well.

Yep, its an arrow. Sorry Albus-Wan, Peyton beat you to it. Did I give too much away?

I guess someone could throw an arrow but it won't do much good, spears are probably better for throwing.

hi. i just came across this topic. cool. anyway, i was going to say a pillow, but they don't have heads or tails, and they can be thrown. so nevermind. i am not very good at riddles but i like to try and guess. \

P.S. i probably never would have guessed and arrow. lol

Okay here's mine.
Hard? Easy? I don't know. I guess it depends on you.

What are the last three letters in this series?
S, L, S, A, P, A, L, B, L, H, M, R, T, M, M, M, M, L, S, ?, ?, ?

Even though I've heard this one before (it was done in the archived version of this thread), I'm going to step in and answer this one because it's nearly impossible unless you have a lot of hints.

The last three letters should be B, A, S which stand for Barcelona, Atlanta, and Sydney, which are the last three host cities of the Olympics in the 20th century.

Yeah, that's right. Sorry, I haven't read the archived version of the Riddles thread, so I didn't know. But, that mean you're up!

All right, let's see if I can adapt one.

James died 104 years after John was born. The sum of James's and John's ages when they died is 79 years. John died in 1805. Is it possible to figure out when John was born? If not, why not? If so, what year was John born?

Good luck.

Okay, I think I have this one..probably not though..okay..

John 1804-1805 +1 year
James 1830-1908 +78 years

I think I might have misinterperted the question though.
-kelly

I'm not sure but personally, I don't think it can be solved. I'm taking hazard at a guess that because we don't have any idea James was born, so there could be many answers that could work, such as Hermione 14's:
John 1804-1805 +1 year
James 1830-1908 +78 years

or many others such as
John 1790-1805 +15
James 1850-1894 +64

I think..

Not sure if this is right, but I did a search on political US figures who died in 1805 whos names were John and it came up with John Hobart (born in 1738), and John Hanna (born in 1762).

Add 104 to the years they were born and you get either 1842 or 1866...making James either 36 or 12 when he died. Keeping the theme of political figures, I tried finding a person named James who had died in 1866 (because 12 is too young to be a politcian) but I couldn't find anyone I guess my unofficial answer (since it doesn't seem absolute) would be 1762 when John Hanna was born...unless I misinterpreted the riddle, and assuming it was a political figure...though it could also be 1738 and he had a descendant who died at a young age...

You know what? I'm not sure what to do here. I made a mistake when I posted the riddle, but there's still an answer. The answer to the riddle as I originally posted it is no. It's not possible to figure out when John was born. I've edited the question and will accept the first correct answer to the question as I originally intended it. *ducks head* Very sorry.

Here it is as I originally intended it:

James died 104 years after John was born. The sum of James's and John's ages when they died is 79 years. John died in 1805. Is it possible to figure out when James was born? If not, why not? If so, what year was James born?


Please don't throw anything at me. I really am very sorry.

*holds burning torch which he was going to throw* Im joking...hehehehehehe its ok. I think we all got the point of what the riddle was asking without the additional information So who's up?

I think it would be Peyton...ah jeez...I feel like an idiot after actually going to a "politicians graveyard" website and looking up that info...I saw a similar one like it where it was King Tut and someone else. They knew when Tut was born so they went from there, which is what I was trying to do with John...or James...

Actually, there is a correct answer to the riddle as I originally intended it, so the riddle is still open. The year of John's birth is unanswerable, but James's birth can be answered.

Since Peyton did give the correct answer to my bad riddle, she can take the next turn if she wants it and I'll reserve this riddle for later, otherwise the turn will go to whomever can tell me the year of James's birth.

Is it 1830 when James was born? John died in 1805, the same year he was born...thats why you can't find the correct date...and maybe why you emphasized year...I dunno...

Add 104 to 1805 and you get 1909, subtract 79, you get 1830, unless my math is off...thats what calc does to someone...you're too focused on crazy equations and principles that you forget how to add

Nah, calculus doesn't mess you up--it makes things clearer. I've long thought they should teach calculus freshman year of high school.

Anyways, 1830 is the correct year James was born so you have the right answer. The way you arrived at your solution is only a special case of all possible methods of solving this one--but the answer is unique.

John could have been born as early as 1726 and as late as 1805, so James could have died as early as 1830 and as late as 1909. If we let X be the year John was born and Y be the year James died, then it's given that Y - X = 104. Now if Z is the year James was born, we know that

(1805 - X) + (Y - Z) = 79

Rearranging this a little we get

1805 + (Y - X) - Z = 79

Since we know Y - X, we can substitute that back in and get

1805 + 104 - Z = 79

Solving for Z we get

Z = 1805 + 104 - 79 = 1830

Which we got knowing neither the year John was born nor the year James died.

Anyways, sorry for the algebra lesson. Chris, you got the right answer so it's your turn.

...think of Homer Simpson when I say "I completely understand" I just used what we were given, or else it could have been any date that fits the riddle...right?

here goes:

Think of words ending in -GRY. Angry and hungry are two of them. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses every day. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is.

It's entirely possible that I'm the only one who has read all the riddles that have been given in this thread and the previous one.

Anyways, since this riddle has been posed by no fewer than three people in the previous Riddles thread (myself, Feeder, and felix in chronological order) I'll let someone else answer this one. It's a great riddle though--one of my favorites.

Please don't feel bad--I've started to realize there are only a finite number of great riddles out there, so we're bound to see the good ones repeat a few times.

I've read that before...somewhere. Okay I think that there's no other -gry word in the english language that fits. You have to read between the lines. Is it "the english language" we use it every day and it is mentioned above.

Okay...I have to go to school now (7:09am)

Yep, I agree with Anglophile92, wouldn't the word be 'language' because it's got too much information so it's a play on words. We assume that you're asking for the 3rd word ending -GRY but the word that we use every day is language because the riddle asks "There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word?" becuase language is the thrid word in the phrase the english language

Anglophile92 got it right, I just wanted to put in my 2 cents, if you can call it that. :]

Yea, Anglophile got it. I knew it wouldn't be that hard

There are some words other than hungry and angry that end in gry, but we don't use them everyday...just thought I'd throw that out there...

Oh Okies! Well here is the next riddle. I hope it's not too easy.

Elmer Johnson went to the hardware store to make a purchase for his house. He asked the store clerk, "How much will one cost?" The clerk thought for a moment and said, "Three dollars." Elmer Johnson, who looked a little puzzled said, "Well then, how much will twelve cost?" "Six dollars," replied the clerk. Elmer Johnson scratched his head and said, "If I were to purchase two hundred, how much would that cost?"
"That," said the clerk, "will cost you nine dollars."
What was Elmer Johnson buying?

hmmm...what could it be???

hmmmm... I thought for a while and the only thing I could come up with is house numbers, like for adresses??

I guess that would make sense WhiteKnight...at first I was thinking there were six numbers 112200 (one, twelve, and two hundred put together for an address) but I never heard of an address with six numbers. Then I thought that its three different numbers he's asking for, those being 0,1,2 each costing three dollars...

maybe the extra zero was to throw us off...I dunno...

Well done WhiteKnight! It was fairly easy i guess... Okay you're up next! Yay today is Friday!!!

YAY! I love fridays Ok this is the one that my brother recently told me (I can't decide which one to go with). It isn't too hard, but I just really like it, it's interesting. Maybe I'll have another chance to give a better one later.


Three men go into a hotel and tell the clerk that they need a room for the night.

The clerk tells them that the room will cost thirty dollars.

Each man pays the clerk ten dollars.

The men take the elevator up to their room.

The clerk suddenly realizes that the hotel was running a special that night, and all rooms should cost only twenty-five dollars per night.

The clerk calls for the bellhop* and explains to him that he has over-charged the three gentlemen for their room.......and he gives the bellhop five dollars and tells him to give the money to the gentlemen and explain that they were accidently over-charged for the room.

The bellhop goes to take the money to the three gentlemen and while he is riding up in the elevator he wonders, just how he can give back five dollars "equally" to each of the three men?

The bellhop was not very good at math so he simply pocketed two dollars and gave the three men back, one dollar, each.

Therefore:

Originally each man had paid ten dollars for the room for a total of thirty dollars.

Each man was given one dollar back.

Therefore each man actually paid nine dollars for the room and three times nine totals twenty-seven dollars.

The bellhop kept the other two dollars for a grand total of twenty-nine dollars.

Where did the other dollar go?

Have fun and pass along this riddle.

hmm..answer: you have to look at it for the other point of view...they paid $25, then the worker takes $2 [$27 total] plus the other $3=$30, so its really just a play on words.

-Kelly

Yep. Pretty easy. It's just kind of interesting to think about it though in these 2 different ways

1. They paid $30 together. Each paid $10. But they got back one each so 10-1=$9 dollars a piece for a total of $27 and the bellhop got a $2 tip so 27+2=29?? Where is the missing dollar?

2.. But then if you add it as $25 in the hotel account + $3 to each person + $2 to the bellhop, then you get the $30.

Kinda weird huh? One way you add them up and get $29 the other way you get $30. Just some odd mathematical thing.

Anyway, Hermione 14 you are up. Give us one tougher than mine

YAY Friday is here.

Okay, here we go..

I'd say the room which has lions that havnt eaten in 5 years. If they don't eat in 5 years they would be dead already! So she can enter that room and exit unharmed. Am I right? Am I wrong?

Edit: that seems too easy now thinking back...

well..of course you are right, Anglophile92!! pretty easy, although difficult when I first looked at it..lol..well give us a good one!!

-Kelly

Wow, Yay me! Okay well I just got home so here is the riddle. Put on those thinking hats!

When I point up it's bright, but when I point down it's dark.
What am I?

A light switch? Not much to explain here--if it's pointing up then the lights on, if it's pointing down then the light's off.

The answer seems too obvious, but I'll run off to find another riddle in case it's right.

I think that it is a lightswitch, however just incase it isn't how about the sun, which gets lighter as it points up, and darker as it points down?I think that it is a lightswitch, however just incase it isn't how about the sun, which gets lighter as it points up, and darker as it points down?