Okay, so what I was saying is that even though juggling seems like it would be a good solution because one piece of gold would be in the air at all times, it takes some force from the magician to get the gold in the air. By throwing the gold up, in addition to the 80 kg being pulled by gravity at 9.8 m/sec^2, he is adding additional downward force to the bridge to counteract the upward force he is applying to the gold in order to throw it up. He also has to apply force to the gold he catches in order to slow it down, which increases the downward force on the bridge.

I did the actual calculations in order to show that the increased downward force on the bridge was more than the 1 kg he was apparently saving by juggling. In fact, it may seem like he could be able to juggle in such a way that he is only holding one piece of gold at a time, so that he has 1 kg of leeway in order to throw and catch the gold. While manipulating that 1 kg, he must be sure never to apply greater than the force of gravity in order to slow the gold down and speed it back up again in order to catch and throw it. This means using the same distance to catch and throw the gold as the distance the gold gets thrown in the air. Unfortunately this means using the same amount of time to catch and throw a piece of gold as it takes the gold to travel through the air, which means that he could only do this with two pieces of gold, so he is back to the problem he started with.

I'm really not trying to be confusing. I guess I'm just not good at explaining slightly complex concepts.

Oh, okay then... so what you're saying is that it wouldn't actually work to juggle? I'm not sure that people who write these kind of riddles actually take the scientific facts into account... it probably is correct but you're now over-complicating the situation (I'm not trying to be rude)!

Okay, yes Albus-Wan you are correct. As Steve was a party magician he could simply juggle the pieces of gold while crossing the bridge.It took me a while to figure that out.So i guess it's your go. I'm sure you'll give us a hard one

*sigh* I'll try again!
Golden Phoenix, I bet you didn't add this detail, but I'm throwing it in, because you didn't say the detail did or didn't exist!

Let's say, the stuff remains behind the SAME door. And, you've seen the show several times. The car is behind door 3. You pick 3. The other scenario is when you haven't seen the show, you have a phone so you call someone whose seen the show, they tell you 3. You open 3. The last one is where you haven't seen the show before and you don't have a phone, so you pick 1 which has the goat.

Huh? I really don't get what you're talking about. Phones aren't involved in the riddle. Anyway, beyond_the_veil got it right earlier. And now it's Albus-wan's turn to post a riddle... There's no need to go back to my one.

Sorry it took a while to post. It took me a while to find one that would be acceptable. Try this:

During a recent St. Patrick's Day parade an interesting and curious puzzle developed. The Grand Marshall issued the usual notice setting forth that "the members of the Honorable and Ancient Order of Hibernians will parade in the afternoon if it rains in the morning, but will parade in the morning if it rains in the afternoon". This gave rise to the popular impression that rain is to be counted as a sure thing on St. Patrick's Day. Casey boasted that he "had marched for a quarter of a century in every St. Patrick's Day parade since he had become a boy".
I will pass over the curious interpretations which may be made of the above remark, and say that old age and pneumonia having overtaken Casey at last, he had marched on with the immortal procession. When the boys met again to do honor to themselves and St. Patrick on the 17th of March, they found that there was a vacancy in their ranks which it was difficult to fill. In fact, it was such an embarrassing vacancy that it broke up the parade and converted it into a panic-stricken funeral procession.

The lads, according to custom, arranged themselves ten abreast, and did march a block or two in that order with but nine men in the last row where Casey used to walk on account of an impediment in his left foot. The music of the Hibernian band was so completely drowned out by spectators shouting to ask what had become of "the little fellow with the limp", that it was deemed best to reorganize on the basis of nine men to each row, as eleven would not do.

But again Casey was missed, and the procession halted when it was discovered that the last row came out with but eight men. There was a hurried attempt to form with eight men in each row; again with seven, and then with five, four, three, and even two, but it was found that each and every formation always came out with a vacant space for Casey in the last line. The, although it strikes us as a silly superstition, it became whispered through the lines that every time they started off, Casey's "dot and carry one" step could be heard. The boys were so firmly convinced that Casey's ghost was marching that no one was bold enough to bring up the rear.

The Grand Marshall, however, was a quick-witted fellow who speedily laid out that ghost by ordering the men to march in single file; so, if Casey did follow in spirit, he brought up the rear of the longest procession that ever did honor to his patron saint.

Assuming that the number of the men in the parade did not exceed 7,000, can you determine just how many men marched in the procession?


Good luck!

I have a question, Sam. The riddle goes:



But then later, it says:



My only question is - is that a mistake, or not?

Um... To be honest, the whole thing confused me a bit. One thing I did notice though was the fact that if it rained in the afternoon they would have to do the procession in the morning. How would they know if it was going to rain that afternoon, if it didn't in the morning. And if they had to wait all morning to see if it rained and they got to the afternoon without it raining, then how would they march in the morning if it rained in the afternoon. Or are you talking about the previous afternoon? This is a mathematical problem and not some trick to make you think it's something which it isn't, right?

Okay. I'm in fifth grade, I'm the smartest in my class, but this is way above the elements of learning I have been tought. In simple form, what-- no where did you get that info, Albus-Wan?

First off, Laurette, no it's not a mistake. 11 doesn't work for the same reason 2 through 9 don't work--the number of kids remaining is not divisible by 11.

Golden Phoenix, this is just a mathematical problem. The other stuff is just for fun.

Reanimated Corpse, as long as you've learned about factors, you've learned everything you need to know in order to solve this problem.

Good luck.

Ah thanks! Or no thanks, rather... my answer is divisible by 11. Back to the drawing board...

Edit: Oh wait - is it 5039?

Edit (again): In the style of the rest of the thread, I'll give a quick explanation of how I got my answer.

If the lads are always one short because of old Casey's absence for every formation with row length 2 through 10, it means that had old Casey been present, they would have filled the rows up for all those row lengths. (11 does not have to be considered). Therefore, you have to find a number smaller than 7000 which has 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 as factors, and then subtract the one for the space Casey left.

5040 is divisible by all those numbers, and therefore 5039 would not be, and would always give a remainder that is one less than the divisor.

That's right, Laurette--it's 5039. It looks to me like your frist guess would have been 2519, which of course is divisible by 11, but would have worked otherwise.

Good work, Laurette, now you have to go digging around until you find a riddle you haven't read in this thread before.

Thanks, Sam! Yeah, my first guess was 2519, and finding the answer from there was quite easy. Ok, another riddle...

What about - a member of an online forum who is participating in a game of riddles, has to look through 48 pages of riddles in order not to repeat any when she next posts. How long will it take her, having not exactly followed the thread from day one?

Nah, kidding, I'll definitely have a look through here and then rack my memory or searching powers.

Sorry for the double post... hope it merges with the other one if it hasn't been long enough.

Anyway, the riddle I have is probably one which some of you may have heard before, but I couldn't really find anything else, so here goes:

You're standing outside a room with three switches. Inside the room there is one light bulb, and only one of the switches can switch it on. You can switch them on and off just as you like, but you may only go into the room once, and then you have to say which switch is the right one. What would you do to find out?

Good luck!

Okay, I think I've got the right answer...

You turn switch 1 on and wait for a couple of minutes. Then you turn switch 1 off and turn the switch 2 on. Then you go into the room. If the light bulb is on it must be switch 2 because that is the one that you left on. If it is off but warm it must be switch 1 because you left that on for a while so it would warm up. But if the light bulb is off and cold then it must be the remaining switch - switch 3.

Is that right?

There are many ways to figure this out, Capricorn, but
I will use the simple way.



You can turn on switch 1. If it turns the light on, that's the one. If it isn't, turn it off and turn on switch 2. If it turns the light on, that's the one. If it isn't, turn it off and turn on switch 3. If it turns the light on, that's the one.

Well done, Golden Phoenix! Half an hour. It was that easy? I remember my mum had her colleagues over one evening, and it took the bunch of mathematicians quite a bit longer than that to figure it out over a glass of wine. After about an hour the questioner told them that it wasn't a mathematical thing, and that knocked the wind right out of their sails!

Reanimated Corpse, I think the key here is that you can only go into the room once. So if you switch on the wrong one, and you go check inside, the light will be off. But you still won't know which is the right one, because it could any one of the the remaining two. See what I mean?

You're up, Golden Phoenix!

Oh no, that's the downside of getting these things right... now I have to try and find a new riddle that hasn't been posted already. Hmm... okay, hopefully I'll find one soon, I may be a while. Okay, got one...
If you take away one of my letters I do not change.

If you take away another letter I don't change.

If you take away all my remaining letters I still don't change.

What am I?

I'm not sure if this is at all hard... probably not for the geniuses among us.

Hmmm...... hmmm.............

Are you the alphabet?

Is it a post office?? Only because you use it to send and receive letters. So if you only take one letter away it doesn't matter cause it is still a post office and etc etc. Sounds dodgy I know but it is the best I could think off

Reanimated Corpse you were wrong... mjane95 you were right! Well, I suppose it could also be a postbox which is what I was thinking of, but it would be mean to say you were wrong because your answer was the same sort of thing. Okay, it's your turn to post a riddle now!

I got it right?? Cool!
Okay sorry if this riddle has been done before but here goes:

I like time but I don't like clocks.
I like wine but I don't like beer.
I like Cherie but I don't like Jenny.
Do I like Bob, George or Mark?

Good luck


Oops sorry bout that

I'll guess George because all the things you like have an 'e' at the end of them. Is that right?

Yes you are right. It is George beacuse of two reasons 1:It ends in 'e'
2:He is in Harry Potter. Haha

Yay! Okay, I've got to find one that hasn't been done before. I think I'll make it easy on purpose...

Becky was reading a book late at night. Suddenly the power went out so there was no light at all, but Becky kept on reading without use of any artificial light. How?

By artificial light I mean torches, candles etc.

Woah i think i have it. Was Becky blind? That way the book would have braille(sp?) letters instead of printed letters and she wouldn't need light to read because she couldn't see because she was blind. She wouldn't need light to read as she uses her fingers.

Yes! 13 minutes, that was really quick. Okay, your turn now!

I know this has already been answered and confirmed, but I thought I would submit another answer that doesn't seem to have been precluded by the setup of the riddle. It seems to me that if Becky was not blind but lived close enough to a polar region and it was midsummer she wouldn't need any artificial light no matter what time it was since the sun would always be up. She could always read using natural sunlight.

Anyways, beyond_the_veil, what have you got for us?

Yes, but I did say that when the power went out that there was no light at all, so I guess that kind of rules out that answer. So, yeah, beyond_the_veil, what's the next riddle?

Here we go:

Three people are eating at a restaurant. The waiter gives them the bill, which totals up to $30. The three people decide to share the expense equally ($10 each), rather than figure out how much each really owes. The waiter gives the bill and the $30 to the manager, who sees that they have been overcharged. The real amount should be $25. He gives the waiter five $1 bills to return to the customers, with the restaurant's apologies. But, the waiter is a dishonest man. He puts $2 in his pocket, and returns $3 to the customers. Now, each of the three customers has paid $9, for a total of $27. Add the $2 that the waiter has stolen, and you get $29. But, the original bill was $30. What happened to the missing dollar?

Good Luck

Guess what, this riddle was up here a couple of weeks ago. Just click back 3 pages and you'll see it (it's a little different though, something about a hotel room). I'll post the answer anyway...

Basically, the wording is all mixed up and the addition and subtraction is done at the wrong time so it confuses you. But if you do it like this it works...
The customers paid $30 but they only needed to pay $25, which is why the waiter had to give them $5. The waiter gave the customers $1 each, a total of $3, and kept two for himself... $3 + $2 = $5 + $25 = $30!
Ta da! So, the answer is that the other dollar didn't actually go anywhere, it just got lost in the maths.

Hmm... I guess it's quite unfair for me to get a go now because this was up before, you can post something else instead Fiona!

aww man! I wish I had thought to check this earlier today! I totally posted the same riddle two weeks ago like katie said.
I would've been all smart and gotten that one


Well good job Katie. Is that twice you've gotten the same riddle now?

Oh dear! I forgot to check the last few pages for this. Now you mention it i do remember the hotel room one... anyway you did get it right Katie. Thanks for the offer but i don't have any good riddles and you got it right so you go ahead and post a riddle.

Must make a mental note to check last few pages for similar riddles

Oh, I was hoping I wouldn't have to post a riddle this time. I'm really finding it tricky to think of good ones. Okay...

The midnight train is coming down the mountains. Art Farnanski seems to be dozing off in his seat. Someone knows that this is not true. At the station, all the passengers get off the train, except one. The conductor comes and taps him on the shoulder to let him know they have arrived. Art Farnanski does not answer. He is dead. Hours later the four people that had shared the train compartment with the dead man are at the police station.

The man in the dark suit:
"I'm innocent. The blonde woman was talking to Farnanski."

The blonde woman:
"I'm innocent. I did not speak to Farnanski."

The man in the light suit:
"I'm innocent. The brunette woman killed him."

The brunette woman:
"I'm innocent. One of the men killed him."

That same morning, while he is serving him coffee, the waiter at the Petit Piccolo asks the commander. This is an easy case for you isn't it?

Yes, answers the commander. "Four true statements and four false ones. Easy as pie."

Who killed Farnanski? (only one person is guilty).

This took me forever to get when my friend asked me it. I had to guess in the end. Remember to say how you know the person is guilty!

I am going to say that the blond woman killed him
If 4 statements are true, then everyone but one person said a true statement, leaving one true.
That means there is only three false statements left. The only true statement that can be applied is either "The blonde woman was talking to Farnanski" or "I did not speak to Farnanski" If so, that means the statements "The brunette woman killed him" and "One of the men killed him" are false, meaning that the blonde is the only one left

Right! I knew it wasn't too hard... Your go, LupinFan88!

Actually, it was pretty tough. Okay, sorry if this is a repeat
"I can sink boats with the greatest of ease.
I can make a barrell lighter then before
I am easy to make, but hard to fix
And I can be seen with the naked eye
What am I?"

A hole?

Oh no, this post is really short... Sorry!

Golden Phoneix...........You are correct!
Way to go. I changed it a little, but its the same.
Your turn. I am alot better at guessing then giving

Yeah, me too... I love getting them right, but I'm really bad at posting good ones!

If it takes six men six days to dig six holes, how long will it take one man to dig half a hole?

Sorry, that's a rubbish one. This is me just copy-and-pasting now.

Well, whats half a hole? Isn't half a hole a hole?

Exactly, that's the answer. There is no such thing as half a hole! Your turn!

Okay. This one makes you think.
Hermione (yes her) needs to slice a cake for muggle studies. She has to use a knife. How can she slice the cake into eight slices with only three cuts (there is an answer)

Right, I know this for sure but I think I will leave it for a while to give other people a chance at guessing the answer. Also, I have no good riddles to post myself.

Okay, Hermione needs to use a knife, right? Well, I bet she can use her wand, too. Maybe, she has a double layer cake! She uses her wand to levitate the 2nd layer to make sure it's double layered. It is, so she puts it back on the 1st layer. (that is the only magic used.) Then, she takes a knife, and cuts a vertical line HALF-WAY down the cake. Then, she cuts a horizontical line all the way across. Last, she completes the veritcal cut, thus making 3 cuts and 8 slices if you levitate the 2nd layer off the 1st layer.

I hope I get it right.

Yes, that is right! It is, isn't it LupinFan? Well, it's your turn now Reanimated Corpse. You know she doesn't really need to levitate the top layer, she could just cut it off.

Well, my interpertaion was that its one slice down the middle, then into quartersm then cut then cut side. I think what Corpse said is right.
Your turn, Reanimated Corpse

Yes! It's finally my turn. I'm not sure if someone posted this, but, oh well!

I am everywhere.
When light is above, I show not.
When light is diagonalized, I show.

What am I?

There it is!

um.... random guess.

Dust?

because well... there's dust everywhere and you can see it but typically only when lights like... shining through a window at an angle.

So yeah... I'm gonna post that while I try to think of something more comlicated and crazy.

LouRan20, it was close!
However, many things are similar to dust.