A Few Riddles

[Electron.John]

Just a few to keep your brains ticking over...

1. It happens once in a minute, twice in a week, and once in a year? What is it?
2. What goes up but never comes down?
3. Which is correct: 9 and 5 is 13 OR 9 and 5 are 13?
4. what trees come in two's?
5. Joan and Jane are sisters. Jean is Joan's daughter and 12 years younger than her aunt. Joan is twice as old as Jean. Four years ago, Joan was the same age as Jane is now, and Jane was twice as old as her niece. How old is Jean?

[Angelgurl]

the answer to 3 is neither. 9+5=14

[Electron.John]

Correct!

[Catz]

I totally didn't catch that Angelgurl, good job!

The answer to number 1 is "e"

[Angelgurl]

1. is it the letter "e"?
2. age goes up but never comes down

[Electron.John]

You are both right on number 1! And Angelgurl is right with number 2 (although I would accept the US National Debt as an answer as well).

[Angelgurl]

5. Jane is 28, Jean is 16 and Joan is 32

[Electron.John]

Correct on #5 Angelgurl. I think you need some harder ones.

[Electron.John]

Apples and Pears!

Tom has three boxes with fruits in his barn: one box with apples, one box with pears, and one box with both apples and pears. The boxes have labels that describe the contents, but none of these labels is on the right box.

How can Tom, by taking only one piece of fruit from one box, determine what each of the boxes contains?

[Catz]

"I would pick them all up
The heaviest one would be the pear box
the second heaviest would be the mix
the lightest would be pure apple
on average pears weigh .2 oz more then apples
sometimes they are almost twice as heavy"

I don't know if it's cheating, but I asked my brother and this was his answer.

[Electron.John]

That might work but only if the pears were heavier than the apples and since we do not know what type of apples or pears are in the boxes it would be a risky strategy, as well as labor intensive. Remember all the boxes are labeled incorrectly.

[Catz]

okay! My brother and I have concluded that Tom must pull a fruit from the box labeled mixed fruit. It will have to be a single fruit of whatever he pulled out.

The labels can then be switched on the remaining boxes since none of them are labeled correctly.

[Electron.John]

Correct!

[Tashi]

Number 4 is pear trees. It's just a play on words.

[Csanders46]

Number 1 made me think so much but it was right in front of my face the entire time. "e"