Answers to Challenge Brain Teasers
Brain Teaser #1 How many animals of each kind did Moses bring on the Ark?
Answer: None
Moses was not on the ark, however, Noah was.
Brain Teaser #2 – Which direction is the bus traveling?
Answer: Left
When pre-school children were shown this picture and question, they all answered
“left.” When asked why, they answered “Because you can’t see the door.”
Brain Teaser #3 – What English word retains the same pronunciation, even after you
take away four of its five letters?
Answer: Queue. Removing 'ueue' does not change the sound of the letter “Q”.
Brain Teaser #4 – As I was going to St. Yves, I met a man with seven wives. Each wife
had seven sacks, each sack had seven cats, each cat had seven kits; kits, cats, sacks
and wives. How many were there going to St. Yves?
Answer: 1 – the rest happened to meet him on the road.
Brain Teaser #5 – Two planes take off at the same exact moment. They are flying
across the Atlantic. Plane 1 leaves New York and is flying to Paris at 500 miles per
hour. Plane 2 leaves Paris and is flying to New York at just 450 miles per hour.
Which one will be closer to Paris when they meet?
Two possible Answers: Both planes 1 and 2 or Neither
They will both be the same distance from Paris when they meet.
Brain Teaser #6 – Of the 100 people at a recent party, 90 spoke Spanish, 80 spoke
Italian and 75 spoke Mandarin. At least how many spoke all three languages?
Answer: 45
EXPLANATION:
10 could not speak Spanish, 20 could not speak Italian, and 25 could not speak Mandarin. So there could have been 10 people who spoke none of those languages.
However, that would maximize the number of people who could speak all three, and
the problem asks at least how many speak all three. Therefore, we must assume that
these 10, 20, and 25 people are all separate people. Having identified 55 each of whom
is missing one language, the remaining 45 speak all three.
Source: Sharp Brains – Wes Carroll, Puzzle Master