Riddles

[Qfwfq]

Wow Infamous, that was a great one! ;) I keep missing all the fun round here!

 

Another old one, full of cobwebs. Why did the fly fly?

 

(9^9)^9 = 387420489^9 = 9^81 but does not equal 9^(9^9)

Compare 387420489^9 and 9^387420489. :doh:

[CraigD]

… hmmm interesting so... (9^9)^9 = 387420489^9 = 9^81 but does not equal 9^(9^9) …

…Compare 387420489^9 and 9^387420489.

I can’t resist the urge to interject something non-joking (perhaps even pedantic) into this thread:

In this age of wonderful electronic calculators, we should not forget the moldy old tools of estimation and logarithmic identities

 

base^(Logbase(n)) = n

Log(n^m) = Log(n)*m

 

Using the common (base 10) logarithm, Log(387420489) is about 8, so Log(387420489^9) is about 72, so 387420489^9 is about 10^72.

Log(9) is about 1, so Log(9^387420489) is about 387420489, so 9^387420489 is about 10^387420489. 10^387420489 is much bigger than 10^72, even allowing for my super-sloppy estimation.

[C1ay]

I know pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest but somehow I think you're looking for something else... ;)

There is also aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic from old english which also appears to break our software on links by a couple of characters :doh:

[Qfwfq]

so 9^387420489 is about 10^387420489.

If you want to be pedantic, the first is quite less than the second. Surprisingly less. The ratio is 0.9^387420489 and try working out how small that is. ;)

[goku]

Why did the fly fly?

 

because they can?

[Qfwfq]

No...

[Buffy]

My kid contributes this one:

 

Q: Why did the chewing gum cross the road?

 

A: Because the chicken was chewing it!

 

Chortlingly,

Buffy

[C1ay]

My kid contributes this one:

 

Q: Why did the chewing gum cross the road?

 

A: Because the chicken was chewing it!

 

Chortlingly,

Buffy

Because the chicken did...

[rockytriton]

Why did the fly fly?

 

I wonder if flies call us "walks"

[Dark Mind]

Why did the fly fly?

Isn't the answer something like: Because the spider spied her ?

[infamous]

corn fields do this very well.........

A corn field hears very well because it's full of ears.

[infamous]

This can be found at the front of the garden,

and you use it a lot with eggs.

You will find one by the end of every morning,

but strangely enough, you'll never find one in a year.

 

What is it??

[Dark Mind]

The letter "G" ;).

[damocles]

This riddle is an old common one you might remember from school and it is simple to solve;

 

You are given 5 bags. There are 10 beads in each of the bags. In four of the bags, the beads each weigh 10 kilograms. In the remaining bag, each bead weighs only 9 kilograms. All the bags and beads look identical. You must find out which bag has the lighter beads. The problem is that all the bags look identical and all the beads look identical. You can use a scale, but it has to be a single-tray scale, not a two-tray balance scale. Also, you may use the scale only once. How can you find out which bag has the lighter beads?

[Dark Mind]

Actually, never heard it before and it took some thinking to figure it out ;). I would label all the bags 1-5, then take out the same number of beads as the label on the bag said. Then place all 15 beads on the scale. Since most beads weigh 10 kgs, the weight should be close to 150 kg. But since at least one will weigh 9 kg, just subtract the actual weight from 150 and the number you have will tell you which bag contains the 9 kg beads ;).

 

(i.e. If it was bag three then three beads would weigh 9 kg and the other 12 would be 10 kg beads from the other bags. 12x10= 120(kg). 3x9= 27(kg). 120+27= 147(kg). 150-147= 3, the number of the bag from whence the 9 kg beads came from ;))

[damocles]

Yep.

 

Now if I could only remember the two trains riddle........

 

A train leaves New York for Boston. Five minutes later another train leaves Boston for New York, having a double speed. Which train will be closer to New York, when they encounter?

[Dark Mind]

Think of words ending in -GRY. Angry and Hungry are two of them. There are only three words in the English language, that end in -GRY. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses every day and everyone knows the meaning of.