Each puzzle has a

point rating 1-10

with 10 being the
most difficult.

The answer for each puzzle is in the notes section of

each slide. You may need to scroll down. Pictures are
include on most slides. Some will help, others will
lead you astray!

If you know the answer already,

dont spoil it!

The puzzles are in 3 sections:

general, maths and longer lateral
thinking puzzles.
General
Maths
Lateral thinking

1 point

A brown house is made with brown bricks, a

white house is made with white bricks.
What is a green house made of?

2 points

You go on holiday to Norway. When you arrive at

your cabin, you find that there is no heat or
electricity. However there is wood in the
fireplace, a wood-burning stove, a candle and an
oil lamp. You search through your pack and find
you only have one match. What should you light
first?

1 point

What occurs once in a minute, once in a second,

once in a month and once in a century but not at
all in a year, an hour or a week?

2 points

Why wont a starving eskimo eat a penguin egg?

2 points

Sam is a bus driver. He drove 10 miles to the bus

depot. He then drove 10 miles with an average of
16 passengers before driving 10 miles to the
garage where the bus was serviced. The
mileometer on the bus showed that 20 miles had
been driven that day. Explain.

1 point

Mrs Penworthys bungalow is decorated

completely with her favourite colour purple.
She has purple walls, purple furniture and purple
carpets. Why does she not have purple stairs?

2 points

Six buckets are placed in a row. The first 3 are full

of water and the other 3 are empty. By moving only
one bucket, how can you get an arrangement
where it goes full, empty, full, empty, full, empty?

5 points

What 5 letter word has 1 consonant followed by 4

vowels? If you remove the vowels, the sound is
not altered.

1 point

Where can I put my right hand where I cant put

my left hand?

2 points

You are driving a bus. At the start of your

journey, there are 6 people on the bus: Fred,
Bert, Sam, Jane, Bertha and Orla. At the first
stop, Fred and Bert get off while Susan and John
get on. At the second stop Bertha gets off and
Callum gets on. At the last stop everyone gets off.
What is the name of the bus driver?

3 points

What 5 letter word becomes shorter when you

add 2 letters to it?

1 point

The caretaker is raking leaves in the playgrounds.

In the front playground, there are 7 piles of
leaves and in the back playground, there are 3
piles of leaves. How many piles will he have when
he puts them all together?

3 points

A village has 2 men who cut hair: Bert who is the

only barber in Hair today, gone tomorrow and
Fred who is the only barber in Hair Peace.
Freds hair is well cut whilst Bert looks like he has
had a fight with a lawnmower. Who would you
choose to cut your hair? Why?

4 points

A man flew from London to Chicago on

Tuesday. He stayed for 2 days and then flew
back to London on Tuesday. Explain.

5 points

Who played for both England and Germany at

Wembley on the same day?

5 points

The first copy of this book was published in 1878

in America. Since then it has been reprinted many
times. American copies of this book are
completely different from British ones. Branches
of WH Smiths will have this book but wont sell it
to you and libraries will have a copy but wont
lend it to you. There is probably a copy in your
home. What is the book?

4 points

England are leading Germany 4-1 in an

international football match at Wembley.
88 minutes of the match have been played but
not one man on either side has scored a goal.

5 points

A woman has 2 sons born within 5 minutes of

each other. They appear to be identical but they
are not twins.

4 points

A man has a fox, a hen and a bag of corn. He

needs to take all 3 across the river. The boat will
take him and one of them. He cannot leave the
fox and the hen together or the hen and corn
together. How does he get all 3 across uneaten?

3 points

A plane travelling from England to Germany

crashes mid-way in France. Where would the
survivors be buried?

6 points

Where is a day longer than a year?

4 points

Mr Smith and Mr Jones are next door neighbours.

Mr Smith has a beautiful peacock. He told Mr
Jones that if the peacock laid an egg in Mr
Jones garden, the egg would still belong to him.
Mr Jones disagreed saying that if it laid an egg in
his garden it would be his. Who is right?

2 points

Whats white when its dirty and black when its

clean?

2 points

Berts father is Professor Maths. He has 4

children. 3 of them are called Add,
Subtract and Divide. What is the fourth
child called?

4 points

Rearrange the letters of NEW DOOR to make one

word. You are not allowed to leave any letters
out or put in any extra letters.

d oe
no w
r

7 points

There was a boy who was 12 years old in 2002. In

2012 he was 2 years old. Explain.

3 points

Jessica was born on 20th December 2001. She

says that this year her birthday will be in the
summer. Explain.

7 points

You are at a junction. One road leads to the

town you want to go to, the other leads to a
marsh. There are no signs. However, there are
two men: one who always tells the truth and the
other who always lies. You are allowed to ask
one of them one question to find the way to go.
You do not know which man is which. What do
you ask?

3 points

A family has 2 parents, 3 daughters and each

daughter has 4 brothers. How many in the family?

2 points

What 7 letter word do most people pronounce

wrongly.

6 points

5 men are going to church together. It starts

raining. 4 of them get wet. The 5th man, who does
not have an umbrella, and was less than 1m from
the other 4 remained completely dry. Explain.

3 points

Rats can breed very quickly. Joe starts with 2

rats and finds that 6 months he ends up with 40
rats. How many rats would he end up with after
6 months if he started with 1 rat?

4 points

Joe has 4 white rabbits, 6 brown rabbits and 5

black rabbits. How many rabbits could say that
they are the same colour as another of Joes
rabbits?

3 points

There were two mothers and two daughters in a

train carriage. The train stopped and one of
them got out. Two people remained. Explain.

5 points

2 men played chess for 9 hours. They played 5

games. Each man won the same number of
games. No games were drawn or abandoned.
Explain.

8 points

How can you take I away from I9 and get 20?

8 points

The Roman numeral for 9 is IX. Add one

character to this to make it an even number.

7 points

New Years Day is 7 days after Christmas Day.

You would think that they would be on the same
day of the week. However in 2009, Christmas
Day was on Friday whereas New Years Day was
on Thursday. Explain.

8 points

Read this out loud:

YYURYYUBICURYY4ME

7 points

Read this out loud:

11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
111 a race
12112

2 points

Fred the postman has a round which takes him

1 hours. On Friday he takes 105 minutes.
Explain.

6 points

You have 9 red balls which appear to be

identical. One ball is slightly lighter than the
others. Using the scales below twice only, how
could identify the lighter ball?

9 points

There is a room with 3 light bulbs in it. Each

bulb is controlled by one switch. The switches
are down a corridor away from the room. You
are allowed to go to the switches ONE time and
then to the room with the bulbs to work out
which switch controls which bulb. You are on
your own and have no mirrors!

3 points

What goes up but never goes down?

3 points

What can be wasted but never bought?

3 points

What has 2 arms and 4 legs?

3 points

What has 3 hands?

3 points

What is usually filled in the morning and emptied

at night except at Christmas when it is filled at
night and emptied in the morning?

5 points

What do you find in the middle of Derby that

you dont find at all in Sheffield or Nottingham?

7 points

Alison works at the greengrocers. When she was

born, she weighed 3kg and measured 30cm. She
is now 20 years old and is 150cm tall. What does
she weigh now?

3 points

In a drawer there are 5 pairs of pink socks and 4

pairs of blue socks. The socks are loose. What is
the largest number of socks you need to take
out of the drawer in order to be sure of getting
a matching pair?

8 points

If you travel 6 miles south, followed by 4 miles

north, what is the furthest distance you can be
from your starting point?

7 points

In which sport do all the contestants except one

on each team move backwards?

4 points

As I was going to St Ives, I met a man with 7

wives. Each wife had 7 sacks, each sack had 7
cats, each cat had 7 kittens. Kittens, cats, sacks
and wives, how many were there going to St
Ives?

5 points

Connor comes into school and tells his teacher

that his mother is the same age as his granny and
that they are both 50 years old today. How can
this be?

4 points

My aunts brother is not my uncle. Who is he?

5 points

You normally say, I am, you are and he is. Is it

ever correct to say, I is?

6 points

When does April come before March?

9 points

Sam was in big trouble with his Dad. He was told

to say something. If what he said was true, he
would have no pocket money for a year. If he
lied, he would be banned from TV for 2 months.
What can he say to avoid any consequences?

9 points

Sam is in trouble at school. In front of the class,

Sams teacher Mrs Smegly tells him to pick one
of two pieces of paper from a box. According to
her, one piece has lunchtime detentions for 2
months while the other one has another
chance. However Sam knows that Mrs Smegly
always writes the detention consequence on
both pieces of paper. What can he do to escape
detention?

10 points

By moving one match stick only, can you turn this

arrangement into a shop?

Answer on next slide.

7 points

A man is dozing during a church service. He is

dreaming about the French revolution and the
guillotine. His wife, seeing that he is nodding off
taps him on the back of the neck. He has a heart
attack and dies instantly. True or false? Give a
reason.

The next 3 puzzles work only if read, not viewed

7 points

What game has 4 letters, starts with a tee and is

played all over the world?

7 points

There are 20 fore heads in a boat 50 miles off

land. The boat sinks and the lifeboat rescues 20
people. Nobody drowns and no other boat
rescues anyone. Explain.

4 points

How many ps in a pod?

Some are a little quirky!

3 points

A new hotel has 100 rooms. The decorator needs

to put numbers on all the doors. How many
number 1s does he need to buy?

3 points

A certain type of seaweed doubles in length

every year. After 6 years it is 12m long. How long
would it have been after 5 years?

9 points

You have a 5 litre bottle and a 7 litre bottle. You

have a tap and a sink. How can you measure 1
litre. You can pour from one bottle to another,
refill and pour away as much as you need to. The
bottles do not have a regular shape.

5l

7l

9 points

A man goes into B & Q to buy something for his

house. He is told that 1 costs 80p whereas 5
costs 1.20. His total bill is 3.20. What does he
buy?

10 points

Stephanie runs a clothing shop. She sells shorts

for 36, trousers for 48 and a hat for 18. What
would she charge for boots?

36

48

18

5 points

On average 25 acorns grow on a branch. Here is

a chart showing how many branches trees have
at different ages.
Age

Branches

10

20

10

30

15

40
50

25

60

30

How many acorns would you find on a 40 year

old sycamore tree?

8 points

A snail is at the bottom of a 30m well. Every day

it crawls up 3m before slipping back 2m every
night. How many days will it take it to escape
from the well?

6 points

Mr Green is giving out sweets to the Stars of the

Week in Blogly Primary School. He gives 5 sweets
to infants and 6 sweets to juniors. Altogether he
gives out 56 sweets to 10 children. How many
infants and juniors make up the 10?

10 points

A 100kg sack of potatoes is 99% water and 1%

potato stuff. It is allowed to dry out until it is
98% water and 2% potato stuff. How heavy is the
sack of potatoes now?

4 points

A ship is at anchor in a harbour. At low tide, the

water is 2.6m below the deck. Over the next 6
hours, the tide rises by 1.5m. How far from the
deck will the water be now?

10 points

A man has 10 sons. To the first son, he gives

10 oranges, the second son 20, third son 30
etc. His 10th son has 100 oranges. Each son
goes out and sells the oranges to one
customer. They use the same pricing policy
and they each bring back the father 2. What
was the pricing policy?

9 points

Add one character to make this equation

correct.
I0 I0 I0 = 9.50

4 points

Bert and Fred have the same amount of money.

How much does Bert need to give Fred so that
Fred has 10 more than Bert?

5 points

A bottle of perfume costs 20. The whisky is

worth 19 more than the bottle. How much is
the bottle worth?

10 points

The occupants of Bagley Close live in houses

numbered 1-19. Each occupant has an 8 digit
telephone number starting with 1 which is a
multiple of their house number. What are the
telephone numbers? Use a calculator.

Clue on the next

slide. (Lose 3
points if you use
it!)

7 points

You need to find the 8 digit number which starts

with 1 and is divisible by numbers 1-19. By
adding 1, 2, 3, 4 etc onto this number, you will
get the phone numbers.
Think prime numbers.

4 points

If Fred gives one marble to Bert, they will have

the same number. If Bert gives one marble to
Fred, Bert will have half the amount of marbles
Fred has. How many marbles do they each have?

5 points

A box of chocolates costs 2 plus half its price.

How much does it cost?

7 points

Two friends are playing cards for 5p a game. At

the end Joe has won 3 games and Ben is 30p up.
How many games did they play altogether?

5 points

Bill and Bertha start a romantic meal by lighting

2 candles. They are both the same thickness but
different lengths. One will burn for 7 hours and
the other for 5 hours. At the end of the meal,
they blow out the candles and find that one
candle is twice the length of the other. How long
was the meal?

4 points

A builder dug a hole 5m long, 3m wide and 2m

deep. Hoping to improve his daughters Maths
skills, he asked her, How many m of soil in the
are the hole?

4 points

I have 9 sweets in a bag. I give 3 to Mark, 3 to

Rebekah and 3 to India. At the end, there are
still 3 sweets in the bag. Explain.

5 points

3 workers each get paid depending on how many

hours they have worked. The plumber worked for
3 times a long as the painter and the painter
worked 5 times as long as the electrician. The
total wage bill was 630. How much was each
man paid?

* These next few puzzles cannot

usually be solved by a quick

flash of inspiration. Children
need to ask yes/no questions
over a longer period of time to
build up enough information to
enable the Eureka moment!

9 points

3 pieces of coal are lying on the grass in a garden

in early Spring. How did they get there?

8 points

A man walks into a pub and asks for a glass of

water. The barman pulls a gun on him. They
shake hands and the customer walks out
satisfied.

8 points

A man walks into a bar and falls immediately

falls down unconscious.

8 points

A man lives on the 16th floor of a block of flats.

Every day he takes the lift from down to the
ground floor and then goes to work. On his way
back from work, he takes the lift to the 5th floor
and then walks the rest of the way. If it is raining
in the morning, on his return, he takes the lift to
the 11th floor before walking the rest of the way.

6 points

A father and his son are travelling in a car. The

car crashes and the father is killed. The boy is
taken to hospital and needs an operation. The
surgeon comes into the operating theatre, looks
at the boy and says, I cant operate, hes my
son.

9 points

Romeo and Juliet are lying side by side on the

floor. Beside them is some water and broken
glass. The window is open.

9 points

A man went into a field with a pack on his back

and died.

9 points

A man is hanging 3m from a beam in a barn.

Underneath him is a pool of water. Outside is a
tractor. He is dead.

10 points

While the soup simmered, Johnny missed his

train.

9 points

A man who is broke, is parked outside a hotel.

10 points

A man is lying in a telephone box. He has

injured his hands. The phone is off the hook.
Outside is a fishing rod.

8 points

Two men are rescued from a desert island. In

port one of them goes straight into a
restaurant. He orders a bowl of Albatross
Soup. He takes one sip of the soup and then
returns to the boat and shoots the other man
rescued from the desert island.