12 Cunning Puzzles to Mess With Your Mind

Riddles are not just fun to solve but they’re also a great way to warm up and test your brain’s agility. According to the New York Times, “The appeal of puzzles goes far deeper than the dopamine-reward rush of finding a solution. The very idea of doing a puzzle typically shifts the brain into an open, playful state that is itself a pleasing escape.”

At Bright Side, we love solving riddles and in this article, we’re sharing a few that we came across recently. We hope that you’ll enjoy solving them as much as we did.

If you can move only 2 matchsticks, what is the biggest possible number?

Answer: 51,181

Explanation: Move the matchsticks on the top and bottom from the digit “0” in the center and use these to make the digit “1” after the digit “8.”

Find the solution.

Answer: 25

Explanation:

Duck = 7

Orange bird = 5

Crow = 8

1 Duck (7) + 2 Orange birds (2×5) + 1 Crow (8) = 25

Which way is the bus going?

Explanation: The key to solving the puzzle is figuring out where the passenger doors would be (which in the illustration is on the side and not visible in the picture). So, if you’re in the UK, the bus would be traveling to the right because they drive on the left side of the road. However, in the US, where people drive on the right side of the road, the bus would be traveling to the left.

Place 3 balls to get 30.

Explanation: All the given balls are odd numbered. We know that adding 3 odd numbers can never result in an even number.

But you can get 30 by using balls numbered “11”, “13”, and “9” (just rotate the ball so that it reads “6”).

What does the clerk weigh?

The clerk at a butcher shop is 5’10’’, has brown hair, and wears a size 10.5 shoes. What does he weigh?

Answer: He weighs meat.

Which bucket will get filled first?

Answer: F

The 4 pills problem

A blind man gets marooned in a desert. He has 2 red pills and 2 blue pills with him. The pills are identical in size and shape. To stay alive, he must take 1 red pill and 1 blue pill.

Any other combination of pills would bring him certain death. How can the blind man ensure that he takes exactly 1 red pill and 1 blue pill?

Answer: The man will break each of the 4 pills in half and eat 1 half from each of the pills.

River crossing

A young man is traveling with a wolf and 2 sheep. They arrive at a river bank and need to cross the river. There is a small boat which he can use for the crossing. But the boat can have only 2 passengers, and he cannot leave the wolf with the sheep as the wolf loves eating sheep.

So, how can he cross the river along with his animals and keep all of them alive?

Answer:

For the sake of convenience, let’s name the river bank on which they are presently standing river bank A, and the destination river bank as B.

Trip 1: He and the wolf will travel from A to B.

Trip 2: He will travel from B to A alone.

Trip 3: He will travel from A to B with a sheep.

Trip 4: He will travel from B to A with the wolf.

Trip 5: He will travel from A to B with the second sheep.

Trip 6: He will travel from B to A alone.

Trip 7: He will travel from A to B with the wolf.

Which of these lines are parallel?

Answer: All the lines are parallel. The lines appear not to be parallel due to an optical illusion known as the Zöllner illusion.

Reading in darkness

Noah and his wife Emma were sitting in their family room. While Noah was watching TV, Emma was reading. At 11 PM there was a power outage so Noah went to bed, but Emma kept reading.

With no light in the room, how could Emma keep reading?

Answer:

Emma is able to read in darkness because she is blind and is reading in braille.

Spring ahead.

What is seen in the middle of March and April that can’t be seen at the beginning or end of either month?

Answer: The letter “R”

Can you figure out the answer to this puzzle?

Answer : 105

Explanation:

Cat = 4

Duck = 1

Sheep = 100

1 Cat (4) + 1 Duck (1) + 1 Sheep (100) = 105

How many riddles did you solve? Also, be sure to share this article with your friends. Remember not only are riddles fun to solve, but they’re also fun to share with friends.