Once there was an evil wizard. He took 3 women from their homes and turned them into rose bushes that looked exactly alike. He put them in his garden. One of the women had a husband and children and begged the wizard to let her see them. He agreed. At night he brought the woman to her house. In the morning he came and took her home. Next day the husband decided to go rescue her. So he snuck into the wizard's garden. He looked and looked at the 3 identical rose bushes trying to figure out which could be his wife. Suddenly he knew the answer and he took his wife home. How did he know which rose bush was his wife?
The wizard brought the rosebush to her home at night and returned her to the garden in the morning. Therefore, she was the only plant without dew.
You and a friend are standing in front of two houses. In each house lives a family with two children.
"The family on the left has a boy who loves history, but their other child prefers math," your friend tells you.
"The family on the right has a 7-year old boy, and they just had a new baby," he explains.
"Does either family have a girl?" you ask.
"I'm not sure," your friend says. "But pick the family that you think is more likely to have a girl. If they do have a girl, I'll give you $100."
Which family should you pick, or does it not matter?
You should pick the house on the left. Specifically, there is a 2/3 chance that the family on the left has a girl, whereas there's only a 1/2 chance that the house on the right has a girl.
This is a very counterintuitive riddle. It seems like there should always be a 1/2 chance that a given child is a girl. And in fact there is. The key word there is "given". Because we are not asking about a "given" child for the house on the left. We are asking about what could be either child. Whereas for the house on the right, we are asking about a "given" child...specifically, we're asking about the younger child.
There are 3 possibilities for the children in the first house:
Younger Older
Girl Boy
Boy Girl
Boy Boy
There is no "Girl, Girl" option because we know the house on the left has at least one boy. Since each of these 3 options is equally likely, and 2 of them have one girl, there is a 2/3 chance of there being a girl in the house on the left.
For the house on the right, because we already know the older child is a boy, there are only two possibilities:
Younger Older
Girl Boy
Boy Boy
And as we can see, there is a 1/2 chance for the house on the right having a girl.
Search for: Boy or Girl paradox
A group of campers have been on vacation so long, that they've forgotten the day of the week. The following conversation ensues.
Darryl: "What's the day? I dont think it is Thursday, Friday or Saturday."
Tracy: "Well that doesn't narrow it down much. Yesterday was Sunday."
Melissa: "Yesterday wasn't Sunday, tomorrow is Sunday."
Ben: "The day after tomorrow is Saturday."
Adrienne: "The day before yesterday was Thursday."
Susie: "Tomorrow is Saturday."
David: "I know that the day after tomorrow is not Friday."
If only one person's statement is true, what day of the week is it?
There were two women, standing and facing the opposite ways. The first lady was facing south and the second lady was facing north. But, they could see each other. How is that possible?
A couple went on for a climbing trip. But only the husband returned from the vacation and said that his wife slipped off while climbing and died. On investigating, the local sheriff arrested him saying, 'Your travel agent called. You murdered your wife.'
The man did not inform anyone about the trip. Then how did the agent was so sure that it is a murder?
The man bought only one way ticket for his wife whereas he bought two way ticket for himself. It means that he was sure that he will be returning alone.
Mike was watching TV and all of a sudden he leaps to his feet and says, "That's Simon", pointing at someone who was at the screen.
Then his brother Mark comes in, looks at his brother, then looks back at the TV and says, "So it is."
How do they know Simon if they hadn't seen him before, no pictures, nothing?
