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How about, if a tree falls and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?, There is a actually an answer to this.

Sleightech wrote:Dependant on which side of the moon, would that not be the length of the Lunar equinox? Maybe showing my ignorance here.

Equinox simply means equal length of night and day, but how long would that actually be? I only know because I saw it on The Sky At Night earlier this year. I tried Googling for it, but had to spend about 20 minutes reading to second source it.

I like this Tomo, very interesting. just wish I knew the ansa !!!!!

Here's an old one ...

There is this big city that is surrounded by a wall. There is only one gate leading into the city which is protected by a guard. Only if you know the password you can enter the city.

You want to enter, but don't know the password. You decide to hide in a bush next to the guard and listen to other people.

A man walks to the guard and the guard says 6. The man answers 3 and he may enter.
Another man walks up to the guard and the guard says 12. The man answers 6 and he also gets to enter the city.

You decide to try your luck and walk up to the guard. The guard says 10. What is the password to enter the city?

Riddles of the ancient/traditional variety require an "aha" shift of perspective to solve. I have a really good book of them, but I don't know where it is! The ones I know well are probably all Google-able, but I'll list a few here if you like.

Apart from riddles, have a look at Lewis Carroll's books. The Game of Logic is a fairly easy primer on logic, includes some puzzles, and teaches you how to write your own.

A type of logic puzzle that Carroll loved consists of a number of statements that can be arranged in order to lead from a premise to a conclusion. The statements tend to be absurd, and presented out of order are confusing. The puzzle is to sort things out and come to the final conclusion. Here's an example, not from Carroll, but from Caliban (Hubert Phillips), circa 1950s:

Assuming that all of the following statements are factually correct, what conclusion (if any) can be drawn?
1. Pickled walnuts are always provided at Professor Piltdown's parties.
2. No animal that does not prefer Beethoven to Mozart ever takes a taxi in Bond Street.
3. All armadillos can speak the Basque dialect.
4. No animal can be registered as a philatelist who does not carry a collapsible umbrella.
5. Any animal that can speak Basque is eligible for the Tintinnabulum Club.
6. Only animals that are registered philatelists are invited to Professor Piltdown's parties.
7. All animals eligible for the Tintinnabulum Club prefer Mozart to Beethoven.
8. The only animals that enjoy pickled walnuts are those who get them at Professor Piltdown's parties.
9. Only animals that take taxis in Bond Street carry collapsible umbrellas.

Phillips was a master of logic puzzles. His book My Best Puzzles in Logic and Reasoning (where I lifted this one from) seems to be out of print but still fairly easily obtainable, and is great fun. It includes many different types of puzzle, several of which he originated.

EDIT: The book is still in print and can be obtained directly from Dover Books as well as through Amazon.

The Magic Herring wrote:How about, if a tree falls and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Yes. (assuming it's not, like, in a vacuum or something)

Heard someone going on about vacuums the other day, about how if you managed to suck all the air out of a room and then dropped a penny in that room, would it float?
(I spent a few minutes trying to explain this to someone who was slightly drunk and not wanting to be told he was wrong, that was a laugh, you just can't argue probably with the truely ignorant)

I sadly know too many puzzles and riddles. I always liked

"A boy has twice as many sisters as he has brothers, though his sister has the same number of brothers as she has sisters. How many boys and how many girls?"

the answer is 3?

Lawrence wrote:Heard someone going on about vacuums the other day, about how if you managed to suck all the air out of a room and then dropped a penny in that room, would it float?
(I spent a few minutes trying to explain this to someone who was slightly drunk and not wanting to be told he was wrong, that was a laugh, you just can't argue probably with the truely ignorant)

I met a mobile phone salesman at a party once who insisted that no one knows how helicopters stay aloft. When I said it's done using a set of wings generating lift by moving in a circle instead of a straight line, he decided to challenge it by asking, "Well, how do you know that?"

Here's a good one for inducing a brainfart in the stupid: what's the singular of "sheep"?

Lawrence wrote:

The Magic Herring wrote:How about, if a tree falls and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Yes. (assuming it's not, like, in a vacuum or something)

Ah, but sound is the perception of vibration, strictly speaking. If there are no living creatures around to hear, there is vibration, but surely there can't be sound...?

Gary Larson in "The Far Side" posed the question: If a tree falls in the forest and it hits a mime, does anyone care?

we've used lists i n the past where they have to find the next answer

eg

Lawrence
Trez
Agecroft
Tomo
Robbie

the answer would be Relish (the last few people to post this thread)
you could use coutries that have won a particular sporting events or best actor winners etc.

although the next answer can be googled its difficult to find out what the connection is between the list.

Robbie wrote:

Lawrence wrote:

The Magic Herring wrote:How about, if a tree falls and there's no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Yes. (assuming it's not, like, in a vacuum or something)

Ah, but sound is the perception of vibration, strictly speaking. If there are no living creatures around to hear, there is vibration, but surely there can't be sound...?

Spoken like a true non-physicist!
How about if there is a microphone near by? they "percieve" the vibrations that make up sound, they're not living.
Next question: how close do you need to be to hear it? A standard bit of mechanical maths (read: "half lives" to some) states that the waves of sound never fully dissipate so could in theory be heard from anywhere!
Can we not have any of this "perception" tosh now please?

riddle me this... If a Roman tells you that all Romans are liars, shoudl you believe him?
(this leads on to another one of my favourite pub arguements, and is usually followed up with the monty hall problem)

Trez wrote:I sadly know too many puzzles and riddles. I always liked

"A boy has twice as many sisters as he has brothers, though his sister has the same number of brothers as she has sisters. How many boys and how many girls?"

Just one boy?

Lawrence wrote:(this leads on to another one of my favourite pub arguements, and is usually followed up with the monty hall problem)

Ooooh, Monty Hall. A complete headf**k if ever there was one!

Tomo wrote:

Lawrence wrote:(this leads on to another one of my favourite pub arguements, and is usually followed up with the monty hall problem)

Ooooh, Monty Hall. A complete headf**k if ever there was one!

Choff! Childs play! Variable change, it's basic probably!