9/26/26
Brainteaser: A rope ladder hangs over the side of a boat with its bottom rung just touching the water. The rungs are one foot apart. The tide rises six inches an hour. After six hours, how many rungs are underwater?
Answer: None. The boat floats, so it rises with the tide and the ladder rises right along with it. The bottom rung is still just touching the water.
9/19/26
Brainteaser: You’re in a race and you pass the person in last place. What position are you in now?
Answer: Impossible. To pass someone you have to come up from behind them, and if you’re behind them then you’re the one in last place, not them. The furthest back you can actually pass is second-to-last.
9/12/26
Brainteaser: A snail is at the bottom of a 10-foot well. Each day it climbs up 3 feet, and each night it slides back down 2. How many days until it gets out?
Answer: 8 days. It nets 1 foot every 24 hours, so the instinct is to say 10. But on the morning of day 8 the snail starts from 7 feet, climbs its 3 feet, and reaches the top at 10 feet. It’s already out, so there’s no night eight to slide back down.
9/05/26
Brainteaser: A bat and a ball cost $1.10 together. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
Answer: Five cents. Most people say ten, but check it: if the ball were 10 cents, the bat would be $1.10, and together they’d come to $1.20. Here’s the working. Call the ball x. The bat is x plus $1.00. So x + (x + $1.00) = $1.10, which means 2x = $0.10, so x = $0.05. The ball is 5 cents and the bat is $1.05, and $1.05 is exactly a dollar more than 5 cents.
