AssemblyBoard

I was totally floored by this riddle, and had a good laugh when I came upon the answer ;D.  Go ahead and try it, and tell me what you think.  I will give out the riddle to those who send me a personal message...unless of course someone is able to solve it ;D!  Here goes:


A boy was at a carnival and went to a booth where a man said to the boy, "If I write your exact weight on this piece of paper then you have to give me $50, but if I cannot, I will pay you $50."

The boy looked around and saw no scale so he agrees, thinking no matter what the carny writes he'll just say he weighs more or less.

In the end the boy ended up paying the man $50. How did the man win the bet?

OH YEAH-

If you do solve it, please don't post it, so that others can continue to try and figure it out-thanks! :D

solved it.

Is it as obvious as I think it is? (literally speaking...)
Verne

Ok, here's the deal.  If I can post the answer to the riddle you will pay me $500 (factor in a COLA since the time of the riddle's creation).  If I cannot, then I will pay you $500.

 ;D


 

Never mind, Eulala, I got it. ;D

Karey Thornton

It reminds me of some other easy bets: "I bet you $50 that I can knock down this brick wall with my bare hands", or "I bet you $50 that I can jump higher than that building"

Here's another easy bet:

I bet you a dollar that if you give me six dollars, I'll give you six hundred dollars back.

Reminds me of those "if you win, you lose" carnival games that you pay $2 to have a guy guess your weight, and if he is wrong you get the prize worth about 50 cents.  Why do people play those games???

Eulaha,

I figured this one out in about 5 seconds.  I taught 6th grade for years, and they love this type of riddle.  I would get hit with one about once a week.

Thomas Maddux

Sixth grade - then you must have heard:

Tom and Bob have the same parents.
They look exactly alike.
They are the same age.
But they are not twins, how is this possible?

Can you take a picture of a man with a wooden leg?

Only if the wooden leg has a camera in it...

I wanna hear more about George and the Giant Hand Unlce Joe! ;)

Brent

Can you take a picture of a heretic with a giant hand?

It's amazing what this BB has been able to produce. I got a call from a big Hollywood Bigshot Producer/Writer today, who happens to be a "lurker" here. He saw something that he thinks might really take off and he's moving with it. Do you remember that movie a couple of years ago starring Billy Crystal called "My Giant"? It didn't make a lot of money, but the concept was quite interesting. Well, this producer has an idea in the same vein, based on something he read here. He's going to call it "My Giant Hand". But instead of a Giant, a Giant Hand will accompany a small Greek kid named "Georgie" wherever he goes. Whenever Georgie gets himself into a "fix" the Giant Hand will be there to get him out of trouble. The first installment "Traffic problems for Georgie" will be when he first encounters the Giant Hand and develops a lifelong atttachment to it.

Apparently the Giant Hand will communicate with Georgie through sign language, but the details are not written in stone yet. They are already talking about merchandising, with a "Georgie and the Giant Hand Playset" complete with Georgie and a Giant hand ensemble for the children to play with. I find it all very exciting. I'll keep you updated.

Joe, you are funny.

Have you heard GG tell the story of the time he had to visit a clinic somewhere, and the doctor called him Georgie Porgie. GG decided that the doctor was acting immaturely, so he got up and walked out of the doctor's office.

Then your 'movie' idea reminded me of Groundhog Day for some reason. GG's consequence for not having his act together: he wakes up each and every morning to Sonny singing "I've got you, babe"...

Marcia

I heard this one on Jeopardy today:

To a good student, the only word that is misspelled in this sentence.

Marcia

I learned some of GG's appauling attitude when we started sign language interpreting at the seminars.  He was bothered that we sat up front.  He was basically unaware of what we were doing.

One time, when he came to San Diego, he said something bizarre (what a surprise), and said "I'm glad this isn't being translated."  The woman doing the interpreting at the time got a funny expression on her face.

The seminars got much easier to both interpret and even sit through once I realized that the high-sounding language was just a sham.  Otherwise, they were usually just basic points somewhat poorly jumbled together.

I guess Tom and Bob are twins, and their parents are the same age but are not twins.

Seems to revolve around what "they" refers to.

Thomas Maddux

Tom and Bob could be triplets...or quads...etc.
Verne

Nope, all "theys" refer to Tom and Bob.  But good thinking though.
You got it.  Tom, Bob and their brother John are triplets.

Joe,
     Get a good agent before you sign anything.  You might want to check with a lawyer, too.  For one thing, you'll have to use the disclaimers "based on true events" and "no hands were harmed in the making of this motion picture."
     Then you'll have to change the ending to satisfy the sensibilities of the moviegoing public.  The real story ends tragically:  The giant hand gets a giant hangnail which gets infected, then becomes gangrenous.  Ultimately the giant hand dies, leaving poor Georgie-Boy trying desperately to hold his life's work together, but unable to get a helping hand. ;)
     i can see Haley Joe Osmont cast as the young-teen Georgie, with the adult character portrayed by Dennis Hopper or Jack Nicholson.  The giant hand could be played by whoever played the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man in "Ghostbusters." :o


Tom,
     You disappoint me.   i got this one, & i've had nothing to do with sixth graders for years!
 ;D al

Tom and Bob have the same parents.
They look exactly alike.
They are the same age.
But they are not twins, how is this possible?


OK, Al, you know my struggle with grammar.
Since the word "they" is ambiguous, would it refer to the closest noun (parents) or would it refer to "Tom and Bob" since they are clearly the subject of the preceeding sentence?

- CSULB Math Major

I think that normally "they" would refer to the most recent plural noun, but it could be argued that the word must refer to something that makes sense.  It would be quite unusual for the parents of Tom and Bob to look exactly alike.

Retread's answer could also be debated, since the probability of identical brothers from a triplet birth is quite low.  It seems unlikely that their names are actually Tom and Bob.  I'm guessing that the premise of the question is actually false, unless Retread can tell us their last name and where they live.

Dave,
     In this case, common sense takes precedence over rules of grammar because the statement wasn't presented grammatically intact.  It kinda has to be interpreted by gut-feeling.  Of course, this means that 50% of its readers will get it wrong, but what else is new...

Stephen,
     You are quite correct in that their names are not Tom, Bob & John.  Neither are they triplets, but rather the last three to be born of sextuplets.  After the births of their sisters, Shirley, Goodness & Mercy, came the three boys:  Mo, Nomo & Stillmo.
     Their parents are itinerant laborers, so i don't have an address, but i think their last name is Prolific or something like that.

 ;)al

This reminds me of an interesting story about twins that I read when I was a kid. It was essentially how a sister who looked exactly like her brother (presumably an identical twin) subbed for him when he was ill and won the game by hitting a home run in the bottom of the ninth. Nobody recognized her in her baseball cap and uniform. I of course at the time bought it hook line and sinker not knowing too much about the genetics of reproductive biology. What is wrong with the story? (everbody except Steve...)
Verne
p.s. HInt: think "identical twins"

Answer:  It is supposedly related by Verne Carty, but contains no huge multisyllablic words.  Obviously a case of someone else posting in Verne's name! ;)

Al, I think your explanation clears things up.  I was going down the line where Bob is a type of the flesh and Tom a type of the spirit.  One drowns while crossing the Jordon while the other exercises reckoning faith.

Tom and Bob are albino rabbits. They look exactly alike, but they are not twins. They have another 14 brothers and sisters who exactly like them also.

Al---

Thanks for the input concerning the movie. However, it appears the movie may go down in flames. Unfortunately the Giant Hand is demanding his own trailer, and 40% of the profits.

--Joe

A census taker calls at a house, he asks the woman living there the ages of her three daughters. The woman says "If you multiply their ages, the total is 72. If you add together their ages, the total is the same as the number on my front door, which you can see."

The census taker says "That is not enough information for me to calculate their ages."  The woman says "Well, my eldest daughter has a cat with a wooden leg." The census taker replies "Ah, now I know their ages."

What are the ages of the three girls?

The statement of the riddle is flawed since the two oldest could be the same number of years old without being the same age.  So technically, the riddle has no solution.

The solution of an appropriately rephrased version of the problem can be found fairly easily.

I know exactly how that is.  I've got a good friend who is deaf.   She and I used to work together, and during staff meetings, when the . . execute directly. . executive director would get long winded, it was amazing how quickly the interpreter would just cut to the chase and give my friend the essence of what was being said and then, for the last fifteen day. . .minutes, they (the interpreter and my friend) would chat about almost anything other than what was going on.  The director didn't get it, since her sign language wasn't all that good.  Sounds like we couldv'e used someone like that during those long, boring seminars with GG.  I know I could have.

While we're talking about more serious problems, here's one that doubles as a joke simply because it's funny.  It's in one of the several small booklets that I have that were published by Litton called "Problematical Recreations".  Solving the problem is actually fairly straightforward.

---

A rope over the top of a fence has the same length on each side.  Weighs 1/3 pound per foot.  On one end hangs a monkey holding a banana, and on the other end a weight equal to the weight of the monkey.  The banana weighs 2 ounces per inch.  The rope is as long as the age of the monkey, and the weight of the monkey (in ounces) is as much as the age of the monkey's mother.  The combined ages of monkey and mother are 30 years.  1/2 the weight of the monkey, plus the weight of the banana, is 1/4 as much as the weight of the weight and the weight of the rope.  The monkey's mother is 1/2 as old as the monkey will be when it is 3 times as old as its mother was when she was 1/2 as old as the monkey will be when it is as old as its mother will be when she is 4 times as old as the monkey was when it was twice as old as its mother was when she was 1/3 as old as the monkey was when it was as old as its mother was when she was 3 times as old as the monkey was when it was 1/4 as old as it is now.  How long is the banana?

-- UCLA Engineering Student Newsletter

---

Stephen,
     i know you can solve these problems in your head while doing a crossword puzzle & eating a meatball sandwich, but just reading that gave me an Excedrin headache. :-\
     Could we just stick to something within the scope of the average person, such as calculating the dimensions of the Giant Hand, before & after a manicure?
     Please excuse me, i have to go lie down now...

al ;)

 I assume the weight W, on the other side is equal to the monkey's, M plus the banana B's weight combined? The statment of the problem says the weight is equal to only the monkey's weight...I also assume we ignore friction? I would set L as the length of the rope, W as the weight M as the weight of the monkey and B as the banana's weight...I think we have enough info to solve for B...
Verne

I deal with this sort of thing in real life, quite often.  

On a sailboat, we use sealed torlon bearings, in blocks (pulleys for you landlubbers) to guide lines (ropes) over and around things.  "Monkeys" and their mothers, frequently hang on these, and often with bananas, even bottles of beer from time to time. (The father and mother, not the little monkeys)

Friction is the real problem.  If you don't find out the friction of the fence/rope interface, the rest of the problem is moot.  A good engineer wouldn't agree to solve the problem, because the friction is the largest force in the equation, (a knot is just friction) and is unaccounted for.

Sorry, this is a bad problem with no solution except to chase the monkeys away from the fence, being careful not to get bitten by these nasty creatures.

Brent

Brent

Read it carefully.  Friction doesn't come into play, since it tells you that the weight on the other side weighs the same as the monkey and the banana.  It isn't really a physics problem, just a convoluted algebra story problem.

I rebuke you in the name of Clifford Ashley, the guru of lines, splices, bends, hitches and knots.  ;)

Friction is literally a life and death issue.  Ask any mountain climber, who has his own weight on one end of the rope, and the weight of a knot on the other.  Whether of not the weight is equal has no bearing whatsoever of the fact that friction is the main factor in the equation!  

Now, if the problem said to ignore friction,  a foolish thing to do, then you would be 100% correct.  However, since I don't feel like trying to express this problem algebraicly,  I am going to take the easy and correct way out by playing my friction argument.

Like I said, I do this in real life all the time.

Brent

Actually David, that point is not clear; the problem states that the weight on the other side is the same  as the weight of the monkey! To solve the problem we must assume your above statement is true.  If we consider the weight of the monkey and the banana to be equal to the weight on the other side, the solution is of course trivial... :)

m + b = w

m/2 + b = (R_w + W)/4

m/2 + b =  (R_w + m + b)/4  etc. etc.

R_w = weight of rope


Verne

Since the banana is related to the length of the rope, there is no way that the riddle can be answered.  We need to know all the elastic, inelastic as well as the time-dependent stress/strain relationships of the rope and how long the monkey was sitting on the rope with his/her banana.  Then there's temperature effects, so we need to know the variation of temperature of the rope during the time considered, as well as what time domain to use for this problem.   blah blah blah....

So, I'll say the banana is between 4 and 8 inches.

I say we just eat the banana... ;D
Verne

Since there was ambiguity before the eldest daughter was mentioned, that means that there was an alternative answer before that in which there were at least two oldest daughters.  The product of the three ages would in that case be a square number multiplied by the youngest age.

The square numbers that divide into 72 are 1, 4, 9 and 36.  The only choice is 36 since the others would make the third age to be the oldest.  So the alternative answer would have been 6, 6 and 2.  These add up to 14.  Finding the real answer, also with total 14, is left for the reader.

Unfortunately, the statement that there is an eldest daughter doesn't exclude the possibility that the two oldest daughters might be of ages 6 years and 11 months, and 6 years and 1 month.  They would both be said to be 6 years old, yet one is clearly older than the other.

If fractions are allowed, there may be more possibilities.  Something to investigate.

A computer search found more than 40 variations on the census taker problem.

Instead of 72, suppose the kids' ages multiply to make 720?

or 900?  or 1008?  or 2800?  or 2880?  or 4032?  or 8640?

Each of these variations on the problem has a unique solution.

(Well, one of them has a second solution that is unrealistic.)

Since there are 8 bits in a dollar:

1 Baud = 450 Dollars per Hour.

(Sorry, this is a joke rather than a riddle.)

Stephen,

     I regret having to say this, but that was a Baud joke!!

al ;)

I saw this on Jeopardy last night:

What is the only word in the English language that has the letters GNT consecutively
in the word?

This one was hard but I think I got it Joe.
Is it SOVEREIGNTY?
Verne

Verne---

Very good--that's correct. :D

--Joe