Here are some wicked math riddles. Go ahead and see if you can solve all of them without peeking at the answers!
Riddle me this, riddle me that, who’s afraid of the big, black bat?
– The Riddler (Batman Forever)
Riddles are always a great way to have fun with friends, as well as to kill time when alone! However, here you would be teasing your brains and pitching your wits against some frustratingly elusive as well as unbelievably easy (the kind which looks difficult but the simplicity of the solution puts you to shame!) math riddles and see how we fare! These math riddles with answers are of different levels of difficulty and require some amount of concentration and clear, logical reasoning to crack them. And hey – no peeking!
If you take 3 apples from a group of 5, how many do you have?
Why should you never mention the number 288 in front of anyone?
What weighs more – a pound of iron or a pound of feathers?
How many eggs can you put in an empty basket one foot in diameter?
If you can purchase 8 eggs for 26 cents, how many can you buy for a cent and a quarter?
How many 9’s are there between 1 and 100?
Which has more value – 1 pound of $20 gold coins or half a pound of $40 gold coins?
Why is the longest human nose on record is only 11 inches long?
If a rooster laid 13 eggs, and the farmer took 8 of them, and then another rooster laid 12 eggs and 4 of them were rotten, how many of the eggs were left?
I am an odd number; take away an alphabet and I become even. What number am I?
What would be the seventh rung of the following pyramid?
1
11
21
1211
111221
312211
13112221
(Psst! This is one of the best riddles and my personal favorite in this section – so, don’t let me down on this one!)
You have a barrel of beer and you need to measure out just one gallon. How do you do this if you only have a three-gallon container and a five-gallon container?
If you have 6 black socks, 4 blue socks, 8 brown socks, and 2 red socks in your sock drawer, what is the minimum number of socks that you need to pull out in the dark to be sure you had a matching pair?
Jake weighs half as much as Joe, and John weighs three times as much as Jake. Together, they weigh 720 pounds. How much does each man weigh?
So you think you’re good at math? Complete the sequence: 1=3, 2=3, 3=5, 4=4, 5=4, 6=3, 7=5, 8=5, 9=4, 10=3, 11=?, 12=?
In a certain country ½ of 5 = 3. Assuming the same proportion, what would be the value of 1/3 of 10 ?
27 ducks are marching to the pond. 5 lose their way, 13 return, and 9 of them make it to the pond. What happens to the rest of them?
Mary has three coins of American currency. They are neither quarters, dimes, nor pennies, but they add up to 60 cents. What are they?
A merchant can place 8 large boxes or 10 small boxes into a carton for shipping. In one shipment, he sent a total of 96 boxes. If there are more large boxes than small boxes, how many cartons did he ship?
A frog fell into a hole that was 14½ feet deep. He could jump 3 feet, but he slid back a foot each time he jumped. How many jumps does it take him to get out of the hole?
Aron had twelve ear buds in front of him. He took one away. Now he had nine in front of him. How is this possible?
Tom was asked how old he was. He replied “In 2 years I will be twice as old as I was five years ago.’ How old is he ?
A woman has 7 daughters and they each have a brother, how many children does she have?
A 40-yard long street has a tree every 10 yards on both sides. How many trees are there?
There are 10 apples with you, and 10 friends who want them. You give each an apple, yet one apple remains in the basket…how is this possible?
How many two cent stamps are there in a dozen?
I’m there once in a minute, twice in a moment but never in a thousand years. Who am I?
Add 2 to 200 four times? What do you have?
Can you take 9 from 6, 10 from 9, 50 from 40 and still be left with 6?
A boy is twice as old as his sister, and half as old as their father. In 50 years, his sister will be half as old as their father. How old is the boy now?
What are the next three numbers in this series? 4, 6, 12, 18, 30, 42, 60, 72, 102, 108,…?
Rob and Mark live in different parts of town but attend the same high school. Mark left for school ten minutes before Jose and they met in the park. Who was closer to school when they met?
The Man at St. Ives is one of the oldest riddles in history, check it out.
As I was going to St. Ives
I met a man with seven wives.
Each wife had seven sacks,
Each sack had seven cats,
Each cat had seven kits;
Kits, cats, sacks and wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?
Math riddles are a creative way of having fun as well as sharpening your acumen with numbers and details. For those of you who are mathematical geniuses, here’s a parting riddle, created by none other than the great Albert Einstein himself! Considered one of the hardest riddles of all time, try cracking this confounding piece that tickles your logical reasoning powers!
Einstein’s Riddle
In a street there are five houses, painted five different colors. In each house lives a person of different nationality. These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke different brand of cigar and keep a different pet. Who owns the fish?
Necessary Clues
➤ The Brit lives in a red house.
➤ The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
➤ The Dane drinks tea.
➤ The Green house is next to, and on the left of the White house.
➤ The owner of the Green house drinks coffee.
➤ The person smoking Pall Mall rears birds.
➤ The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill.
➤ The man living in the center house drinks milk.
➤ The Norwegian man lives in the first house.
➤ The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
➤ The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
➤ The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
➤ The German smokes Prince.
➤ The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
➤ The Blends smoker lives next door to the man who drinks water.
Though touted among the world’s most challenging riddles and considered one of the hardest mathematical riddles ever, this one’s not very difficult to crack if one has patience and has a flair for systematic data interpretation. Get that thinking cap on and do let me know the solution when you arrive at it. Till then, stay riddled!
