Think first. Stuck? Open the first hint, then the second. When you are ready, reveal the answer and read why it works.
I wag my tail, bark, and often like a game of fetch. What am I?
I am a pet that lives with many families.
I say "Woof!"
A dog.
Dogs wag their tails when they are happy, bark to talk, and love to chase a ball and bring it back. That game is called fetch.
I wag my tail, bark, and often like a game of fetch. What am I?
I am a pet that lives with many families.
I say "Woof!"
A dog.
Dogs wag their tails when they are happy, bark to talk, and love to chase a ball and bring it back. That game is called fetch.
I purr, have whiskers, and say meow. What am I?
I am a soft pet with pointy ears.
I like to chase a ball of yarn.
A cat.
Cats purr when they feel calm and happy, use their long whiskers to feel their way, and say "meow."
I am a huge land animal with a long trunk instead of a little nose. What am I?
I am gray and I have big floppy ears.
I am the biggest animal that lives on land.
An elephant.
An elephant's trunk is its nose and top lip together. It uses the trunk to breathe, smell, drink and pick things up.
My long neck helps me reach leaves high in trees. I have a spotted coat. What am I?
I live on the grasslands of Africa.
I am the tallest animal in the world.
A giraffe.
A giraffe's long neck lets it eat leaves from the tops of trees that other animals cannot reach. Its coat is covered in brown patches.
I have fins and gills and spend my life swimming. What am I?
I live in water.
You might see me in a fish tank or a pond.
A fish.
Fish use their fins to swim and steer, and their gills to take in oxygen from the water.
I began as a caterpillar. Now I flutter on colorful wings. What am I?
You can find me visiting flowers in a garden.
I sip sweet nectar from flowers, and my wings can be bright orange, blue or yellow.
A butterfly.
A butterfly starts life as a tiny egg that hatches into a caterpillar. The caterpillar eats and grows, then rests inside a hard case called a chrysalis. When it comes out, it is a butterfly with four wings. Moths begin as caterpillars too, but butterflies are the ones famous for bright, colorful wings.
I have four legs, a shell attached to my body, and I can swim. What am I?
I move slowly when I walk on land.
Many of us can pull our heads into our shells to stay safe.
A turtle.
A turtle's shell is part of its body: it grows from the turtle's ribs and backbone, so a turtle can never crawl out of it. Turtles swim in ponds, rivers and the sea. A tortoise is a kind of turtle that lives on land and is not a swimmer.
I have a broad bill and webbed feet, and I say quack. What am I?
I am a bird that loves ponds and lakes.
I float on the water, and my babies follow me in a line.
A duck.
Ducks use their broad, flat bills to scoop up food, and their webbed feet push the water like paddles. Many ducks say "quack." Baby ducks are called ducklings.
I hop on strong back legs, have long ears, and twitch my nose. What am I?
I am soft and furry, and some families keep me as a pet.
I have a short, fluffy tail, and I nibble grass and clover.
A rabbit.
Rabbits have strong back legs for hopping fast. Their long ears hear danger from far away, and they twitch their noses to sniff the air. A hare looks a lot like a rabbit, with even longer ears and legs.
I am a bird with big eyes. Many of us hunt at night, and some of us hoot. What am I?
Many of us sleep in the daytime, often up in a tree.
I can turn my head much farther than you can, to look behind me.
An owl.
Owls have big eyes that help them see when it is dark, so many owls hunt at night. Some owls hoot, and others screech or whistle. Olly, PlayOwl's helper, is an owl too!
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I have a face and hands, but no arms or legs. I tell you the time. What am I?
I often hang on a wall or sit beside a bed.
My hands move around in a circle, pointing at numbers.
A clock.
A clock's "face" is its front, where the numbers are. Its "hands" are the pointers that move to show the hour and the minutes. A watch has a face and hands too, so a watch is a good answer.
I have teeth but cannot bite. You pull me through your hair. What am I?
You might use me when you get ready in the morning.
I am thin and flat, with a long row of little points.
A comb.
The "teeth" of a comb are the thin points in a row. They cannot bite, but they slide through hair to untangle it and make it neat.
I have a neck and hold a drink, but I have no head. What am I?
I can be made of glass or plastic.
You twist a cap off my top before you pour.
A bottle.
The narrow part near the top of a bottle is called its neck, just like the part of your body under your head. A bottle has a neck but no head at all: just a cap or a cork on top.
People use me to go up and down, but I stay in the same place. I have steps. What am I?
Many houses and schools have me between their floors.
You climb me one foot at a time, and there may be a railing to hold.
A staircase.
A staircase helps people go up and down between floors, but the staircase itself never moves: you do the moving, one step at a time. An elevator is different, because it moves up and down with you inside.
I have a heads side and a tails side, but no body. You can spend me. What am I?
You might keep me in a piggy bank.
I am small, round and made of metal.
A coin.
The "heads" side of a coin usually shows a person's head, and the other side is called "tails." A coin has no body, but you can spend it as money. People flip a coin and call "heads or tails" to make a fair choice.
I have an eye that cannot see. Thread goes through it when someone sews. What am I?
I am long, thin and shiny.
My other end is very sharp, so handle me with care.
A sewing needle.
The small hole at the top of a needle is called its eye. The thread goes through the eye, and the sharp point pulls the thread through the cloth, stitch by stitch.
I show towns, roads, and rivers, but no real people or flowing water are inside me. What am I?
People look at me when they want to find their way.
I am a flat picture of a place, as if you saw it from high above.
A map.
A map shows where towns, roads and rivers are, using lines, colors and little symbols. The rivers on a map are only drawings, so no water flows, and the towns have no real people in them.
I have keys that cannot open a door. Press them to make music. What am I?
My keys are black and white.
Someone sits on a bench and plays me with both hands.
A piano.
A piano has 88 black and white keys. When you press a key, a little felt hammer inside hits a string, and the string makes a musical note. These keys play music; they do not unlock anything.
My keys have letters, and pressing them can put words on a screen. What am I?
I am often connected to a computer or built into a laptop.
My keys sit in rows, and one long key at the bottom makes spaces.
A keyboard.
A computer keyboard has a key for every letter. When you press a key, the computer shows that letter on the screen. The long key at the bottom is the space bar, which puts a space between words.
I get wetter while I dry your hands. What am I?
You can find me hanging in a bathroom or a kitchen.
I am soft and fluffy, and I soak up water.
A towel.
When you dry your hands, the water moves from your skin into the towel. So your hands get drier while the towel gets wetter.
Which months have at least 28 days?
Good to know: We use the calendar most of the world uses, where every month has 28 to 31 days. "At least 28" means 28 or more.
Read the question again carefully: it says "at least," not "exactly."
Even the shortest month of the year has 28 days.
All twelve months.
February is the shortest month, with 28 days (29 in a leap year). Every other month has 30 or 31 days. So every month has at least 28 days: all twelve of them.
What begins with T, ends with T, and can have tea inside?
This riddle works with English spelling and sound: TEAPOT starts and ends with the letter T, and "tea" sounds like the letter T.
You might see me at a tea party.
I have a spout and a handle, and you pour from me.
A teapot.
TEAPOT begins with the letter T and ends with the letter T, and it holds tea inside. Bonus: the word "tea" sounds just like the letter T, so a teapot has T inside in two ways!
Which letter appears once in MINUTE, twice in MOMENT, and not at all in HOUR?
This riddle works with English spelling: it counts the letters in the words MINUTE, MOMENT and HOUR.
Write the three words in capital letters and compare them.
Only one letter shows up twice in MOMENT.
M.
MINUTE has one M, MOMENT has two M's, and HOUR has none. No other letter fits all three clues.
Which five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to the end of it?
This riddle plays with English words: SHORT plus the ending -ER spells SHORTER.
Adding letters makes a word longer to write, so the trick is in what the new word means.
Many describing words grow by two letters when you compare things: tall, taller; fast, faster.
SHORT. Add E and R to the end, and it becomes SHORTER.
Adding letters always makes a word longer to write. But add E and R to SHORT, and you get SHORTER, a word that means "less long." The word gets longer while its meaning gets shorter!
Forward I name a unit of weight; backward I spell NOT. What word am I?
This riddle works with English spelling: NOT read from right to left spells TON.
The word you want has only three letters.
Start with the last letter of NOT and read toward the first.
TON.
NOT spelled backward is T-O-N: TON. A ton is a big unit of weight. In the United States, a ton is 2,000 pounds.
I am a four-letter body part. Remove my first letter and I become ONE. What am I?
This riddle works with English spelling: BONE without its first letter spells ONE.
You have more than 200 of me inside your body.
Your skeleton is made of me.
BONE.
Take the B off BONE, and the letters left spell ONE. Bones are the hard parts inside your body; a grown-up has 206 of them.
Which letter can you remove from TRAIN to make something that falls from clouds?
This riddle works with English spelling: TRAIN without its T spells RAIN.
Cover one letter of TRAIN at a time with your finger and read what is left.
What falls from clouds and makes puddles?
T, leaving RAIN.
Take the T away from the front of TRAIN, and you are left with RAIN, which falls from clouds.
Which five-letter word keeps the same pronunciation after you remove its last four letters?
This riddle works with English spelling and sound: QUEUE is pronounced exactly like the name of the letter Q.
The word means a line of people waiting their turn.
It starts with Q, and the four letters after the Q are all vowels.
QUEUE. Take away its last four letters, and the Q left behind sounds the same.
A QUEUE is a line of people or things waiting their turn. It is said "kyoo," just like the name of the letter Q. Remove U, E, U and E, and the Q left behind still sounds exactly the same.
I name an odd number. Remove my first letter and the remaining word is EVEN. What am I?
This riddle works with English spelling: SEVEN without its first letter spells EVEN.
I am a number less than ten.
Spell each odd number below ten and look for EVEN hiding inside.
SEVEN.
Seven is an odd number. Take away its S, and the letters left spell EVEN. So the word is odd and even at the same time!
Which letter appears once in YEAR, twice in WEEK, and not at all in DAY?
This riddle works with English spelling: it counts the letters in the words YEAR, WEEK and DAY.
Look closely at the letters of each word, one word at a time.
Only one letter shows up twice in WEEK.
E.
YEAR has one E, WEEK has two E's, and DAY has none. No other letter fits all three clues.
Two fathers and two sons share three sandwiches, one sandwich each. How can there be only three people?
Good to know: One person can be a father and a son at the same time, and the three people are from one family.
Can one person be counted twice: once as a father and once as a son?
The same man can be a father to his child and a son to his own father.
They are a grandfather, his son, and his grandson.
The grandfather is a father. His son is a father too, because he has a son of his own, and he is also a son. The grandson is a son. That makes two fathers and two sons, but only three people, so three sandwiches are enough.
In a race, you pass the runner who is in second place. What place are you in now?
Good to know: You pass only that one runner, and nobody passes you at the same time.
Picture the race: where must you be just before you pass that runner?
When you pass someone, you take their spot, and they drop back behind you.
Second place.
To pass the runner in second place, you must be right behind them, in third place. When you pass, you take their spot: now you are second, and they are third. The runner in first place is still ahead of you, so the quick answer "first" is not right.
Five apples are on the table. You take two. How many apples did you take?
Good to know: The question asks how many apples you took, not how many are left on the table.
Read the last question very carefully.
The question asks about the apples in your hands, not the ones on the table.
Two.
Many people answer three, because three apples are left on the table. But the question asks how many apples you took, and you took two.
A ball is in one of three boxes: red, blue, or green. It is not in red or green. Where is it?
Good to know: There is exactly one ball, and it is certainly in one of the three boxes.
Cross out each box the ball cannot be in.
Two boxes are crossed out. Which one is left?
The blue box.
The ball must be in one of the three boxes. It is not in the red box, and it is not in the green box, so the only box left is the blue one.
In a pretend game, every red block is a cube, and no cube can roll. Can any red block roll in that game?
Good to know: Inside the pretend game, both rules are always true, even if real blocks could tumble. We use only the rules, not real life.
Use only the two rules of the game, even if real blocks act differently.
Is a red block a cube? Then what does the second rule say about it?
No.
Every red block is a cube, and no cube can roll. So every red block is a cube that cannot roll. In real life you might tip a cube over, but inside this pretend game the rules are always true.
Ali is ahead of Bo in a three-person line. Bo is ahead of Cam. Who is in the middle?
Good to know: The three people stand in one straight line, and "ahead" means closer to the front.
Draw three circles in a row and write a name in each one.
Ali is ahead of Bo, and Bo is ahead of Cam. Who is at the very front?
Bo.
Ali is ahead of Bo, and Bo is ahead of Cam. So from the front, the line goes Ali, Bo, Cam, and Bo is in the middle.
Each number after the first two is the sum of the two before it: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. What comes next?
Check the rule on the start of the list: 1 + 1 = 2, and 1 + 2 = 3.
Use the last two numbers in the list.
13.
Each new number is the two before it added together: 1 + 1 = 2, 1 + 2 = 3, 2 + 3 = 5, 3 + 5 = 8, and 5 + 8 = 13. This is called the Fibonacci sequence. Its numbers often show up in nature, like the spirals of seeds in a sunflower.
Today is Monday. What day will it be three days from today?
Good to know: "Three days from today" means you start counting with tomorrow.
Count forward one day at a time, starting with tomorrow.
Tomorrow is Tuesday. Keep counting two more days.
Thursday.
Count three days forward from Monday: Tuesday is one, Wednesday is two, and Thursday is three.
I am a whole number greater than 20 and less than 30. I divide exactly by both 3 and 4. What am I?
A number that divides exactly by 3 and by 4 also divides exactly by 12.
Count by 12s: 12, then the next one.
24.
Numbers that divide exactly by both 3 and 4 are the multiples of 12: 12, 24, 36 and so on. The only one between 20 and 30 is 24.
I am a solid shape with exactly six faces, all squares. What am I?
Many building blocks and game dice have this shape.
Ice in a cold drink often comes in this shape.
A cube.
A cube has six flat faces, and every face is a square of the same size. A cube also has 12 edges and 8 corners. A box whose faces are not all squares is called a rectangular prism.
With one straight cut, snip a small triangle off one corner of a square. The cut crosses the two sides that meet at that corner. How many corners does the bigger piece have now?
Good to know: The cut crosses each of the two sides partway along, not through another corner, and only the bigger piece's corners are counted.
Draw a square on paper and try it with one pencil line.
Count the corner the cut takes away, then the new corners it makes where it crosses each side.
Five.
A square has 4 corners. The cut takes away 1 corner, leaving 3. But it makes 2 new corners, one where it crosses each side. 3 + 2 = 5, so the bigger piece is a pentagon, a shape with five corners.
A snail climbs 3 meters each day and slips 2 meters each night. Starting at the bottom, on which day does it first reach the top of a 10-meter wall?
Good to know: The snail starts at the bottom in the morning, climbs 3 meters every day and slips 2 meters every night. Once it reaches the top, it stops and does not slip.
Each day and night together, the snail ends up only 1 meter higher. But watch the very last day.
On its last day, the snail can reach the top before night comes, so it never slips back.
Day eight. It reaches the top that day, so it never slips back down.
After each day and night, the snail is 1 meter higher: at 1 meter after the first night, 2 meters after the second, and 7 meters after the seventh. On day 8 it climbs 3 meters, from 7 to 10, and reaches the top before night. The quick answer, day 10, forgets that last big climb.
Two US coins total 30 cents. One of them is not a nickel. Which coins are they?
Good to know: Only real US coins count. "One of them is not a nickel" is true of the quarter; it does not mean the other coin cannot be a nickel.
List the coins that could add up to exactly 30 cents with just two of them.
The riddle says one coin is not a nickel. It does not say that neither coin is a nickel.
A quarter and a nickel. The quarter is the one that is not a nickel.
The only two US coins that make 30 cents are a quarter (25 cents) and a nickel (5 cents). The riddle says one of them is not a nickel, and that is true: the quarter is not a nickel. The other coin is.
A bat and a ball cost $1.10 altogether. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. What does the ball cost?
Good to know: The bat and the ball are the only two things, and the prices are in whole cents.
Test your first guess: add the ball's price and the bat's price. Is the total $1.10, and is the bat exactly $1 more?
If the ball were 10 cents, the bat would be $1.10, and together they would be $1.20. Try a smaller amount.
Five cents. The bat costs $1.05.
If the ball costs 5 cents, the bat costs $1 more: $1.05. Together, $1.05 + $0.05 = $1.10. The quick answer, 10 cents, does not work: the bat would cost $1.10, and the total would be $1.20.
A farmer must take a fox, a chicken, and grain across a river. The boat carries the farmer and one item. Without the farmer, the fox cannot stay with the chicken, or the chicken with the grain. How can everything cross?
Good to know: Only the farmer can row the boat, and it holds the farmer plus at most one item. Trouble happens only on a bank the farmer has left, never during a crossing.
Which one is the troublemaker that cannot be left with either of the others?
The boat can carry something back to the start, too.
Take the chicken across. Go back alone. Take the fox across. Bring the chicken back. Take the grain across. Go back alone. Take the chicken across.
The chicken is the problem: it cannot be left with the fox or with the grain, so it crosses first. Then the farmer takes the fox over, brings the chicken back, swaps it for the grain, and fetches the chicken last. Taking the grain before the fox works too. Seven trips is the fewest possible.
Anna, Beth, and Cara each have a different pet: cat, dog, or fish. Anna has neither cat nor dog. Beth does not have the dog. Who has each pet?
Good to know: Each girl has exactly one pet, and no two girls have the same kind of pet.
Start with the person the riddle tells you the most about.
Anna has neither the cat nor the dog, so only one pet is left for her.
Anna has the fish, Beth has the cat, and Cara has the dog.
Anna has neither the cat nor the dog, so she has the fish. Beth does not have the dog, and the fish is taken, so Beth has the cat. That leaves the dog for Cara.
Eight balls look identical, but one is heavier. Using a balance scale, how can you always find it in no more than two weighings?
Good to know: Exactly one ball is heavier, and the other seven weigh the same. The balance scale only shows which side is heavier, or that the two sides are equal.
Think about splitting them into more than two groups.
Put 3 on each side for the first weighing. What can each result tell you?
Weigh three against three. If they balance, weigh the last two against each other. If one side is heavier, take two balls from that side and weigh one against the other; if they balance, the third ball from that side is the heavy one.
Weighing 3 against 3 splits the eight balls into three groups: one pan, the other pan, and the 2 set aside. If the scale balances, the heavy ball is one of the 2 set aside, and one more weighing finds it. If one side is heavier, the heavy ball is one of those 3: weigh 1 against 1, and if they balance, it is the third. Either way, two weighings are enough.
In a three-digit number, the tens digit is two more than the ones digit. The hundreds digit is one less than the tens digit. The digits add to 12. What is the number?
Call the ones digit a mystery number, then write the other two digits using it.
The hundreds digit is one more than the ones digit. Try ones digits 1, 2, 3 and add up all three digits each time.
453.
If the ones digit is 3, the tens digit is 5 (two more) and the hundreds digit is 4 (one less than 5). 4 + 5 + 3 = 12, so the number is 453. Other choices miss: a ones digit of 2 gives 342, whose digits add up to only 9.
A drawer has three red socks and three blue socks. Without looking, how many socks must you take out to be sure of getting two of the same color?
Good to know: You take socks out one at a time without looking, and any two socks of the same color count as a pair.
Think about the unluckiest way the socks could come out.
Your first two socks might be one red and one blue. What about the next sock?
Three.
The first two socks might not match: one red and one blue. The third sock has to be red or blue, so it always matches one of them. Three socks are always enough, and two are not.
A pen holds only chickens and rabbits. There are 20 heads and 56 legs. How many rabbits are there?
Good to know: Every chicken has 2 legs, every rabbit has 4 legs, and each animal has one head.
Every animal has one head, so there are 20 animals in all.
If all 20 were chickens, there would be 40 legs. Each rabbit has 2 more legs than a chicken.
Eight rabbits and twelve chickens.
Pretend all 20 animals are chickens: that makes 40 legs. There are 56 legs, which is 16 more. Each rabbit has 2 more legs than a chicken, so 16 ÷ 2 = 8 rabbits. The other 12 are chickens. Check: 8 × 4 + 12 × 2 = 32 + 24 = 56 legs.
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