Welcome to Top10Archive!
What’s black, white, and red all over?
What can you catch but not throw?
What two things can you never eat for breakfast?
Tear one off and scratch my head, what was red is black instead.
What am I?
Even if you knew the answers to these 4 enigmas in a flash, chances are the following 10 stored
within this Archive will produce steam from betwixt your ears.
We here at Top10Archive are not responsible for the mental breakdown these 10 mind-blowing
riddles can cause.
10.
Two fathers and two sons walk into a candy store.
They each buy something for $.50 but they only spent $1.50.
How is that possible?
Now we hate to start things off with a math equation, but what better way to get those
brain juices flowing?
Here, we’re posed with what seems to be an impossibility that simply does not add
up.
Or multiply up, depending on the method you choose.
Okay, okay.
You can put down your calculators because it’s not a question of math at all.
Consider that one of the fathers and one of the sons is the same person, a rather plausible
scenario if the trio in question is a grandfather, his son, and his grandson.
The middle individual poses as both the son of the grandfather and father of the grandson.
9.
A king, queen, and two twins all lay in a large room.
How are there no adults in the room?
Before you hop on over to Google and search for laws within a feudal system, pay close
attention to the question and then think outside of the box.
Can’t quite wrap your mind around it?
Consider, maybe, that we’re not talking about people, but rather a means of measuring
a very common household object.
If you’ve ever booked a hotel room or been shopping in Bed, Bath, and Beyond, chances
are you’re all over this one.
The king, queen, and two twins in question are beds.
Yep, it’s that simple.
8.
Right Brain vs. Left Brain Not all brain-teasing riddles pose a question,
such as in this mind-testing image.
You may know what to do already, but just in case, read through the entire list of colors
but instead of reading the word you see, read out the color of the word.
Ready?
Go!
Find yourself slipping up a few times?
Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with you.
It’s just the right and left sides of your brain working against one another!
7.
Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the mountain with the highest altitude?
Was it K2 at 28,251 feet?
Maybe Kangchenjunga at 28,169 feet?
If you said Kangchenjunga, which was considered the highest mountain starting in 1838, you
would be absolutely wrong.
It’s not K2, either, as that was found several years after Everest was pinpointed.
So, we must be overlooking a mountain, right?
Technically, we are – Mount Everest.
Before the natural tower was discovered by man, it would still have been the tallest
mountain.
Unless, of course, we’re going down the “if a tree falls in a forest, does it make
a sound” road.
6.
I dig out tiny caves and store gold and silver.
I build silver bridges and create crowns of gold, the smallest you can imagine.
The smallest you can imagine?
It must be talking about dwarven miners, no?
Maybe a Smurf with a side business?
Or could it be possible that the answer is something logical and real that’ll have
you slapping your forehead?
Yeah, it’s definitely the latter.
Think of someone you may know, probably not personally, that will drill holes and fill
them with a gold or silver substance.
If you’re thinking about your dentist, then smile because you’re right on the money.
5.
I am the beginning of the end.
I am the end of every place.
I am the beginning of eternity and the end of time and space.
If you didn’t figure this one out right away, you’re probably sitting there trying
to think of all tangible, plausible responses.
Is it death?
That sounds deep enough to be the answer to such a thought-provoking conundrum – but
it’s also incredibly wrong.
In fact, if that was your thought, you’re overthinking things.
When posed with a riddle, the question is typically meant to trip you up.
So, go back and think of the simplest solution, which sometimes lays within the riddle itself.
In this case, it’s the words.
The beginning of end and eternity, the end of place, time, and space.
Look to the alphabet and you’ll find that the answer is the letter “e.”
4.
The School Bus Looking at the picture of this bus, the question
of which direction it is driving in is posed.
At first glance, it seems impossible to answer.
Both ends are identical, there’s no visual signs of movement, and nothing in the backdrop
is indicative of a clear answer.
Yet, there is a very clear and very simple answer, but if you don’t ride a bus frequently,
it may be easy to overlook.
The rather simple answer is that the bus is traveling to the left, which is made evident
by the lack of a visible door..
During a test implemented by National Geographic, 80% of the children under 10 that they tested
answered this immediately while adults struggled.
3.
Parking Spaces This is a rather popular brain teaser that
is often used to show that adults overthink things a little too much.
The picture presents us with a series of numbers – 16, 06, 68, 88, and 98 – and leads us
to believe we have yet another mathematical stumper on our hands, the issue being that
there’s no clear rhyme or reason to the pattern.
So, how do we solve for the spot we can’t see?
Well, there actually is a pattern in play, but we’re looking at the image upside down.
Flip it over and you find that that spaces increase from right to left, starting with
86 on the end, followed, of course, by 87.
2.
Shooting Her Husband How is it possible that a woman can shoot
her husband, hold him under water for 5 minutes, hang him, and then go out to dinner with him
afterwards?
This isn’t a Weekend at Bernie’s situation, though we appreciate that answer a bit more.
Is it possible that the word “shoot” is not meant the same way you’re thinking?
Could the husband also not be physically present for the hanging and supposed drowning, but
rather we’re talking about a reproduction of him?
It’s a clever play on words meant to make the wife sound like a psychopath, but she’s
really just taking her husband’s picture and developing the negative, just like they
used to do prior to the advent of digital photography.
1.
As I was going to St. Ives…
Thank you Die Hard with a Vengeance for reminding us of this mid-18th century gem!
Okay, ready for the riddle?
Be sure to pay close attention:
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 there going to St. Ives?
Do you have your calculators out again?
If so, you’re wasting your time!
There’s no mention of where the 7 wives were actually going and we have no reason
to believe their journey was towards St. Ives.
So, that leaves just the narrator.
Just to test your math, though, if it was everybody mentioned, you should have gotten
a total of 2,801.