Wonky Scale...

A farmer badly in need of money has decided to sell walnuts. He has a brick that weighs exactly 1 kilogram and a wonky lever balance: the distances are different. A customer comes and asks for 2 kg of walnuts.

The farmer thinks that if he puts the the weight in the left pan and measures out walnuts to balance it out, then switches the walnuts and the weight, and adds the two amounts of walnuts, he'll have the two kilograms.
Is he right?

If not, then how is it possible to measure the two kilograms?

How to slice a cake

This is one of the easier math problems that requires either one good look or several minutes' worth of squinting at it and trying to force your mind to think out of the box.  To many mathematicians, the answer seems obvious as soon as they hear the problem, but for some people, it takes awhile.

How to cut a generic birthday cake into eight pieces in no more than three straight cuts? No special tools or anything.

The answer is at answersdiscarded.blogspot.com.

Please, please, please try to think of the answer before looking it up.

Wise People

On a distant planet, far across the galaxies, a mighty ruler decided to test her wise people to find out which one of them was the wisest. She invited them to her planet,  and offered them wine and food.  The wise people, whose talents were much unappreciated,  had not seen so much food in all of their lives, and were soon sound asleep.  When the wise people woke up, they all saw that everyone's faces were colored green, but they could not see their own faces. They all immediately started laughing, and so did the ruler, quietly laughing behind her secret spot under a table loaded with dessert.
But then one stopped, and then another.
They all gradually stopped laughing, realizing that they, too must have paint on their faces.
The ruler named the first one to stop her prime minister.

Question: how did the wise people find out that they, too had been colored green?
Hint: try deciding on a number of wise people.

The answer is at answersdiscarded.blogspot.com.

PLEASE THINK ABOUT IT BEFORE YOU LOOK IT UP.

The Riddle of the Three Doors

     You are a noble prince, and you are on a quest to save your beloved princess. The wicked Dragon has captured her and locked her up in his dark tower.  None have yet defeated this vile creature, but nothing will stop your determination to challenge it.  However, the monster had two cups of strong, rich, coffee this morning, and is feeling benign.  It leads you up to three doors, and says:
  "Two of these doors have tigers behind them, but one leads to your princess. You can choose."
One out of three is a poor chance for such a valiant prince, but fighting the dragon you stand no chance at all,  so you sigh and step towards a door.
  "Stop.  Two cups of coffee have made me soft indeed," says the Dragon, "About the door you are about to open I will say nothing, but behind THIS door," he opens a door just a crack so that you can see the tiger within, "contains a tiger."

Now cometh the tricky part. Should you, prince, step away from the door you chose and open the other one (not the one that the Dragon opened, but the one that's left), or should you proceed and just open the one you were about to open?

THAT is the question.

Not some to be or not to be...


To find the answer, go to answersdiscarded . blogspot . com, and no, I'm not putting it as a link, so that you have SOME time to think about the riddle. (answer number 1).