Impossible Riddles That Will Push Your Brain to the Limit

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Think you’ve got what it takes to tackle some impossible riddles? Get ready to push your brain to its absolute limit! These mind-bending puzzles are designed to stump even the smartest problem solvers, but if you can crack them all, you’ll earn serious bragging rights. Whether you’re up for a challenge or just want to have fun, this is the ultimate test of your critical thinking skills. So, grab a seat, get comfy, and let’s see how far you can go. Ready to prove you're a riddle master? Let’s go!

Transcript

00:00Alex is a teenager living in New York City.

00:03His science teacher assigned him an interesting experiment, and Alex's mind was buzzing

00:09with possibilities.

00:11He ran home and found a huge watermelon in his mother's pantry.

00:15It was massive.

00:16When he weighed it, he found it was 100 pounds.

00:20He found out everything he needed about watermelons.

00:24The most important information was that watermelons were generally 99% water.

00:31For the experiment, he left the fruit drying out in the sun for a few days.

00:36With the help of a trusty weighing scale, he discovered that the watermelon was now only

00:4098% water.

00:43To get a 10 in his science experiment, he needed to figure out the total weight of the watermelon

00:48after losing 1% of its water.

00:52Can you help Alex out with this one?

01:06Here's the deal.

01:07At first glance, this riddle sounds like a piece of cake.

01:11You might have guessed that the watermelon now weighed 99 pounds.

01:15But that's actually not even close.

01:18Let's work out the answer together.

01:20To solve the riddle, Alex should start by thinking about the non-water part of the watermelon.

01:26If the watermelon was 100 pounds and 99% water, then 1% of it was the actual fruit.

01:34So 1% of 100 pounds is 1 pound of the fruit.

01:39After drying, the watermelon is 98% water, which means the 1 pound of fruit now makes up

01:452% of the total weight.

01:48So, if 1 pound is 2% of the total weight, we can call that total weight W.

01:531 pound of 2% of W, which is the same thing as saying that 1 pound equals 0.02 times W.

02:05To find W, we need to divide both sides by 0.02.

02:09So, if W equals 1 pound divided by 0.02, this means that W equals 50 pounds.

02:20Eureka!

02:21Alex had cracked the case.

02:23The once-a-hundred-pound watermelon now weighed 50 pounds.

02:30Cole invited his girlfriend Nikki over for a game night at his place.

02:34He told her he had a very difficult quiz prepared for her to solve.

02:40Cole showed her an empty triangular glass.

02:44He grabbed some orange juice and asked her when the glass would be closest to full.

02:49Measuring from the bottom of the glass till the top, Nikki had to guess the percentage

02:53of orange juice she'd have to pour in order for the triangular glass to be the closest

02:58as possible to half-full.

03:01If you had to guess without any calculations, what would you say?

03:15This is tricky, but let's check out the answer.

03:19Intuitively, you might have thought that the answer was 50% of the height of the glass,

03:24but that's wrong.

03:25When 50% of its height is filled, it means there's only 12.5% of juice inside the glass.

03:33In a similar way, if the triangular glass was filled up to 70% of its height, this would

03:39mean that it is only 34.3% full.

03:43The answer we're looking for is 80% of the height of the glass.

03:49To solve this riddle, we need to remember a basic geometry formula that says that the

03:53percentage of the volume is equal to the cube of the percentage of the height.

03:58So, if we're looking for 50% of the volume, we're searching for nearly 80% of the height

04:05to make it equal.

04:07Got it, genius?

04:10It was a sunny day in Los Angeles, and Harry and Maria were planning their wedding.

04:16Maria was very nervous because she couldn't figure out the seating chart for their wedding.

04:22They had 100 guests and had to distribute them around.

04:26To lighten up the mood, Harry remembered an old, difficult-to-solve riddle that would definitely

04:31take Maria's mind off things.

04:34He asked her if she could figure out the mathematical equation needed to get the number 100 out of

04:40four nines.

04:42She could use the simple things such as addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication.

04:47The important part was that she got the number 100 out of it all.

04:51Can you help Maria out?

05:03The best way to solve these kinds of riddles is to start backwards.

05:07There are multiple ways to get the total of 100.

05:10Dare to join me in brainstorming the ways?

05:14You could simply add 99 plus 1, or 90 plus 9 plus 1.

05:18But that's not what the rules ask us to do.

05:21We need to use the number 9 four times.

05:25For example, 90 plus 9 times 9 divided by 9, well, this won't get us to 100.

05:33But what about 99 plus 9 divided by 9?

05:38I know we have two nines as one number, but that's okay by the rules.

05:42This way, you use all the four nines you need to use, although you are combining two nines

05:47into one number.

05:50But there are other possible answers.

05:52What do you say?

05:53Did you find any other answers to this crazy riddle?

05:59Once upon a time in a far away kingdom, Queen Matilda needed to hire a worker for a seven-day

06:04project.

06:05The job was crucial, and she wanted to ensure the worker was paid daily.

06:11However, she could only pay him in gold bars, and she could only make a minimum of two cuts

06:16in her precious gold bar.

06:19Her plan was to pay him one-seventh of the bar per day.

06:23Can you figure out how she could manage to do this, following the conditions we showed?

06:30Well, Queen Matilda is a very intelligent woman, so this is how she worked it out.

06:44She made two precise cuts in the gold bar, creating three pieces.

06:49The first piece was one-seventh of the bar.

06:51The second piece was two-sevenths, and the third piece was four-sevenths.

06:58On the first day, the worker finished his shift, and Queen Matilda handed him the one-seventh

07:03piece.

07:05On the second day, she swapped the one-seventh piece for the two-sevenths piece, so the worker

07:10now had two-sevenths of the bar.

07:15By the third day, she gave him back the one-seventh piece, resulting in the worker having three-sevenths

07:20in total.

07:22On the fourth day, Queen Matilda took back the one-seventh and two-seventh pieces and

07:27handed over the larger, four-sevenths piece.

07:32On the fifth day, the Queen handed over the one-seventh piece again, so the worker now had

07:36five-sevenths of the bar.

07:39On the sixth day, the Queen took back the one-seventh piece and gave him the two-sevenths

07:44piece, resulting in the worker having six-sevenths of the bar.

07:48Finally, on the seventh day, the Queen handed over the last one-seventh piece, completing

07:54the full bar payment.

07:57And that's how Queen Matilda managed to pay her worker every day with just two cuts in

08:02the gold bar.

08:03Brilliant, right?

08:04Way to go, Queen M!

08:09Jake is on a bus, heading to visit his parents for the weekend.

08:13On another bus, coming from the opposite direction, is his brother, Max.

08:20Both buses are barreling down the road towards each other, each cruising along at 40 miles

08:25per hour.

08:26They started out at 40 miles apart.

08:29The brothers have been texting each other about their journeys, eager for the family

08:32reunion.

08:34As Jake stares out the window, he notices a little bird flitting around.

08:39His mind starts to wander and he imagines the bird flying back and forth between the two

08:43buses, and wonders how many miles the birds would have flown back and forth until the buses

08:49meet each other.

08:50Can you help him out there?

09:01First, Jake figures out how long it will take for the buses to meet.

09:06Since both buses are driving at 40 miles per hour, their combined speed is 80 miles per

09:12hour.

09:13With the 40-mile distance between them, he divides the distance by their combined speed.

09:1940 divided by 80 equals 0.5 hours, or 30 minutes.

09:25Next, Jake turns his attention to the bird.

09:29He guesses the bird is flying at 50 miles per hour.

09:33Jake quickly multiplies the bird's speed by the time it takes for the buses to meet.

09:38This equals 25 minutes.

09:42So by the time the buses meet, the little bird will have flown 25 miles.

09:47Yikes!

09:48.

09:49.

09:50.

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09:53.

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