Easy Impossible Puzzles

[Homsar]

Let's hang the Kaiser! On December five and twenty, foom, foom, foom!

[DMTsurel]

You have a bag that contains two balls, each of which is either red or blue with equal probability. You add two balls, one red and one blue, and then draw out a ball and notice it is blue. Then you draw another ball. What is the probability that you will be fired for wasting your time on stupid puzzles like this when you should be working?

[DMTsurel]

Queen Elizabeth has royally appointed you to be the Chief of Royal Security of the Royal Treasury. It is your solemn duty to protect all the Queen's royal treasures, such as the Crown Jewels, her personal royal art collection, and all her royal estates and palaces.
Although your job is one of considerably prestige, unfortunately you must work alone - your Royal Security Division consists solely of yourself, and you have no fellow security personnel to help you. In addition, the Queen has deemed that the only technical aid that you are permitted to use to successfully carry out your duties is a single sugar cube.
Soon after beginning the job, you get wind of an international crime conspiracy to steal all the Queen's royal possessions. What will you do?

[DMTsurel]

You are sent, via a time machine, to the Dawn of Time, when oxygen-emitting cyanobacteria first made the planet habitable for life as we know it. You are the only multicellular life form on Earth.
You are equipped with only the clothes you are wearing, and a copy of the latest version of After Dark for Windows, the hugely popular screen saver software, on 3.5" diskettes. Using only these items (and your wits) you must survive for a period of one week.
There are two further restrictions:
1. For the entire period, you may not whistle, hum, or sing the theme from The Munsters.
2. The terms of your After Dark license agreement forbid you from making copies of the software.

[DMTsurel]

You are standing in a room with two doors. Behind one door is a fierce hungry vicious lion, behind the other door is a beautiful voluptuous horny maiden.
In front of each door is a guard. You know that each guard either tells the truth all the time, lies all the time, or lies whenever the other one tells the truth or vice versa. Also, each guard may tell the truth only half the time. Additionally, it is not the case that both guards have the same truth-telling characteristics. Furthermore, there is an upper limit on the number of lies that can be told by both guards, which is equal to the square root of the number of white hats worn by any guard, plus the number of kits, cats, sacks, and wives that were going to St. Ives.
You may ask each guard as many questions as you like. What should you do?

[DMTsurel]

Aunt Frederick went to Paris for a vacation with three friends and a pile of sand. During the trip the pile of sand disappeared. From the following clues, can you deduce who took Aunt Frederick's sand?
1) One of Aunt Frederick's friends is named Uncle Frederick. They met three years ago at a lava lamp collision near Central Park.
2) The flight made a stopover at Sandy Duncan's saliva farm. Uncle Frederick and Tom had sandwiches.
3) The snake healer has hair that looks like sand, but it is not sand.
4) Both Aunt Frederick and Uncle Frederick saw a maid eat the pile of sand.
5) The sun is not made of sand.

[DMTsurel]

You're the head of a large international research team charged with developing an inexpensive fusion reactor. The reactor should consume nothing but seawater as fuel, and produce no harmful radiation or toxic waste - only cheap, abundant electricity. Describe in detail your plans for this reactor. If, in the course of the development of this reactor, you have also invented other devices that would be a boon to mankind (e.g., antigravity device, telepathy recorder, faster-than-light spaceship, time machine, etc. etc.) describe these in detail as well. But don't tell anyone else about them. Just me.

[DMTsurel]

You are sitting in a chair. Your bare right foot is submerged in a large bowl of fresh little candies. You mispronounce "doily", and Mary Tyler Moore is surgically attached to your bum. You have 3 quarters. What do you do?
HINT: You can put your bare left foot in a large bowl of salad.

[DMTsurel]

You are the head of a special Allied commando troop in World War II. Your mission is to assassinate Hitler. In order to do so, you must invent a new type of hang glider. Describe your plans for this hang glider. If your plan requires certain contingencies (i.e., Eva Braun's birthday on a new moon, etc.) be sure to describe these as well.

[DMTsurel]

You are about to board a bus. The bus fare is eighty-five cents. You have three quarters, two dimes, and a nickel. What change should you give the driver?

[DMTsurel]

Here's one to try if you have either a home computer or an expensive stereo system.
Assume that a monster is stalking you in your house. This monster will eat you if he catches you. However, he walks no faster than a human, is blind, and moves in the manner of a chess knight - 2 steps in one direction followed by 1 step in a perpendicular direction. Knowing this, you must create a method of eluding him indefinitely without leaving your house (pretend that the doors have been sealed shut). Obviously, your answer will depend on the layout of your house.
In your solution, state:
- the floor plan of all the rooms in your house
- where your computer or stereo is located
- when you are usually absent from your house
(in case we need to phone you to clarify some point in your solution)

[DMTsurel]

1) Every morning, John leaves for work at exactly 7:30 AM. He drives at a constant speed of 50 km/hr. How long does it take him to get to work?
2) Based on the sparse information you've been given, determine where John works.
3) John habitually misspells one particular hyphenated word. Logically, what must that word be?
Bonus challenge: Draw John's fingerprints.

[DMTsurel]

This one's a math trick that will amaze you and your friends!
1. Start with your credit card number
2. Multiply by 2.
3. Add 10.
4. Divide by 2.
5. Subtract 4.
6. Tell me the answer.
If you have done all of the math correctly, I'll be able to tell you the number you started with, even though you never told me that number!
NOTE: For this trick to work, it is important that you never check your credit card statements for accuracy for a period of six months after I've done the trick. If you check even one statement then the trick... will not have... worked.

[DMTsurel]

You have been accidentally locked in the world's strongest bank vault, and will run out of air hours before the vault is to be opened.
There is only one door, locked from the outside, and the walls are made of 10-foot thick steel. All you have with you is a spool of thread, some paper clips, a car battery, a mousetrap, and a canister of xenon gas. How can you get out of the vault?

[DMTsurel]

Here is a real tough teaser for all of you.
You know the word, QUOTIENT.
It is a difficult word to remember how to spell.
So can you spell the word QUOTIENT???
Give Up, Ok.

[DMTsurel]

One afternoon Margie and Sue played tennis together. Margie beat Sue six games to three. In five of the games played, the person who was not serving won that game.
QUESTIONS
1. Who was Marge playing tennis with?
2. Do you like tennis?
3. What effect did Simon have on the final score?
4. If you had your choice between bees or wasps what would it be?
Based on the above problem, what is Irene's phone number?

[Lepton]

I could've sworn that you were an Icarian only a few minutes ago...

Those are from Plastic Thoughts, correct?

[DMTsurel]

Yay, I'm a Daedalian member!!

[DMTsurel]

BTW, what's plastic thoughts?

[Lepton]

Under the GL's "Links", it's labelled "Brain Teasers". The site is gone now, though.

[Dread Pirate Westley]

Devise a method of permanently expelling Will from the GL.

[cocoloco]

Plastic Thoughts

[Werebear]

Hm. Unfortunately, some of these have answers.

Every odd number is divisible by two... but not divisible evenly.

And I have seen a 3-d model of the cube above the word "About" at the top of the page, it was on the cover of Games magazine. (they sawed through the cube at one point, so you could exactly see the strut behind it... move an inch to either side and the effect was ruined.)

DMT - um, I'd give the bus driver the three quarters and one dime - eighty-five cents.

I was thinking this thread would be HARD puzzles, like "what is the square root of negative infinity" or "Divide three apples by zero oranges. How many remain?"

[Bicho the Inhaler]

Ahem.

"You wake up oneday to find yourself at an edge of a forest.Beside the forest is 2 roads. One will lead you to the good village where people live in peace and harmony the other road will lead you to the evil village where people lie, kill, etc..
There is a man standing on the pathway,
You have only one question to ask the man in which you must get to the good village whether he is from the good or evil village.
What is that question?
Remember 1 question!"

10 points for naming the source

[mith]

Shouldn't it be worth 5 points?

[ctrlaltdel]

1. never stop to ask directions!!!
2. go whichever way your whims take you first
3. come to the village
4. observe
5. reach a conlcusion (and possibly run back to the crossroads and the other road)

[mole]

Who wants to go to the good village? The evil village is probably waiting for me so they can start a game of Mafia...

[What if...]

Leave the planet's surface by flapping your arms. You are not allowed any clothing/apparatus outside of what you are wearing... NOW!
Bonus: using the same equipment, create a 30 meter wide black hole near the moon, and enter and escape its interior (clarify: event horizon) before dying a more or less painful death.

Notice: $0.10 prize money will be awarded to anyone with proof they have accomplished one or more of the above.

------------------
O.K., so how did I screw up this time?

[The Cruciverbalist]

Construct a working replica of the QEII using only a bottle cap and about three inches of dental floss, paying special attention to passenger capacity.

[What if...]

Find a book (no, that's not it). List the people who did not write it. And do it on the surface of a (4-D) Klein bottle of tissue paper.

------------------
O.K., so how did I screw up this time?

[The Cruciverbalist]

You have a ruler and a straightedge. Construct everything. You have five minutes, starting... NOW!

[Werebear]

Cruciverbalist - I'm done! What do you mean, where is everything? Look around you!

[ralphmerridew]

Start with nothing. Create a universe. Time limit is seven days.

[Dios]

I only need six