A Horse with Nine Legs

What is wrong with the following argument? Do you know the name of the error being made?

"One horse has four more legs than no horse. No horse has five legs. Therefore, one horse has nine legs."

Digging Up the Past

A friend of yours returns from an archaelogical dig in Italy and shows you a coin she dug up. the coin looks very old and is inscribed with thte words "47 B.C." Your friend offers to sell it to you for just $20. Do you take her up on the offer?

Outrunning the Tiger

Two explorers are walking in the jungles of India. They come to a clearing, where they see a tiger. The tiger snarls and starts to approach them. Quickly, one of the exploreres diges into his pack, pulls out running shoes, and starts putting them on. the other explorer looks at him quizzically and says, "Surely you don't think you can outrun a tiger?"

"I don't think I can outrun the tiger," replies the explorer, "but these running shoes will still save my life."

How will the running shoes save him?

An Empty Riddle

The more you take away from me, the bigger I become. What am I?

Choose Your Manner of Death

while traveling to a foreign country, you inadvertently break one fo that country's capital laws. you are brought before a judge who explains that you will be put to death. The law states that you have some choice in the manner of your death. You are asked to make a single statment. If that statement is true, you will be put in the electric chair. If that statement is false, you will have your head chopped off.

What can yo usay to avoid being executed altogether?

Eleven Guests In Ten Beds

A small hotel has ten beds. One evening, eleven broghrers show up at the hotel. Not wanting to turn any of them away, the hotel staff comes up witha brilliant solution. He asks the first two brother to lie in the same bed temporarily. he then puts the third brother in the second bed, the fourth brother in the third bed, the fifth brother in the fourth bed, and so on, until he puts the tenth brother in the ninth bed. that leaves the tenth bed free, soo he then goes to fetch the second brother from the first bed and allows him to sleep there.

Describe why this is or is not possible.

Improvident Proverbs

For each of the following five pairs of proverbs, explain whter you think the apparent contradiction between them can be reconciled, and if so, how.

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder' vs. "Out of sight, out of mind"
"Look before you leap" vs. "He who hesitates is lost"
"You're never too old to learn" vs. "You can't teach an old dog new tricks"
"It's better to be safe than sorry" vs. "Nothing venture, nothing gained"
"Many hands make light work" vs. "Too many cooks spoil the broth"

A Flat Earth

You have a very stuborn friend who refuses to believe anything he's told, trusting only facts that he can observe or that are proven to him. He's been told since childhood that the earth is round, but he doesn't believe it because he's never seen any proof. What proof could you give him that the earth is round?

A Long, Strange Trip

Ronald plants a flag in the ground. He walks thirty miles due north, then thirty miles due west, then thirty miles due south. He finds himself back at the flag he planted. Where is he?

Sorting out the Syllogisms

A syllogism is a three-part logical deduction. one of the simpler kinds of syllogisms called a categorical syllogism; runs as follows:

"All F's are G, x is an F; therefore, x is a G."

Major Premise: "ALL F's are G

Minor Premis: "x is an F"

Conclusion: "x is a G"

Think of an example of a categorical syllogism for each of the following:

1. The major premis is false, but the minor premise and conlcusion are both true.
Example: All (F) men are (G) selfish (FALSE), Mr. Horstman (X) is a man (True), Mr. Horstman is selfish (True)
2. The minor premise is false, but the major premise and conclusion are both true.
Example: All (F) lakes have (G) water (True), the (X) Pacific Ocean is a lake (FALSE), the Pacific Ocean has water. (True)
3. Both the major and minor premises are false, but the conclusion is true.
Example: All (F) reptiles are (G) mammals (False), A (X) Chicken is a reptile (FALSE), a chicken is a mammal (True).

A Family Fishing Expedition

Two fathers and thier sons go fishing. Each person on the fishing trip catches a fish. In total they catch three fish. How is this possible?

Run that Race

If you are in a race and you pass the person in second place, what place will you be in?

A Cretan Cretin

Epimenides the Cretan famously announced, "All Cretans are liars." Is this true?

What am I?

I am what poor people have and what rich people need. I am what blind people see and what deaf people hear. I am what brave people fear and what kind people hate. And though hateful people love me, only the biggest fools really know me.

What am I?

Beat the Computer

Bob claims he has invented a perfect chess computer that will win every game it plays. You play a few games agianst the computer, and it beats you every time. Bob takes his chess computer to the world chess championships, where it defeats every challenger. After this resounding victory, Bob proclaims that his computer is indeed perfect and will win every game it ever plays.

Do you agree with Bob?

A Doorway to Paradise

Imagine that when you die, you will find yourself in a room with two doors, one leading to eternal paradise and teh other leading to eternal damnation. You can choose which door to walk through, but the trouble is that the doors are unmarked.

Each door has a guard, and you can ask each guard one "yes" or "no" question before you make your fateful choice. One of the two guards will always answer truthfully and the other other guard will always lie. Unfortunately, there's no way of knowing which guard is which.

What question should you ask on of the guards to ensure that you wind up in paradise?

Light Bulbs

Imagine two rooms, one with three switches and the other with three light bulbs. Each switch controls one of the light bulbs. However, because the light bulbs are in a different room, you can't see immediately which switch contronls which light bulb.

Your task is to figure out which switch controls which light bulb. you can spend as much time as you like in the room with the light switches, but eventually you must go into the room with the light bulbs. Once you enter the room with the light bulbs, you can't return to the room with the light switches. What's more, after entering the room with the light bulbs, you have only thirty seconds to figure out which switch controls which bulb.

How do you do it?

Nothing

Consider the following deduction: "Bread crumbs are better than nothing. Nothin is better than cheesecake. Therefore, bread crumbs are better than cheescake?

What is wrong with this deduction?

Appendix

Removing an appendix is called an appendectomy, removing tonsils is called a tonsillectom. What is it called when they remove a growth from your head?

Marbles

How many marbles can you put in an empty bag?

Clock Puzzle

The hour and minute hands of a clock are superimposed (at the same place) at 12:00. When will they next be superimposed (at the same place)

Cheating Husbands

Josephine's Problem: In Josephine's Kingdom every woman has to take a logic exam before being allowed to marry. Every married woman knows about the fidelity of every man in the Kingdom except for her own husband, and etiquette demands that no woman should tell another about the fidelity of her husband. A gunshot fired in any house in the Kingdom will be heard in any other. Queen Josephine announced that unfaithful men had been discovered in the Kingdom, and that any woman knowing her husband to be unfaithful was required to shoot him at midnight following the day she discovered his infidelity. How did the wives manage this, if each day the queen announced whether or not all the cheating husbands were dead?

The King's Wise Men

The King's Wise Men: The King called the three wisest men in the country to his court to decide who would become his new advisor. He placed a hat on each of their heads, such that each wise man could see all of the other hats, but none of them could see their own. Each hat was either white or blue. The king gave his word to the wise men that at least one of them was wearing a blue hat - in other words, there could be one, two, or three blue hats, but not zero. The king also announced that the contest would be fair to all three men. The wise men were also forbidden to speak to each other. The king declared that whichever man stood up first and announced the colour of his own hat would become his new advisor. The wise men sat for a very long time before one stood up and correctly announced the answer. What did he say, and how did he work it out?

Five Daughters

Mary's father has five daughters: 1. Nana, 2. Nene, 3. Nini, 4. Nono. What is the name of the fifth daughter?

Paper Exchange

You are in a classroom with 40 people of varying heights. The teacher/instructor of the room has asked you to exchange papers for the purpose of marking them. However, nobody is allowed to change papers with anyone that is shorter than themself.

Crossing the River

The farmer wants to get his goat, wolf and cabbage to the other side of the river. His boat isn't very big and it can only carry him and either his goat, his wolf or his cabbage. Now.....if he leaves the goat alone with the cabbage, the goat will gobble up the cabbage. If he leaves the wolf alone with the goat, the wolf will gobble up the goat. When the farmer is present, the goat and cabbage are safe from being gobbled up by their predators.