Best Riddles of 2011

#21 - Alexander Puzzle

Alexander is stranded on an island covered in forest.

One day, when the wind is blowing from the west, lightning strikes the west end of the island and sets fire to the forest. The fire is very violent, burning everything in its path, and without intervention the fire will burn the whole island, killing the man in the process.

There are cliffs around the island, so he cannot jump off.

How can the Alexander survive the fire? (There are no buckets or any other means to put out the fire)

#22 - Probability Riddle Loaded Revolver

Henry has been caught stealing cattle, and is brought into town for justice. The judge is his ex-wife Gretchen, who wants to show him some sympathy, but the law clearly calls for two shots to be taken at Henry from close range. To make things a little better for Henry, Gretchen tells him she will place two bullets into a six-chambered revolver in successive order. She will spin the chamber, close it, and take one shot. If Henry is still alive, she will then either take another shot, or spin the chamber again before shooting.

Henry is a bit incredulous that his own ex-wife would carry out the punishment, and a bit sad that she was always such a rule follower. He steels himself as Gretchen loads the chambers, spins the revolver, and pulls the trigger. Whew! It was blank. Then Gretchen asks, 'Do you want me to pull the trigger again, or should I spin the chamber a second time before pulling the trigger?'

What should Henry choose?

#23 - Very Confusing Riddle

What is broken, every time it's spoken?

#24 - Unsolvable Riddle

In a contest, four fruits (an apple, a banana, an orange, and a pear) have been placed in four closed boxes (one fruit per box). People may guess which fruit is in which box. 123 people participate in the contest. When the boxes are opened, it turns out that 43 people have guessed none of the fruits correctly, 39 people have guessed one fruit correctly, and 31 people have guessed two fruits correctly.
How many people have guessed three fruits correctly, and how many people have guessed four fruits correctly

#25 - Friday Riddle

The equation shown below is not correct:
26-63=1
Can you make the equation correct by moving just one symbol?

#26 - November Maths Puzzle

The Puzzle: A girl, a boy, and a dog start walking down a road.

They start at the same time, from the same point, in the same direction.

The boy walks at 5 km/h, the girl at 6 km/h.

The dog runs from boy to girl and back again with a constant speed of 10 km/h. The dog does not slow down on the turn.
How far does the dog travel in 1 hour?

#27 - Unusual Riddle

What belongs to you but others use it more than you do?

#28 - Building Puzzle

A certain street contains 100 buildings. They are numbered from 1 to 100. How many 9's are used in these numbers?

#29 - Puzzle Boat

At the local model boat club, four friends were talking about their boats.

There were a total of eight boats, two in each colour, red, green, blue and yellow. Each friend owned two boats. No friend had two boats of the same colour.

Alan didn't have a yellow boat. Brian didn't have a red boat, but did have a green one. One of the friends had a yellow boat and a blue boat and another friend had a green boat and a blue boat. Charles had a yellow boat. Darren had a blue boat, but didn't have a green one.

Can you work out which friend had which coloured boats?

#30 - Sequence Quiz

Find Next Number in the Sequence
2 9 3 1 8 4 3 6 5 7 ?