Riddles


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Click them to reveal the answer

We are of course starting with the easiest one first. The answer is a mouse, which along with the clues, the rhyming hints at. Technically, mice prefer a lot of other foods over cheese, however they are still happy to eat it, and it's too strong a stereotype not to use it for the riddle.



The answer is a snail. While most of us are used to small garden snails, the largest snail on record is over 27 centimetres/10 inches.



The answer is either ladybird or ladybug (used most commonly in North America). While the riddle is easiest if you have heard of both names for it, I hope it's possible to figure it out by knowing just one of the two names.



The answer is a newspaper. Black, white and read all over is an old riddle, but I added the extra line to make it more obvious it's a newspaper, rather than a sunburned zebra or penguin.



The answer is a crab. Most types of crabs can actually walk forwards (and some which don't walk at all, just dig), but sideways is still usually easiest for them.



The answer is a rattlesnake. Although they will rattle their tails when they are scared, they are silent when they hunt prey.



The answer is that the nail he hammered wasn't the metal spiky one, but his fingernail.



The answer is your nose. Bears are considered to be the animal with the best sense of smell, with some travelling up to 29 kilometres/18 miles to food sources.



The answer is sleep. It may be less than a third for those of us who suffer from insomnia, but I assure you, it's nothing to envy.



The answer is a hotdog. While it can refer to either the sausage in a bun, or even just the sausage, in New Zealand it is mostly used for a battered sausage on a stick, similar to a corndog.





The answer is books. While there are countless different books in the world, generally any with the same name/title will have the same contents.



The answer is a rubber band. I still find it fascinating that you can keep twisting a rubbing band, turning it inside out again and again without damaging it.



The answer is cigarettes. Currently there are 6.5 trillion cigarettes produced per year, estimated to cause the deaths of around 7 million people per year.



The answer is a comb, but my wife pointed out that it could also cover many types of hair clips.



The answer is light, or to be more precise, photons.



The answer is fire, although it's possible to have a fire burning underwater, depending on what fuel you are using.



The answer is popcorn. While it is of course very popular today, people have been eating it for thousands of years.



The answer is tomorrow. I hope your now is good and your tomorrow is even better.



The answer is a log, although it could also be argued that a dead hog could fit. I suppose then, rather than sounding like it, it would have the exact same sound. It's use of “sound like” makes it similar to the riddle “what's orange and sounds like a parrot?”.



The answer is a smoke alarm or CO2 detector. While all homes should have smoke alarms, you should also have a CO2 detector if your house has anything which burns any kind of fuel (gas, wood, coal, petrol/gasoline, etc.). In the US alone, tens of thousands of people get CO2 poisoning with around 500 deaths per year.





The answer is a seesaw. The name seesaw comes from French, and means “this that”.



The answer is a jack-o-lantern, and I admit trying to startle, and give you a fright is a bit of a stretch. When I think of them sitting there, trying to scare each person but failing again and again, I feel rather sorry for them.



The answer is lungs. Those suffering from cardiac arrest can't be saved after around 10 to 15 minutes without oxygen being supplied to their body. If someone is performing CPR on them though, not only is there far more time for the paramedics to arrive, but they are also less likely to have brain damage once they have been resuscitated.



The answer is a hologram. While it could be argued that the photons which make a hologram may have weight in a certain sense, if you shine them on a scale, it will still show 0.



The answer is a credit card. While there are many advantages to using one responsibly, their extremely high interest rate means that those in debt will soon be in far greater debt.



This is a slightly different version of riddle #23. The answer this time is a drinking glass. A healthy adult can usually survive 3 weeks without food, but only 3 or 4 days without water.



The answer is an echo. Personally whenever I read a riddle like this, I am slightly disappointed by the answer, because I was hoping for something more magical. Then again, it could be argued that everything we experience is amazing and magical, depending on how you see it.



The answer is sawdust. Be extremely careful when cutting wood, and sawdust is a carcinogen, so avoid inhaling it.



The answer is a table. I would like to give a super interesting fact about tables, but I can't think of one.



The answer is eyes. Humans blink somewhere around 15 to 20 times per minute, which would be up to 28,800 times in 24 hours, however if you take time spent sleeping into account, 20,000 is probably a high estimate.





The answer is a dog. Dog's generally bury their surplus food in case they want it later, so they are more likely to do so if you give them bones or treats when they are already full.



The answer is a rainbow. Rainbows are usually thought to have 7 different colours, but the amount can be higher or lower, depending on someone's colour classifications and their eyesight. It's estimated the human eye can see around 100 different hues.



The answer is bagpipes. While they are currently an instrument strongly associated with Scotland, there is evidence some kind of bagpipes were used in ancient Rome and even in the Middle East around 1000 BC.



The answer is a towel. Towels appear to have been invented in Turkey around the 17th century.



The answer is a boxing match. Boxing existed in different forms over 3,000 years ago, with evidence of an early type of boxing glove used in Crete around the year 1500 BC.



The answer is teeth. Most mammals form two sets of teeth (starting with their baby teeth). However, elephants, kangaroos and manatees will keep on growing new teeth.



The answer is a soap bubble. Currently, Gary Pearlman has the record for the largest bubble, with a volume of almost 3,400 square feet.



The answer is a spider web. Spiders' silk has many incredible properties, and based on weight, is around 5 times as strong as steel.



The ball is being thrown straight up, and gravity is bringing it back. During the Apollo 15 mission, David Scott demonstrated that on the moon, if you drop a hammer and a feather, they both fall at the same speed.



The answer is a beehive. Man-made beehives were used in Egypt, with depictions from over 4400 years ago.





The answer is a weasel, notable in the song “pop goes the weasel”. While no one is certain what the lyrics of the song mean, people suspect it is either referring to a spinner's weasel used to measure thread (as they would make a popping noise when you used them), or it may be Cockney rhyming slang, about someone pawning their coat (weasels are like stoats, and stoat rhymes with coat).



The answer is a tap/faucet. When I think about it, I am amazed how much I take having taps with running water for granted, rather than having to carry bucket after bucket of water from the nearest source.



The answer is a pen. The first ballpoint pen was invented around 1888 by a tanner who wanted a pen that could write on leather.



The answer is a hole. No matter how much you fill or empty a hole, it will always be a whole hole and never half a hole.



The answer is corn or maize . While corn is popular around the world now, originally it was only in the Americas, where it has been selectively bred over time.



The answer is a train. The part on the front that does the pulling is the locomotive, and when it has carriages, together they are a train.



The answer is your age. While everyone ages as time flows, time doesn't flow equally everywhere. For instance, time dilation is caused by extremely fast movement. If you were to travel at 99% of the speed of light for 1 year, 7 years would have passed on Earth.



The answer is a letterbox / mailbox. In 1914 in the United States, someone mailed their daughter to her grandparents for $0.53. After that, the post office banned mailing humans.



The answer is footsteps / footprints. Technically in the case of a footprint, you could dig up the ground and move it somewhere else, but it would at least still be confined to that piece of ground.



The answer is a splinter. While people commonly get them out with tweezers or needles, some use duct tape or mixtures of baking soda and water. And of course don't be afraid to get medical attention.






For riddles 51 to 101, please purchase the book





The answer is toilet paper. Whether it should be hung over or under is a heated issue. Over is currently the most common. Arguments in favour of it include that it's easier to grab, more hygienic, and less likely to be completely unrolled by a child or animal.



No matter how hard you hit a tree, you will probably just hurt your hand. However a tiny strike of a matchbox can easily start an out-of-control fire and destroy huge forests.



The answer is silence. Silence is just the lack of noise, but at the same time it can be incredibly powerful.



It's some teeth referring to a toothpick and dental floss. Ideally you should floss every day before you brush your teeth, instead of only on rare occasions like me, such as just before I see the dentist.



The answer is your name. In many cases, surnames/last names would come from the person's profession (Baker, Smith, Potter, Tailor and many other less obvious ones).



The answer is a pair of scissors. Scissors were used in Mesopotamia around 4,000 years ago, and they had a similar appearance to many thread cutters today.



The answer is facial tissues. While disposable tissues have been used in Japan for centuries, tissues as we know them today were invented as a substitute for bandages during WW1. After the war, the surplus was sold to the public, originally advertised as a cold cream remover.



The answer is a stapler. The first stapler-type device was patented in 1866, and it was almost 100 years later in 1941 when the modern stapler as we know it today was invented.



The answer is a chest of drawers. Technically it could also fight by falling on you.



The answer is a Horseradish. The horse in horseradish isn't because horses like to eat them, but to show that it is something large, coarse and strong.





The answer is earplugs. The first known mention of their use is in the Odyssey, when the crew puts wax in their ears to avoid being lured by the song of the Sirens.



The answer is a promise. The best way to avoid breaking them is avoid making them in the first place and just do your best in life.



The answer is an onion. Methods to stop onions from making you cry range from; freezing them slightly and using a very sharp knife, or holding a piece of bread in your mouth, to using onion goggles.



The answer is a keyboard, but computer is also acceptable. Almost all keyboards are based on the QWERTY design of typewriters. It has been theorised that part of the reason for the key placement is to allow people during demonstrations to easily write “typewriter” using only one row of keys.



The answer is clothes pegs, or clothes pins. Clothes pegs are commonly used in the film industry, but usually referred to as C-47's. There are many possible explanations for the origin of the name, such as it being in reference to the WW2 plane, or being a coded term to look better on expense and tax forms.



The answer is a glove. In the past, knights would throw their gauntlet on the ground to issue a challenge to duel. As gauntlets became less common, people began to throw down and slap with gloves for the same purpose.



The answer is a coin, of course in reference to heads and tails. The first coins go back to around 600BC and were made of electrum (a naturally occurring gold and silver alloy).



The answer is a clothes iron. Not only are they used for clothes, but in the past, butlers would often iron the newspaper to take out any creases and stop the ink from coming off.



The answer is a mask. They can either hide your identity, or make it easier to tell you apart, such as in the case of Ninja Turtles.



The answer is ants. While it's hard to calculate exactly how many ants there are on earth, estimates are around 100,000,000,000,000 (one hundred trillion), which would give them a combined weight of over 330 billion kilos. In comparison, all the elephants in the world weigh less than 5 billion kilos.





The answer is a skull. While the skull is usually seen as a single object, it is made up of 22 bones that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.



The answer is an arrow. As of the date I am writing this (22/10/2018), the record for the farthest accurate archery shot was by Matt Stutzman, with a distance of just over 930 feet. This was despite having no arms. He made the shot using his foot and shoulder.



The answer is a slot machine. Before you play one, remember that people playing slot machines lose enough money to pay not only for the building it's in, and the staff and anything else you see, but also to make a large profit on top of that. The highest average payout of 100% is never gambling at all.



The answer is the moon. If you take a photo of the moon, it will normally come out looking smaller than you expect. While the camera lens and many other factors can make a difference, another reason is that the moon appears bigger than it really is to your eyes because it's so bright compared to the dark night sky.



The answer is a sea anemone. Clownfish will use some species of sea anemone as their home. The clownfish is protected by the sea anemone's stingers, while the clownfish will chase off any fish that try to eat their home.



The answer is a toaster. Electric toasters go back to 1893, with the first pop-up toaster invented in 1919.



The answer is curtains. Before shower curtains, people used to have cloth curtains around their bath, which wouldn't have been so useful for stopping water, but gave the bather privacy.



The answer is an earwig. Despite the myth, earwigs don't intentionally crawl into people's ears, however ear wig mothers are notable for taking care of their young. While there are examples of other insects with a maternal instinct, it's not that common either.



The answer is a (vegetable) leek. The leek is one of the national emblems of Wales. Theories of the origin range from battles in leek fields, with the Welsh soldiers wearing them, to being in honour of Saint David who ate them while fasting.



The answer is a mirror. It can sometimes seem strange that mirrors reverse things left and right, but not up and down.





The answer is a giant or colossal squid. The largest colossal squid caught to date was around 15 feet, however there have been estimates that the largest could be closer to 50 feet.



The answer is your heart. While humans have an average heart beat of around 80 beats per minute (115,200 beats per day), some hummingbirds have a heartbeat of around 1200 beats per minute (1,728,000 beats per day!).



The answer is a Christmas cracker. After Tom Smith's invention of bon-bon candy sweets stopped selling, he eventually added a banger mechanism, and over time, they evolved into the Christmas crackers we know today.



The answer is the sea, or ocean. There is estimated to be over 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (one billion trillion) litres of water in the ocean.



The answer is a coconut. It is believed by some that falling coconuts kill 150 people every year. Fortunately, the actual number of deaths is far, far lower, but they do still occasionally happen.



The answer is a knight. During a knight's accolade, when they are first being dubbed as a knight, they would usually be tapped on each shoulder with the flat side of a sword. Further back though, they would often be hit or slapped as the final time they would be humiliated without defending their honour.



The answer is a volcano. The largest known volcano on Earth is Tamu Massif in the Pacific Ocean. It is around 2 kilometres below the ocean at its highest point, and over 6 kilometres at its base. Its total size is almost 300,000 square kilometres.



The answer is a fridge freezer. Being able to keep food frozen using electricity in your home is an incredible invention, compared to having to constantly have ice delivered for your ice box.



The answer is a shoehorn or shoespoon. The origin of shoehorns is unknown, but they date back to at least the middle ages. During Victorian times is when they really started to become popular, as tight shoes were very fashionable.



The answer is a bottle. There are estimated to be over 100,000,000 (one hundred million) plastic water bottles used every day, which is having serious environmental issues. When possible, use a reusable bottle to both do less damage to the environment, and save a lot of money.





The answer is a key. While keys and locks of different types go back a very long way, the oldest known is located in Nineveh, dated around 2000BC.



The answer is salt. While the ocean is made up of about 3.5% salt, the Dead Sea has almost 10 times that, which makes it extremely easy to float in. Although it is almost impossible to drown floating on your back, if you somehow end up on your stomach, turning over can be extremely difficult and result in drowning. On top of that, care should be taken to avoid swallowing the water, as too much salt can be extremely dangerous.



The answer is “A SINGLE WORD”. Often, the English language makes many assumptions, which can lead to very big misunderstandings.



The answer is an electric fan. While the first electric fan was invented in 1882, human-power fans go back thousands of years, probably beginning with people using palm leaves.



The answer is a fork. In America, the use of forks while eating was largely resisted until the 18th century. Once they were finally accepted, people would generally use them in their right hand after cutting up their food, unlike the traditional method in which the knife would be in the right hand and the fork in the left for the entire meal.



The answer is a carpet snake/carpet python. How hard or easy this one is may depend on whether or not you live in a country that has them.



The answer is a guinea pig. This one is quite unfair, as it uses the commonly believed idea that their name came about because they were sold for a guinea, however it can't be true, because there are records of them being called guinea pigs 10 years before guinea coins were minted. There are theories for the actual origin of their name (both “guinea” and “pig”), but currently, none of them have been proven.



The answer is 144, which is one gross. It is considered a part of the duodecimal system, which uses base 12 instead of base 10. The advantages to base twelve include being able to divide it in halves or quarters without using decimals, but also thirds (unlike 10, which ends up as 3.333333... for eternity).



The answer is lead-based paint. Not only do you need to know about lead-based paint, but also know that lead is being pronounced “led” (rather than like leader). It was for that reason the band Led Zeppelin misspelt their name, to avoid any confusion about pronunciation.



The answer is a whetstone. This one could be hard as you not only have to know the idiom “can't get blood from a stone”, but also know what a whetstone is (a type of stone used to sharpen knives and axes).



The answer is that the person lives in Hawaii, which is part of the United States of America, but it is located in Oceania, rather than the continent America.






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