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Time for some number riddles! Everybody likes a riddle or two from time to time. They keep our minds sharp and let us explore the many possible answers that arise. Number riddles are some of the most popular riddles you can find on the internet.
They are easy to memorize but hard to crack at first. But once you crack them — there is nothing better. Once you crack one number riddle, high chances are you will try to solve another one. But, while being both simple in their design and hard with their answers, why are riddles with numbers so fun?
When we juggle math every day, from the prices of groceries to how much time we spend on a given task, numbers are nothing to us. Or at least, it seems so. Math riddles, overall, are some of the most brain-moving riddles we can solve. They take time and patience, and sometimes it seems that even the most obvious answers are incorrect.
If you can solve a simple math riddle, how are riddles involving numbers, where there is more text, different? The answer sleeps in complexity. These riddles seem to be easy, but they are able to mix in some wordplay magic. They are more like logic riddles, with a focus given on the trickery part. And that is where the whole fun part of the riddle comes from.
So, ready to solve funny riddles with numbers involved? Look no further than the list below. We have created a list of riddles with answers, so if you get stuck on some, don’t worry, look at the comments to find the answer you might not have gotten.
Upvote the riddles that were able to catch you off guard. If you didn’t get the answer, comment below on what you thought the answer was!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Math Riddles
I add five to nine, and get two. The answer is correct, but how?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: When it is 9 a.m., add 5 hours to it and you will get 2 p.m.
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#2
Marla has four daughters, and each of her daughters has a brother. How many children does Marla have?
#3
It’s raining at midnight, but the forecast for tomorrow and the next day is clear. Will there be sunny weather in 48 hours?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: No, it won’t be sunny because it will be dark out. In 48 hours, it will be midnight again.
#5
How do you divide 10 apples for 11 people?
#6
A 300 ft. train that is traveling 300 ft. per minute must travel through a 300 ft. long tunnel. How long will it take the train to travel through the tunnel?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: Two minutes. It takes the front of the train one minute and the rest of the train will take two minutes to clear the tunnel.
#7
William is a historian. He takes two from five and gets four. How does he do that?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: He takes letters F and E from FIVE and gets IV – Roman four.
#8
What is the smallest whole number that is equal to seven times the sum of its digits?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: The answer is 21. The two-digit number ab stands for 10a + b since the first digit represents tens and the second represents units. If 10a + b = 7(a + b), then 10a + b = 7a + 7b, and so 3a = 6b, or, more simply, a = 2b. That is, the second digit must be twice the first.
#10
A word I know, six letters it contains, remove one letter and 12 remains, what is it?
#11
If there are 15 crows on a fence and the farmer shoots a third of them, how many crows are left?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: None. The rest of the crows flew away when they heard the gunshot.
#12
What do the numbers 11 and 88 have in common?
God Chasers Something pursued 2 years ago
Dividable by 11, same backwards and forwards, same upside down and right side up,
#13
Leonard works at the aquarium. When he tries to put each turtle in its own tank, he has one turtle too many. But if he puts two turtles per tank, he has one tank too many. How many turtles and how many tanks does Leonard have?
#14
What single digit appears most frequently between and including the numbers 1 and 1,000?
#15
Suppose you have 3 ostriches on your farm laying 3 eggs in 3 minutes. How many ostriches do you need to produce 700 eggs in 700 minutes?
#16
I am an odd number. Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I?
#17
A horse was tied to a rope 5 meters long and the horse’s food was 15 meters away from the horse. How did the horse reach the food?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: The rope wasn’t tied to anything so he could reach the food.
#18
3 matches are sitting on a table. Without adding another, make a "four" out of these 3 matches. You are not allowed to break any of the matches. How can it be done?
God Chasers Something pursued 2 years ago
Use the three matchsticks to draw a number four. One would be the upright vertical one would be the horizontal and one would be the upright for the arm
#19
Using only addition, how can you add eight 8’s to get the number 1,000?
#20
Tricky Wordplay Number Riddles
In reply to an inquiry about the animals on his farm, the farmer says: “I only ever keep sheep, goats, and horses. In fact, at the moment they are all sheep bar three, all goats bar four, and all horses bar five.” How many of each animal does the farmer have?
#21
One brother says of his younger brother: “Two years ago, I was three times as old as my brother was. In three years’ time, I will be twice as old as my brother.” How old is each brother now?
#22
Old Granny Adams left half her money to her granddaughter and half that amount to her grandson. She left a sixth to her brother, and the remainder, $1,000, to the dogs’ home. How much did she leave altogether?
#23
If a hen and a half lay an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs will half a dozen hens lay in half a dozen days?
#24
My twin lives at the reverse of my house number. The difference between our house numbers ends in two. What are the lowest possible numbers of our house numbers?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: House numbers are 19 and 91, the difference between them is 72.
#25
A farmer decided to give his animals pocket money. He pays $13 to a rooster, $39 to a bee, and $52 to a spider. How much will a cat and a dog get?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: Both a cat and a dog will get $26. The bee has six legs, so it gets 6.5 x 6 = 39. The same goes for a spider. A dog and a cat have four legs each: 6.5 x 4 = 26.
#26
I will be everything if you put me on my side. I will be nothing if you cut me in half. What am I?
#27
What becomes smaller when you turn it upside down?
#28
There is a man with his horse going to town. The man went to the town on Monday. He stayed there for 3 days and then he came back on Friday. How? His horse was not tired, the man wasn’t sleepy.
#29
Eggs are $0.12 a dozen. How many eggs can you get for a dollar?
#30
If you multiply this number by any other number, the answer will always be the same. What number is this?
#31
If there are four sheep, two dogs and one herds-men, how many feet are there?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: Two because sheep have hooves, dogs have paws, only people have feet.
#32
You have a basket with 20 apples. You have 20 hungry children. Every child should get an apple but one apple should remain in the basket. How do you do that?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: You give 19 children one apple each and you give the last one the basket containing the last apple.
#33
A grandmother, two mothers, and two daughters went to a baseball game together and bought one ticket each. How many tickets did they buy in total?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: 3 tickets (The grandmother is also a mother and the mother is also a daughter).
#34
John was asked to paint the apartment number on plates of 100 apartments which means he will have to paint numbers 1 through 100. Can you figure out the number of times he will have to paint the number 8?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: 20 times (8, 18, 28, 38, 48, 58, 68, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 98).
#35
Deceptive Logic Number Problems
If seven people meet each other, and each shakes hands only once with each of the others, how many handshakes will there have been?
#36
There is an empty basket, three feet in diameter and one foot deep. How many oranges can you put in this empty basket?
Jake VanWagoner 2 years ago
What kind of oranges? Navel? Mandarin? What? I don't know that! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH (gets tossed down ravine)
#37
What should you add to 55,555 to make it equal 500?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: The minus sign. Place minus (-) between 555 and 55 to make this equation: 555 – 55 = 500.
#38
In an odd little town, was an odd little stream with odd little fish in an odd little team. A stranger approached a local fisherman, and asked him how much his odd little fish weighed. The odd little man replied, “All the fish in this stream weigh exactly 1/2 of a pound plus 1/2 of a fish.” Isn’t that odd? How many pounds does an odd little fish weigh?
#39
What is the maximum possible number of times you can subtract number 5 from number 25?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: Only once. This is because when you subtract 5 from 25 for the first time, it becomes number 20, then 15, and so on.
#40
A new clothing store has a unique method of pricing items. A vest costs $20, a tie costs $15, a blouse costs $30, and underwear costs $45. How much would pants cost?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: $25. The pricing method charges $5 for each letter needed to spell the item.
#41
I am a three-digit number. My tens digit is six more than my ones digit. My hundreds digit is eight less than my tens digit. What number am I?
#42
Tulia has $29.00 dollars. She bought 4 coloring books that cost $3.00 each, and 4 boxes of crayons that cost $2.00 each. She spent the rest of her money on markers. How much money did she spend on markers?
#43
Double it and multiply it by 4. Then divide it by 8 and you’ll have it once more. What number is it?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: Any number. If a number is doubled and multiplied by 4, it’s actually been multiplied by 8, so dividing by 8 will get you the original number again.
#44
I am a three-digit number. My second digit is 4 times bigger than the third digit. My first digit is 3 less than my second digit. What number am I?
#45
Double my number, I'm less than a score, half of my number is less than four. Add one to my double when bakers are near. Days of the week are still greater, I fear. What number am I?
#46
What is the smallest number that increases by 12 when it is flipped and turned upside down?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: 86. When it is turned upside down, it becomes 98, which is 12 more than 86.
#47
This number can be positive or negative, and it starts with I and ends with R. What is this number?
#48
Classic Mathematical Riddles
What is the result if you multiply all numbers on a phone’s dial pad?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: 0. Since the phone dial pad ends with a 0, multiplying anything by 0 equals 0.
#49
You have ordered a pizza for a dinner of eight. How many times do you need to cut the pizza to get eight slices?
#50
If two’s company, and three’s a crowd, what are four and five?
#51
If there are three apples and you take away two, how many apples do you have?
#52
How many months of the year have 28 days?
#53
You’re sitting down for breakfast and realize you have 4 bagels left. You know you’ll run out in four days so you cut them in half. How many bagels do you have now?
#54
How many sides does a circle have?
#56
When Michael was 6 years old, his little sister, Laura, was half is age. If Michael is 40 years old today, how old is Laura?
#57
Tricky Wordplay Number Riddles
The day before yesterday I was 21, and next year I will be 24. When is my birthday?
#58
There are 100 pairs of dogs in a zoo. Two pairs of baby dogs are born for every dog. Unfortunately, 23 of the dogs have not survived. How many dogs would be left in total?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: 977 dogs (100 x 2 = 200; 200 + 800 = 1000; 1000 – 23 = 977).
#59
A man is twice as old as his little sister. He is also half as old as their dad. Over a period of 50 years, the age of the sister will become half of their dad’s age. What is the age of the man now?
#60
A farmer bought a rooster to sell eggs for $0.1 each. The rooster lays five eggs a day. How much will the farmer earn in a week?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: The farmer will earn nothing because roosters don’t lay eggs.
#61
What are the two whole, positive numbers that have a one-digit answer when multiplied and a two-digit answer when added?
#62
A little girl goes to the store and buys one dozen eggs. As she is going home, all but three eggs break. How many eggs are left unbroken?
#63
A boy blows 18 bubbles,
Then pops 6 eats 7,
And then he pops 5 and blows 1.
How many are left?
#64
At the time of shipping, Jacob can place 10 small boxes or 8 large boxes into a carton. A total of 96 boxes were sent in one shipment. The number of small boxes was less than large boxes. What is the total number of cartons he shipped?
Linas Simonaitis 2 years ago
Answer: 11 cartons. 4 small boxes (410 = 40 boxes), 7 large boxes (78 = 56 boxes). So, Jacob shipped 96 boxes and 11 total cartons.
#65
What can you put between a 7 and an 8 so that the result is greater than a seven, but less than an eight?
#66
A snail is in a 20-meter-deep pit. It climbs 5 meters but slides 4 meters back every day. How long will it take for a snail to escape the hole?
Poll Question
Which type of number riddle do you prefer?
Classic mathematical
Pattern-based
Wordplay-infused
Story-driven
What do you think ?
Riddle Tower 2 years ago
You can try Riddle Tower. You can find it on Google playstore and yes this is a shameless promotion hehe :) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riddletower
Mr_Alfreado 2 years ago
Who actually solves these without wanting to do bodily harm to yourself?
Riddle Tower 2 years ago
You can try Riddle Tower. You can find it on Google playstore and yes this is a shameless promotion hehe :) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riddletower
Mr_Alfreado 2 years ago
Who actually solves these without wanting to do bodily harm to yourself?
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