Math Riddles with Answers

Riddle me this, riddle me that, who's afraid of the big, black bat?

That was the Riddler, spiting Batman in the movie Batman Forever. Riddles are always a great way to have fun with friends as well as to kill time when alone! However, here you would be teasing your brains and pitching your wits against some frustratingly elusive as well as unbelievably easy (the kind which looks difficult but the simplicity of the solution puts you to shame!) mathematics riddles and see how we fare! These math riddles with answers belong to various difficulty levels and require some amount of concentration and clear, logical reasoning to crack them. And hey - no peeking!

Easy Math Riddles with Answers

Before you get down to some decently difficult riddles for adults, try solving these tricky riddles for kids. Shouldn't be difficult!

1. Why should you never mention the number 288 in front of anyone?
   Show Answer
   Answer: Because 288 is too gross (2*144 = two gross)!
2. What weighs more - a pound of iron or a pound of feathers?
   Show Answer
   Answer: Both would weigh the same - come on, a pound remains a pound, irrespective of the object!
3. How many eggs can you put in an empty basket?
   Show Answer
   Answer: Only one egg, because after that the basket doesn't remain empty any more
4. If you can purchase 8 eggs for 26 cents, how many can you buy for a cent and a quarter?
   Show Answer
   Answer: Eight
5. If you take 3 apples from a group of 5, how many do you have?
   Show Answer
   Answer: Three - you just took them yourself!
6. How many 9s are there between 1 and 100?
   Show Answer
   Answer: Twenty 9s
7. Which has more value - 1 pound of $20 gold coins or half a pound of $40 gold coins?
   Show Answer
   Answer: Twice of half a pound is one pound - figured it out yet?
8. Why is the longest human nose on record is only 11 inches long?
   Show Answer
   Answer: Because then it wouldn't be a nose any more; it would become a foot! (12 inches and above - easy!)
9. If a rooster laid 13 eggs and the farmer took 8 of them and then another rooster laid 12 eggs and 4 of them were rotten, how many of the eggs were left?
   Show Answer
   Answer: Roosters don't lay no eggs!
10. I am an odd number; take away an alphabet and I become even. What number am I?
    Show Answer
    Answer: 7 (SEVEN-S=EVEN)

Those were simple, weren't they? Time for some hard riddles, folks!

Hard Math Riddles with Answers

Following are some good brain riddles with answers. Try to get to the solutions yourself before scrolling down for the answers!

1. What would be the seventh rung of the following pyramid?
   1
   11
   21
   1211
   111221
   312211
   13112221
   (Psst! This is one of the best riddles and my personal favorite in this section - so, don't let me down on this one!)
   Show Answer
   Answer: 1113213211. After the first line, each line describes the previous line as follows:
   one 1
   2 Ones
   One 2, One 1
   (and so on...)
2. You have a barrel of beer and you need to measure out just one gallon. How do you do this if you only have a three-gallon container and a five-gallon container?
   Show Answer
   Answer: Fill the 3 gallon container with beer and pour it into the 5 gallon container. Then fill the 3-gallon container again and keep pouring it into the 5-gallon container till the latter is full to the brim. One gallon will be left in the 3-gallon container.
3. If you have 6 black socks, 4 blue socks, 8 brown socks, and 2 red socks in your sock drawer, what is the minimum number of socks that you need to pull out in the dark to be sure you had a matching pair?
   Show Answer
   Answer: At least 5, so that at least one color has two socks
4. Jake weighs half as much as Joe, and John weighs three times as much as Jake. Together, they weigh 720 pounds. How much does each man weigh?
   Show Answer
   Answer: If Jake weighs twice as much as Joe, and John three times as much, dividing their total weight by six gives us Jake's weight (think x + 2x + 3x = 720). 720 divided by 6 tells us that Jake weighs 120 pounds, so Joe weighs 240 pounds and John weighs 360 pounds.
5. So you think you're good at math? Complete the sequence: 1=3, 2=3, 3=5, 4=4, 5=4, 6=3, 7=5, 8=5, 9=4, 10=3, 11=?, 12=?
   Show Answer
   Answer: 6. That is the number of letters in the spelling of each number!
6. In a certain country ½ of 5 = 3. Assuming the same proportion, what would be the value of 1/3 of 10 ?
   Show Answer
   Answer: 4
7. 27 ducks are marching to the pond. 5 lose their way, 13 return and 9 of them make it to the pond. What happens to the rest of them?
   Show Answer
   Answer: None are remaining!( 27-5= 22, 22-13= 9, 9-9=0!!!)
8. Mary has three coins of the USA currency. They are neither, quarters, dimes nor pennies but they add up to 60 cents. What are they?
   Show Answer
   Answer: A 50 cent and 2 nickels
9. A merchant can place 8 large boxes or 10 small boxes into a carton for shipping. In one shipment, he sent a total of 96 boxes. If there are more large boxes than small boxes, how many cartons did he ship?
   Show Answer
   Answer: 11 cartons total; 7 large boxes (7 * 8 = 56 boxes), 4 small boxes (4*10 = 40 boxes),11 total cartons and 96 boxes.
10. A frog fell into a hole that was 14 ½ feet deep. He could jump 3 feet, but he slid back a foot each time he jumped. How many jumps does it take him to get out of the hole?
    Show Answer
    Answer: Every 3 feet jump accompanied by a 1 foot slide equals 2 feet high jumps each; at this rate, so the 7th jump, starting at 12 feet, brings him to 15 feet, which takes him out of the hole.
11. Aron had twelve ear buds in front of him. He took one away. Now he had nine in front of him. How is this possible?
    Show Answer
    Answer: The remaining buds were arranged to form the figure of 9!! How else??

Those were some hard riddles to solve along with the answers. Pop these math riddles and puzzles when you have company and have some baffling good time along with friends and family! You can also use simple math riddles with answers for kids to cultivate an interest for math in them and eradicate the notorious dread kids associate with mathematics. Riddles and answers for kids are a fun way to open their minds to systematic thinking and logical reasoning. If you were able to solve all of these, especially the second section, hats off to you! Now, you are ready to advance to more tricky riddles for adults! If you couldn't get past the easy section, no worries! Even I'm no genius with numbers! Mathematical riddles are a creative way of having fun as well as sharpening your acumen with numbers and details. For those of you who are mathematical geniuses, here's a parting riddle, created by none other than the great Albert Einstein himself! Considered one of the really hard riddles of all time, try cracking this confounding piece that tickles your logical reasoning powers!

Einstein's Riddle

In a street there are five houses, painted five different colors. In each house lives a person of different nationality. These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke different brand of cigar and keep a different pet. Who owns the fish?

Necessary Clues

• The Brit lives in a red house.
• The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
• The Dane drinks tea.
• The Green house is next to, and on the left of the White house.
• The owner of the Green house drinks coffee.
• The person smoking Pall Mall rears birds.
• The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill.
• The man living in the center house drinks milk.
• The Norwegian man lives in the first house.
• The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
• The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
• The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
• The German smokes Prince.
• The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
• The Blends smoker lives next door to the man who drinks water.

Though touted among the world's most challenging riddles and considered one of the hardest mathematical riddles ever, this one's not very difficult to crack if one has patience and has a flair for systematic data interpretation. Get that thinking cap on and do let me know the solution when you arrive at it. Till then, stay riddled!