Math Riddles

Math riddles are a scary territory to many. Math is already a science of problems, tricky statements, abstract imagination, and heavy thinking, could it also be fun? The answer is yes, and proof can be found ahead. Will the numbers be your friends or your doom? Psst, we’ll give you a hint: if it looks like you have to do a lot of calculations, then the solution might not require calculations at all!

46 Math Riddles With Answers

Riddle: A clock chimes 5 times in 4 seconds. How many times will it chime in 10 seconds?

Answer: 11 times. It chimes at zero and then once every second for 10 seconds

Rating: 100%

Riddle: A new medical building containing 100 offices had just been completed. Mark was hired to paint the numbers 1 to 100 on the doors. How many times will Mark have to paint the number nine?

Answer: The answer is 20! 9, 19, 29, 39, 49, 59, 69, 79, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99.

Rating: 100%

Riddle: There are four girls, and four apples in a basket. Every girl takes an apple, Yet one apple remains in the basket. How is this possible?

Answer: One girl took the basket. She took the last apple while it was in the basket.

Rating: 100%

Riddle: There are 10 dogs in a yard. 3 go out, 4 run behind a tree, and 2 jump in the hole. How many are left?

Answer: 10, because none of them left the yard.

Rating: 100%

Riddle: A tree doubled in height each year until it reached its maximum height over the course of ten years. How many years did it take for the tree to reach half its maximum height?

Answer: It was 1/2 its Max height in year 9 so.. Nine Years. Because on the 10th year it doubled for the last time and reached the maximum height

Rating: 100%

Riddle: How many apples grow on an apple tree?

Answer: All of them

Rating: 100%

Riddle: How many months have 28 days?

Answer: All 12 of them.

Rating: 60%

Riddle: If a wheel has 64 spokes, how many spaces are there between the spokes?

Answer: 64. The space that comes after the 64th spoke, would be just before the first spoke

Rating: 100%

Riddle: If someone says to you, “I'll bet you $1 that if you give me $2, I will give you $3 in return“, would this be a good bet for you to accept?

Answer: No. This is a situation where you lose even if you win. Assuming the other person is being wise, they would take your $2 and say, “I lose“, and give you $1 in return. You win the bet, but you're out $1

Rating: 100%

Riddle: If someone turned 25 three days ago, but will be 27 next year, when is their birthday?

Answer: Jan. 1.

Rating: 100%

Riddle: If three cats catch three mice in three minutes, how many cats would be needed to catch 100 mice in 100 minutes?

Answer: The same three cats would do. Since these three cats are averaging one mouse per minute, given 100 minutes, the cats could catch 100 mice.

Rating: 100%

Riddle: If you have three oranges and you take away two, how many will you have?

Answer: Two. The two you took.

Rating: 100%

Riddle: If you're 8 feet away from a door and with each move you advance half the distance to the door. How many moves will it take to reach the door.

Answer: You will never reach the door, it will always be half the distance, no matter how small!

Rating: 100%

Riddle: If you took two apples from three apples, how many apples would you have?

Answer: Two.

Rating: 100%

Riddle: If you toss a die and it comes up with the number one 9 times in a row, what is the probability that it will come up with one on the next throw?

Answer: One in six. A die has no memory of what it last showed

Rating: 100%

Riddle: John is having his 3rd birthday party, but he has been alive for 12 years. How is that possible?

Answer: His birthday is on a leap year! (February 29th)

Rating: 100%

Riddle: What year comes next in this sequence: 1973 1979 1987 1993 1997 1999

Answer: 2003: they are prime years

Rating: 100%

Riddle: When asked how old she was, Suzie replied, “In 2 years I will be twice as old as I was 5 years ago.” How old is she?

Answer: Use some math remember in 2 yrs she's twice as old She's 12 ! 14yr / 2yr = 7yr add 5yr and get 12 years old

Rating: 100%

Riddle: Two mothers and two daughters went fishing one day. They were there there the whole day and only caught 3 fish. One mother said: "That is enough for all of us, we will have one each." How can this be possible?

Answer: There was the mother, her daughter, and her daughter's daughter. This equals 2 mothers and 2 daughters.

Rating: 100%

Riddle: Walking home one day, you take a short cut along the train tracks. The tracks cross a narrow bridge over a deep gorge. At the point you are 3/8 of the way across the bridge, you hear the train whistle somewhere behind you. You charge across the bridge, and jump off the track as the train is about to run you down. As it happens, if you had gone the other way, you would have reached safety just before being run over as well. If you can run ten miles per hour, how fast is the train moving?

Answer: The train is moving at 40 miles per hour. Imagine that a friend is walking with you. When the train whistle blows, you head away from the train, he heads toward it. When he reaches safety, you will be 6/8 (or 3/4)of the way across the bridge, and the train will have just reached the bridge. For the train to cross 4/4 of the bridge in the time you cross the remaining 1/4, the train must be moving four times your speed

Rating: 100%

Riddle: What is the value of 1/2 of 2/3 of 3/4 of 4/5 of 5/6 of 6/7 of 7/8 of 8/9 of 9/10 of 1,000?

Answer: One hundred - work backwards and you will understand

Rating: 100%

Riddle: Why would you not want to be one of Snow White’s dwarfs?

Answer: 6 out of 7 of them aren’t Happy.

Rating: 100%

Riddle: You have the misfortune to own an unreliable clock. This one loses exactly 24 minutes every hour. It is now showing 3:00am and you know that is was correct at midnight, when you set it. The clock stopped 1 hour ago, what is the correct time now?

Answer: 6:00am: since the clock is losing 24 minutes every hour, for every real hour that has passed, the clock will only show 36 minutes. Since the clock shows 3:00am, we know that 180 clock minutes have passed. This therefore equals 300 real minutes and hence 5 hours. The clock stopped 1 hour ago and the time must now be 6.00am.

Rating: 100%

Numbers and calculations can be daunting to many, so it’s quite normal to see people try to stay clear of any math riddles, for fear of making a fool of themselves. What they fail to understand is that riddles are never meant to make anyone look or feel dumb. They are deceivingly difficult to surprise everyone and prompt a good chuckle once the answer is revealed. That is also the case here. The harder the question looks, the more obvious and simple the answer is likely to be. And are you even sure that these problems have numbers in their solutions?

Last Updated: Thursday, January 23, 2025

Other Categories

Christmas Riddles

A sweet and merry way to challenge your friends and family to a puzzle-solving festive competition of wits.

Show Riddles

Easy Riddles

Quick and simple teasers and enigmas to warm up the brain to harder challenges while having fun.

Show Riddles
WordConnect
WordConnect
Classic Word Puzzles
by AppGeneration Software
Word Search Nature
Classic Word Puzzles
by AppGeneration Software

Riddle of the Day

Whoever makes it, tells it not. Whoever takes it, knows it not. And whoever knows it wants it not.