CMORMOVIES, you are of course correct.

I see we have to post more difficult ones:

Ted lived in a tall house by himself for many years, never going out. One stormy winter evening, he decided that he must go to the doctor in the nearest town as he was very sick. When he returned the following morning, he was shocked to discover he was responsible for the deaths of 26 people in his absence.

why?

Probably way off base but we'll give it a shot:

Ted lived in a lighthouse and when he wasn't home to operate the light a ship ran aground and sank killing 26 people aboard.

Proteosome,
You are way on base - good for you.

Obviously I am making these too easy. I'll start making this one a little harder:

Which word from this box
ALIBI
BIKINIS
SIEVE
VALID
REVEREcomes next in the following sequence??

PIN
LIMIT
MILITIA

99gecko:

PIN, LIMIT, MILITIA, BIKINIS - reverse alphabetical order

I thought I replied to this last night, but maybe I had more beer than I thought.
Anyway, Cyclism, even though you are correct, that is not the pattern I am looking for.
As a hint, the 5th word in the first box (assume it is in the second box as well), would be EVE

cheers,
99gecko

today's hint:
The solution is more about counting, than it is about letters....

I'll give a few more hints today, then I'll post the answer tomorrow if nobody has solved if by then.

Hint #1
Millions of people around the world will see "three of these" used in the title of their programming, shown on their tv screens this upcoming Sunday.

99gecko:
I would think from your clues that the answer would be that the words are based on roman numerals, specifically in the first word I = 1, 2nd word, the 2 I's give 2, the third word the 3 I's give 3 and it would also make sense for the fifth word being EVE for 5. However, giving that I'm still confused as then I would think the correct answer should be SEIVE or 4 for the IV. The other bit of confusion for me is that both LIMIT and MILITIA have M's and L's in the word which are also roman numerals.

BigBlue1974,

You're almost there. Check your spelling and the solution should be more obvious.

For those didn't check the spoiler with BigBlue's answer here another clue.

Clue #2
You will find these at the end of some movies, and maybe at the beginning of some movies

Well it's been a week, and the anwer is.....

Very close to what BigBlue1974 suggested, however his spelling of SIEVE got him off track:

Drop the first letter of each word and then keep the every second letter. This provides the pattern for normal Roman Numeral counting.
PIN
LIMIT
MILITIA
SIEVE
EVE

99gecko:
Ah, yes it was merely a typo on the word SIEVE when I typed out my question that I didn't catch. Good riddle which I sorta got but not quite with the reasoning of exactly how it worked. I think what threw me off the most was that earlier in the thread you said that Cyclism was right(with a good explanation too might I add) but that wasn't the correct pattern you were looking for. I took that to mean that BIKINI was the right answer(instead of SIEVE) and that was what was confusing me the most. :)

"A plane is sitting on runway that can move (some sort of giant conveyer belt). The plane moves in one direction, while the conveyer moves in the opposite direction. This conveyer has a control system that tracks the plane speed and tunes the speed of the conveyer to be exactly the same (but in opposite direction).

The question is:

Will the plane take off or not? Will it be able to run up and take off? "
Just saw a episode of Mythbusters on this. Great episode IMO.

I forgot all about this thread Q, thanks for bumping!
Just got the following one this morning; nice and easy for the newbies.
Apparently taken from the TV show Are you Smarter Than a Fifth grader? (unconfirmed):
This is not a trick question. Again, this is a real math problem so don't say that a bus has no legs.
· There are 7 girls in a bus.
· Each girl has 7 backpacks.
· In each backpack, there are 7 big cats.
· For every big cat there are 7 little cats.

Question: How many legs are there in the bus?


cheers.

I will guess 70 legs
2nd guess after re-reading the problem:
I will guess 1386 legs

3rd attempt with some paper and a calculator:

7(girls)*2(legs) = girl’s legs = 14
7(girls)*7(backpacks)*7(big kittens)*4(legs) = big kitten legs = 1372
7(girls)*7(backpacks)*7(big kittens)*7(little kittens)*4(legs) = little kitten legs = 9604

14+1372+9604 = 10990

Im guessing the person on are you smarted that a 5th grader had a bit of a problem with this you have to read the question so carefuly

I am getting 2758 legs
yup....screwed up 7 little / big cat.

magnet has it right.

I get little cats = 7girls*7packs*7bigcats*7littlecats*4 legs= 9604
big cats = 7girls*7packs*7big cats*4 legs= 1372
girls = 7*2legs = 14
9604+1372+14= 10990

New one, quite tricky:

You are downstairs in a house. There are three light switches, two that do nothing and one that turns on a light upstairs. How can you figure out which switch turns on the light with only one trip up the stairs?

You cannot see the light from downstairs, and you have no helper to call down.


Good luck...:rolleyes:

flip the first switch. leave it on. flip the first switch again to turn it off.
flip the second switch. go up stairs.

if the light is on, the second switch turns on the light and switch #1 and #3 do nothing.
if the light is off, feel the bulb for warmth. If the light is warm, switch #1 turns on the light and switches #2 and #3 do nothing.
if the light is off, and the bulb is cold, then switch #3 turns on the light.

Very good!

But, you might want to use the blue-on-blue trick next time, so others can have a go without seeing the solution.

This is in blue
[spoiler]This will be in blue[/spoilre] <- just have to spell 'spoiler' correctly.

talljak, 3rd times the charm!

______________________________________

This one is guaranteed to generate debate:

You are in the market for a new kitten, but you only want a male. A pet shop owner tells you there are two new kittens from a recently born litter to show you, but the shopkeeper doesn't know whether they're male, female, or a pair. You tell the shopkeeper that you want only a male, and so the shopkeeper telephones the person who's giving them a bath.
"Is at least one a male?" they ask.
"Yes!" you are told with a smile.

Now, what is the probability that the other one is a male?

Happy arguing! I'll check in tomorrow to see how you're doing.