Worlds Hardest Riddle

[The Little Guy]

I turn polar bears white
and I will make you cry.
I make guys have to pee
and girls comb their hair.
I make celebrities look stupid
and normal people look like celebrities.
I turn pancakes brown
and make your champagne bubble.
If you squeeze me, I'll pop.
If you look at me, you'll pop.
Can you guess the riddle?


97% of Harvard graduates can not figure this riddle out, but 84% of kindergarten students were able to figure this out in 6 minutes or less. Can you guess the correct answer? Good luck!

[bathurst_guy]

Can you guess the riddle?
Answer: No.

[JayM]

I was thinking the same thing as bathurst. The clue is in the last line of the riddle. "Can you guess the riddle?". Most kindergarten students will probably say "No.".

[Sunny G]

I was thinking maybe cigarettes or fire maybe :confused:
but no seems to work :)

[schizo]

Can you guess the riddle?I know the answer is no, but yes I can guess. I will be wrong however...

[The Little Guy]

Another answer would be pressure, if this was removed:
97% of Harvard graduates can not figure this riddle out, but 84% of kindergarten students were able to figure this out in 6 minutes or less. Can you guess the correct answer? Good luck!

[David Harrison]

Pressure doesn't make Polar Bears fur white, they evolved that way because where they live, having white fur is camouflage.

Pancakes turn brown because of heat, not pressure, and while heat and pressure can be linked (eg. when you compress a gas adiabatically), you don't compress pancakes.

[The Little Guy]

Here is what I found why pressure would work


It's got to be pressure.

Polar bears are white because the pressure at the poles is low, so they have to be able to absorb heat.

Pressure makes you cry if it's too much.

Pressure in your bladder makes you have to pee.

Peer pressure makes girls comb their hair...Otherwise we wouldn't bother!

Celebrities usually crack under pressure.

Many normal people will shine under pressure.

Pancakes turn brown thanks to pressure generated by the heat.

Champagne will bubble until the pressure of the carbonation has disappeared.

If you squeeze something under pressure, BAM, there it goes.

If you are "looking" at pressure, you're in it, like in an airplane, and your ears pop.

[NS Graphics]

Water???

[David Harrison]

Whatever makes you think that atmospheric pressure is lower at the poles? The pressure at a certain altitude is roughly the same (not exactly the same due to convection currents in the atmosphere) all around the world, the poles are no different.

I fail to see where a change in pressure is involved anywhere in the pancake making process

[The Little Guy]

IDK, I guess pressure is wrong

[The Little Guy]

try to find the error.

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

did you known that 80% of Stanford students could not find the error in the alphabet above

[David Harrison]

Neither can I.

I looked and didn't see it, I counted the letters and there were 26, I wrote out the alphabet and compared them next to each other and they're the same.

So the only error there is, is that there is no error.

[LeeU]

Interesting ... do you know that if you enter "I turn polar bears white" into Google, you will find over 200 other sites trying to figure out the same things?

[Kevey]

The the only thing I found wrong was the sentence below the alphabet:

"did you known that 80% of Stanford students could not find the error in the alphabet above"

No capitalization of 'did', wrong tense of 'know', no question mark at the end of the sentence...

...and if I'm singing it, the word 'and' is missing between 'y' and 'z' ;)

[bathurst_guy]

I turn polar bears white
and I will make you cry.
I make guys have to pee
and girls comb their hair.
I make celebrities look stupid
and normal people look like celebrities.
I turn pancakes brown
and make your champagne bubble.
If you squeeze me, I'll pop.
If you look at me, you'll pop.
Can you guess the riddle?


97% of Harvard graduates can not figure this riddle out, but 84% of kindergarten students were able to figure this out in 6 minutes or less. Can you guess the correct answer? Good luck!
Firstly I thought it was "time" but I reread it and tried to think like a 6 year old. So then I thought the answer would be "Yes" or "No", with most kids saying "No, what is it?"

[The Little Guy]

Firstly I thought it was "time" but I reread it and tried to think like a 6 year old. So then I thought the answer would be "Yes" or "No", with most kids saying "No, what is it?"

The answer is NO

[NogDog]

I prefer this classic "professional" quiz (http://www.dclab.com/qualified_professional.asp).

[JayM]

Where's the error in the alphabet riddle?

[The Little Guy]

Where's the error in the alphabet riddle?
There is no error, it was't asking what the error was, it was only asking if you can find it, and since it doesn't exist, there is no error.

[The Little Guy]

Hey, check this Out, I just made it: http://riddle.d-top.org/ Currently there are two riddles, If you have one, please submit it.

[rhsunderground]

Hey, check this Out, I just made it: http://riddle.d-top.org/ Currently there are two riddles, If you have one, please submit it.
Do you think your the riddle God? If so check out riddles submitted by other users here you're

:)

[The Little Guy]

Thank You!

[PeOfEo]

Here is what I found why pressure would work Um... if the polar bears are to absorb heat their fur would need to be black. Black is the most absorbant color whereas white is the most reflective.

[bathurst_guy]

Um... if the polar bears are to absorb heat their fur would need to be black. Black is the most absorbant color whereas white is the most reflective.
Their skin is black, and their hair is not white, its clear. So you're probably wondering why they look white and not black then? The clear hair acts like a prism and reflects the light from the snow in such a way that they appear white.

Comment disclosure: I am in no way a science/biology professional :p

[Stephen Philbin]

Their main method of insulation though is not the colour of their fur, but rather its structure. The hairs on a polar bear are hollow and trap an insulating layer of air. An extremely effective method of insulation.

[snoogens4u]

FYI: Polar Bear's fur is not white ... their hair follicles are hollow.

[The Little Guy]

Polar Bears have two types of fur. They have thick, woolly fur close to the skin that keeps them warm. They also have hollow guard hairs that stick up and protect the bears from getting wet. These guard hairs are like drinking straws and are clear-colored (not white). The white-looking coat camouflages them well in the snow and ice. Under the fur, Polar Bears have black skin. They also have a thick layer of fat (up to 4 inches thick) under the skin that helps keep them warm.

[deltagrl12699]

Polar bear's fur did not evole that way their fur is actually clear and it is the reflection of the light against their surrounding that make them appear white. If you surround a polar bear with the color green the polar bear would appear green

[David Harrison]

I wonder how many more people are going to make a post stating that polar bears have clear fur. Maybe just a few more, just to be sure, I think there's a few slow people sitting in the back that haven't quite absorbed this library of information yet.

[Sunny G]

Can you guess the riddle?
I can't guess the riddle, but I can guess the answer to the riddle (if I knew it:p)

[anroy]

I have heard that polar bears are going to be extinct by 2100 because of global warming.

A lot of the Arctic ice will be gone and their methods of hunting seals and general survival depend on this ice. They are already showing signs of lower body weight and less births per female.

Another magnificent species gone, due to our lifestyles.

[The Little Guy]

Question: How come when I saw a polar bear at the zoo, it was white, even though it was walking on cement, and the only other thing in the cage was water?

[LiL|aaron]

no i cant guess the riddle :(

But if i was to guess... i would say 'Air' :)

[David Harrison]

Question: How come when I saw a polar bear at the zoo, it was white, even though it was walking on cement, and the only other thing in the cage was water?The zoo keepers anticipated that visitors would expect to see white polar bears, so they creep around behind them with a white cardboard polar bear shaped cut-out.

[Sunny G]

Is 'water' the answer?

[MstrBob]

Question: How come when I saw a polar bear at the zoo, it was white, even though it was walking on cement, and the only other thing in the cage was water?

Their skin is black, and their hair is not white, its clear. So you're probably wondering why they look white and not black then? The clear hair acts like a prism and reflects the light from the snow in such a way that they appear white. [/SIZE]


Actually, their white color has nothing to do with snow, and everything to do with the fact that each hair is hollow. As stated previously, this is excellent insulation. The hair is translucent, so it isn't absorbing light of the visible spectrum. Light then enters the air inside the hair, and is scattered. Since none of the wavelengths (of the visible spectrum, it does absorb UV light, I believe) are getting absorbed, we see all the light getting reflected back to us. The mind perceives this as white. Considering that only part of the light hitting the fur is getting reflected (it does absorb UV light) it is very efficient, and is probably beneficial in hunting, allowing the polar bear to blend in with its white surroundings (I'm no biologist).

There you go, more than you wanted to know. :p

[Mouse77e]

I turn polar bears white
A: Light refraction through hollow hair = LIGHT
and I will make you cry.
A: any number of things but some are alergic to sunlight... eyes water...
I make guys have to pee
A: any number of things... Water, euric acid...would be a root tho
and girls comb their hair.
A: Water again
I make celebrities look stupid
A:any number of things
and normal people look like celebrities.
A:any number of things
I turn pancakes brown
A: Caremelisation of the sugars in the food... so heat
and make your champagne bubble.
A: impurities in the glass reacts with the carbon dioxide trapped in the liquid, forming bubbles of naturalised gas...
If you squeeze me, I'll pop.
A:any number of things
If you look at me, you'll pop.
A:any number of things
Can you guess the riddle?

well... i took this to a scientific level and the onl thing which could work is an Oxyganated acid combo.... its not the right answer but hey...

[Mouse77e]

Out on a limb here... i'm going for :D OXYGEN...

[David Harrison]

So you're saying that glass reacts with Carbon Dioxide? Well that's certainly ... different.

And by different I mean incorrect.

Also Bob, according to your logic, it doesn't matter what colour light you shine on a polar bear, it'll look white. I'm afraid that doesn't seem quite right some how. If you shine only red light on it, you'll see red light reflected back, your mind won't perceive that as white at all, it'll just look red.

And for the record, Polar bears don't have clear fur, they have white translucent fur. It may appear to be colourless when you have one or two strands of it, much like glass seems to be colourless when you only have a thin pane of it, but it's not. Polar bears fur is actually white, and glass is actually green.

[Mouse77e]

So you're saying that glass reacts with Carbon Dioxide? Well that's certainly ... different.

And by different I mean incorrect.


Sorry mate... right.

its the impuritys in the glass that makes the bubbles...
Bubble nucleation
In the case of Champagne wines, the main gas responsible for bubble production is carbon dioxide, which is produced by yeasts during the second fermentation in the closed bottle. According to Henry's law, equilibrium progressively establishes between the gas dissolved into the wine and the gas into the vapour phase in the headspace under the cork. At the end of fermentation, the CO2 pressure under the cork is around 6 atm., and the wine may contain up to 12 g/L of dissolved CO2. When the bottle is opened, the CO2 pressure in the vapour phase suddenly falls. The thermodynamic equilibrium of the closed bottle is broken, and the wine becomes supersaturated with CO2 molecules. To recover a new stable thermodynamic state corresponding to the atmospheric pressure, champagne must degas. When champagne is poured into a glass, two mechanisms enable dissolved CO2 molecules to escape from the supersaturated liquid medium: diffusion through the flat free surface of the liquid, and bubble formation. As soon as a liquid medium is supersaturated, the bulk free energy per unit of volume, Dgu, associated with the transfer of dissolved gas molecules into the vapour is negative, and therefore thermodynamically favourable. But the bubble production process also results into the production of interfacial free energy. Below a critical radius rc depending on some physicochemical parameters of the solution http://www.europhysicsnews.com/full/13/article3/article3.html
but anyway....

[David Harrison]

And at what point in that does it say that Carbon Dioxide undergoes a chemical reaction with glass? It doesn't.

What it does say though is that there is a dynamic equilibrium inside the bottle whereby CO2 is dissolving in the wine at the same rate that CO2 in the wine is escaping (for want of a better term). However, once the bottle is opened, there is a lower concentration of CO2 around the wine and so less CO2 dissolves in the wine and therefore there is suddenly more CO2 escaping the wine than dissolving. That's why you get bubbles.

The bubbles are pockets of CO2 escaping from the wine, not, "naturalised gas" that is formed with CO2 reacting with glass. If CO2 did react with glass then old glassware would simply disintegrate.

Read this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_equilibrium) for more information about dynamic equilibria.

[Mouse77e]

i still stand that the answer is oxygen....

[MstrBob]

Also Bob, according to your logic, it doesn't matter what colour light you shine on a polar bear, it'll look white. I'm afraid that doesn't seem quite right some how. If you shine only red light on it, you'll see red light reflected back, your mind won't perceive that as white at all, it'll just look red.

No, no. I'm saying that the light is scattered and reflected back. Remember, sunlight is white. If you simply shone red light on a polar bear, that polar bear would indeed appear white. Snow has nothing to do with polar bears being white. Snow is white because it also is reflecting back visible light across the spectrum.

And you are right that the hair is transluscent. It is like water. The hair is reflecting only some of the light. So a piece or so and it will seem nearly transparent. Put a lot of it together, like say on a polar bears back, and it appears white. (The same idea holds with water. Look at a glass of water, you can see right through it. In fact, it is reflecting back some blue light, but not enough for the naked eye to percieve. Get a lake of water and you see blue, becuase there is so much more blue light being reflected).

Off topic much, are we?

[poiuy]

I was just at Sea World last weekend and forgot to ask someone about this debate. I have the fun card so next time I go I'll have to ask now. :D

Any how one of the few things that makes me think water is the answer is the celebrity look stupid line. Remember the incident/prank with Tom Cruise where the guys shot water out of the microphone at him and he had a hissy fit?

I'm still leaning toward there being no answer though.

[The Little Guy]

Everything is black. Why do you think you can't see the color of something in pitch dark black room? That is because there is no light, and until light hits it, you see the color. Every color that light makes is absorbed into the object, except for the color that makes the object the color you see, that color is reflected off of the object, and that is why you see it as that color.

Your eyes have rods and cones, the rods see black and white, while the cones see colors. The cones connect to nerve cells which give the brain the enough information to sense, interpreter, and name the colors you see.

The sun creates many colors, and red, blue, and green, when all in one area make white. Take red, green, and blue tissue paper, and put it in front of a flash light, it makes white. Remove one of the pieces of tissue paper, and now the white shows as a different color, now remove one more, the light once again changes to a different color.

[MstrBob]

Everything is black.

Well, no. You can't say everything is black anymore than you can say anything is any color. Black is merely an absorbtion of all the colors of the visible spectrum. Black colored objects are black. If black truly was an total absense of dark you would not see the object. Yet you can still see black objects, and determine their shape, because they still do reflect light.

[McSpock]

The answer to the riddle is "NO" :)

http://fun.egreetingsetc.com/2F/D/AI/index.shtml
http://teensetc.com/0F/0D/BI/index.shtml

[spartusseven]

ok so they said 80% could not find the error. lol well simply put the letters in the error contain T, H, E, R and O. and 80% couldnt find those letters contained within The error.

[The Little Guy]

what?

[Paul Jr]

It might just be me, but the solution to this riddle (http://riddle.d-top.org/the_riddle.php?id=4) doesn't make sense. Perhaps it would be beneficial to include a picture of the described shape, 'cause I'm just not seeing it. *shrug*

-GFH

[David Harrison]

It tells you the exact shape a number of times in the answer.

[juljohnston]

It might just be me, but the solution to this riddle (http://riddle.d-top.org/the_riddle.php?id=4) doesn't make sense. Perhaps it would be beneficial to include a picture of the described shape, 'cause I'm just not seeing it. *shrug*

-GFH

the answer is to make a number 4 out of the 4 matchsticks because, mathematically speaking, 4 IS a "perfect square", NOT the shape. (therein lies the brainteaser part of it.)

[PITOism]

Actually i think the answer can be "yes" or "no" as long as you answer the last question which is "can you answer this riddle" .... obviously the majority of kids would say no thus everyone assumes the answer is "no" but they are only correct because they answered the final question... now if you say "yes" and you have a legitamate answer for your yes then thats just icing on the cake...Only reason why Harvard students can't get it right is because a majority of students from harvard use too much of their brains which leads them searching for a more logical answer, causing them to over look the final sentence. Over achievers i might say, but thats what got them to where they are at now.

[kurama]

Nothing! Hahahaa!

[LeeU]

O.K., we're getting off base here. This thread is five months old. This is not a personal message board. This thread is closed.