19 Brain Teasers That Will Leave You Stumped BY CLAIRE NOWAK ( courtecy;- reader's digest )

Solving logic problems boosts brain power, keeps your memory strong, and entertains everyone to no end. See how many you can figure out—without cheating!

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

A man pushes his car to a hotel and tells the owner he’s bankrupt. Why?

Answer: He’s playing Monopoly. Nothing like a good ol' classic board game.

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

You are in a room that has three switches and a closed door. The switches control three light bulbs on the other side of the door. Once you open the door, you may never touch the switches again. How can you definitively tell which switch is connected to each of the light bulbs?

Answer: Turn on the first two switches. Leave them on for five minutes. Once five minutes has passed, turn off the second switch, leaving one switch on. Now go through the door. The light that is still on is connected to the first switch. Whichever of the other two is warm to the touch is connected to the second switch. The bulb that is cold is connected to the switch that was never turned on. Thought this brain teaser was hard? Almost no one gets this logic card trick right.

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

I left my campsite and hiked south for 3 miles. Then I turned east and hiked for 3 miles. I then turned north and hiked for 3 miles, at which time I came upon a bear inside my tent eating my food! What color was the bear?

Answer: White. The only place you can hike 3 miles south, then east for 3 miles, then north for 3 miles and end up back at your starting point is the North Pole. Polar bears are the only bears that live at the North Pole, and they are white.

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

A man is looking at a photograph of someone. His friend asks who it is. The man replies, “Brothers and sisters, I have none. But that man’s father is my father’s son.” Who was in the photograph?

Answer: His son

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

What is special about these words: job, polish, herb?

Answer: They are pronounced differently when the first letter is capitalized. These are the hardest words to pronounce in the English language.

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

Forrest left home running. He ran a ways and then turned left, ran the same distance and turned left again, ran the same distance and turned left again. When he got home, there were two masked men. Who were they?

Answer: The catcher and the umpire

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

A man stands on one side of a river, his dog on the other. The man calls his dog, who immediately crosses the river without getting wet and without using a bridge or a boat. How did the dog do it?

Answer: The river was frozen.

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

In 1990, a person is 15 years old. In 1995, that same person is 10 years old. How can this be?

Answer: The person was born in 2005 BC.

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

A sundial has the fewest moving parts of any timepiece. Which has the most?

Answer: An hourglass—It has thousands of grains of sand.

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

What makes this number unique: 8,549,176,320?

Answer: It has each number, zero through nine, listed in alphabetical order. Keep the math fun going with our favorite math jokes.

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

Arnold Schwarzenegger has a long one. Michael J. Fox has a short one. Madonna does not use hers. Bill Clinton always uses his. The Pope never uses his. What is it?

Answer: Their surname

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?

Answer: Short

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

Your parents have six sons including you and each son has one sister. How many people are in the family?

Answer: Nine—two parents, six sons, and one daughter

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

I am the beginning of sorrow and the end of sickness. You cannot express happiness without me yet I am in the midst of crosses. I am always in risk yet never in danger. You may find me in the sun, but I am never out of darkness.

Answer: The letter S

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

An Arab sheik is old and must leave his fortune to one of his two sons. He makes a proposition: Both sons will ride their camels in a race, and whichever camel crosses the finish line LAST will win the fortune for its owner. During the race, the two brothers wander aimlessly for days, neither willing to cross the finish line. In desperation, they ask a wise man for advice. He tells them something; then the brothers leap onto the camels and charge toward the finish line. What did the wise man say?

Answer: The rules of the race were that the owner of the camel that crosses the finish line last wins the fortune. The wise man simply told them to switch camels. (Don't worry, that one was hard. Ease your mind with the punniest cartoons we could find.)

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

A man was walking in the rain. He was in the middle of nowhere. He had nothing and nowhere to hide. He came home all wet, but not a single hair on his head was wet. Why is that?

Answer: The man was bald.

C

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

Fourteen of the kids in the class are girls. Eight of the kids wear blue shirts. Two of the kids are neither girls or wear a blue shirt. If five of the kids are girls who wear blue shirts, how many kids are in the class?

Answer: 19

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

Paul's height is six feet, he's an assistant at a butcher's shop, and wears size 9 shoes. What does he weigh?

Answer: Meat

TATIANA AYAZO/RD.COM,SHUTTERSTOCK

The person who makes it has no need for it. The person who purchases it does not use it. The person who does use it does not know he or she is. What is it?

Answer: A coffin

Don't let the fun stop here! See if you can figure out these 12 detective riddles only the smartest can solve.