Three men are in a restaurant. The bill comes to £30, so each man gives a £10 note to the waiter.

The waiter takes the bill and delivers the payment to the manager - who decides that he has overcharged so he gives the waiter £5 to take back to the men.

On the way back to the table, the waiter dishonestly pockets £2 of the £5 for himself, and gives each man back £1 only.

That means that each man has paid £9 - making a total of £27.
The waiter has £2, the men have paid £27... that comes to £29.

What has happened to the missing £1?

Only one of these five statements is correct - which is it?

1. Only one of these statements is false.
2. Only two of these statements are false.
3. Three of these statements are false.
4. Four of these statements are false.
5. All five of these statements are false.

A train leaves Edinburgh at 8.00 a.m. and travels to London at 60 mph.

At 9.00 a.m. another train leaves London and travels towards Edinburgh at 90 mph.

Which train is nearer to London when they pass?

There are eight oranges in a box. How can you divide them between eight people so that each person gets one orange and one orange is still left in the box?

The oranges must not be peeled or cut.

Jack's famous beanstalk doubled its height every day. After twenty-one days it was as high as the town hall.

After how many days was it half the height of the town hall?

Some ducks are marching across a path.

There's a duck in front of two ducks, there's a duck behind two ducks and there's a duck in the middle of two ducks.

What is the least number of ducks that there could have been?

Two trains approach each other from opposite directions. One is travelling at 50 mph the other at 70 mph.

How far apart are they fifteen minutes before they meet?

There is one word on this page which is spelt incorrectly. Can you find it?

A man is standing on a railway line and hears a train coming. He runs for safety as quickly as possible.

However he first runs twenty yards along the track towards the oncoming train. Why?

A newlaid egg drops six feet directly above a concrete floor without breaking.

How is this done? (It is not hard boiled.)

A saucer is floating in a bathtub. Which raises the water level more - dropping a penny into the saucer or into the bathtub?

What is the next letter in the series?

O,T,T,F,F,S,S,E ?

What is

1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8x9x0?

How many two-digit positive whole numbers are there?

A certain family has three children and half the children are boys. How is this?

A rope ladder hangs over the side of a ship. The rungs on the ladder are one foot apart.

At low tide the water just covers the bottom of rung of the ladder. At high tide the water level has risen by three feet.

How many rungs will be covered by then?

A driver is driving towards a level crossing at 60 mph. At the same time a train is hurtling towards the same crossing at 60 mph.

They are both 100 metres from the crossing when the driver realises his brakes have failed.

How does he get across?

If you add up the sum of consecutive cubes starting from 1, the answer is always a perfect square.

For example:

1³+2³=9=3²

1³+2³+3³=36=6²

1³+2³+3³+4³=100=10²

1³+2³+3³+4³+5³=225=15²

1³+2³+3³+4³+5³+6³=441=21²

1³+2³+3³+4³+5³+6³+7³=784=28²

etc etc.

Can you show why this is the case?

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