What percent did you score? Lock in your gut answer.
70
0%
73
0%
75
0%
80
0%
Thirty of forty is 75%.
Rates only average when the rounds are the same length, and a 30-question round outweighs a 10-question one three to one. Add the answers, then divide once.
Here are the five rounds.
Clocks and calendars, money at the table, words and letters, shapes and spaces, and numbers that look wrong. Thirty-nine questions to go.
I'm Heron. I once hosted a quiz with the answers printed on the back of the question sheet, and the paper turned out to be thin enough to read straight through.
That sheet is why every answer here starts covered. Forty questions in five rounds, and the scoring above was question 1.
Round one: clocks and calendars
Seven more questions about days, dates, and the clock, after the one up top. Not one of them needs a fact you were supposed to have memorized.
Hosting rather than playing? The toolbar copies all forty out and opens every answer at once.
Hosting a party?
Riddle 2 of 40
February 1 falls on a Monday, and the year is not a leap year. What day is March 1?
Hint: Count the days in February and see how many whole weeks they make.
Monday
✕a new month, a new weekdayevery other month shifts it
128 ÷ 7 = 4 weeksFebruary lands on whole weeks
2= Monday againthe one month that never shifts
A common February is exactly four weeks long, so it moves the calendar nowhere.
Riddle 3 of 40
Today is Wednesday. What day of the week will it be 100 days from now?
Hint: Weeks come in sevens, so only the leftover days matter.
2Wednesday + 2 = Fridayonly the remainder moves you
Counting a hundred days forward turns out to be counting two.
Riddle 4 of 40
A month of 31 days starts on a Sunday. How many Sundays does that month have?
Hint: Write the Sunday dates out and see where the month runs out.
5
✕31 ÷ 7 = 4 and changefour weeks, so four Sundays
11, 8, 15, 22, 29every Sunday date in the month
2= 5 Sundaysthe three spare days carry one
Thirty-one days hold four full weeks and three days over, and the first spare day is the Sunday.
Riddle 5 of 40
The last day of a 30-day month is a Tuesday. What day of the week was the first?
Hint: Walk back in sevens from the end of the month.
Monday
130 − 28 = 2four weeks back lands on the 2nd
2the 2nd is a Tuesdayso the 1st is the day before
3= Mondayone step back, no counting
Four whole weeks cost nothing to walk back, and the two days left over are the whole answer.
Riddle 6 of 40
Two hours ago it was as long after 2 pm as it was before 3 pm. What time is it now?
Hint: Find the moment that sits the same distance from both hours.
4:30 pm
1halfway between 2 and 3that moment is 2:30 pm
22:30 pm + 2 hoursthe sentence says two hours ago
3= 4:30 pmwhere the clock sits now
The sentence describes a moment two hours behind the one it is asking about.
Riddle 7 of 40
A watch with hands gains 3 minutes a day. You set it right at noon. When is it right again?
Hint: A watch face only carries twelve hours on it.
240 days
✕24 h = 1,440 min to gaina whole day, the long way round
112 h = 720 minthe face repeats twice a day
2720 ÷ 3 = 240 daysthree minutes a day to get there
A twelve-hour face forgives half a day, so the watch only has twelve hours to gain.
Riddle 8 of 40
Your flight leaves at 11:50 pm, takes 7 hours, and lands 3 time zones ahead. Local time?
Hint: Land the plane first, then move the clock.
9:50 am
111:50 pm + 7 h = 6:50 amflying time on your own clock
26:50 am + 3 h = 9:50 amthe zones push it forward
Rolling both moves into one number is how people miss a morning meeting by three hours.
Question 7 is the one that pays off away from a quiz. A watch running fast comes right after twelve hours of gain, and the twelve-hour face is why.
Your turn on the scoring from the top: 8 right out of a 10-question round, then 12 out of a 30-question one.
20 of 40 =
Same rules as above. You've got this.
Why we keep the answers covered
Every trivia list hands you the answer on the same line as the question. Your eye gets there before your brain tries, and the feeling of having known it arrives for free.
We're calling that The Free Look. It reads like knowledge, and by Tuesday there is nothing left of it.
A guess beats a free look even when the guess is wrong. Students quizzed on a passage before reading it outscored students given extra time with it in all five experiments, and in the first they got 95% of those early questions wrong.
The digit sum of any multiple of nine is itself a multiple of nine, so folding it down has one place to stop.
Riddle 39 of 40
A three-digit number has all three digits the same. Divide it by its digit sum. What comes out?
Hint: Try 222, and then try 777.
37, every time
1222 ÷ 6 = 37digits add to 6
2777 ÷ 21 = 37digits add to 21
3= 37 always111 ÷ 3 is 37 as well
Three matching digits make the digit times 111, the digit sum is three of it, and the digit cancels out.
Riddle 40 of 40
What is the smallest number that divides evenly by every digit from 1 to 9?
Hint: You stop needing 2, 3, and 4 once you have 8 and 9 on the list.
2,520
✕1 × 2 × ... × 9 = 362,880multiplying them all, far too big
18, 9, 5, and 7 cover the rest8 carries 2 and 4, 9 carries 3 and 6
28 × 9 × 5 × 7 = 2,520the smallest that fits all nine
Divisors overlap, so the smallest common multiple keeps each one only as often as it is needed.
Forty questions, and not one of them asked whether you had read the right page. That is deliberate: a question that needs no homework keeps the whole table playing.
Guess before you look. A wrong guess leaves more behind than The Free Look, and students who missed 95% of a pretest still came out ahead.
Weigh your rounds. Percentages only average when the rounds are the same size, so add the answers and divide once at the end.
Count the marking. The pen work is a third of any quiz night, and it is the part nobody puts on the schedule.
Honest tally: how many of the forty did you get without peeking?
0–9
0%
10–24
0%
25–39
0%
All 40
0%
FAQ
The ones a table can settle without remembering anything. All forty on this page are that kind: a month that never shifts the weekday, $1.19 in coins that cannot make change for a dollar, a word that sounds the same after you drop four of its five letters, and a wheel that rolls a bit over three of its own widths in one turn.
About 45 minutes if you mark as you go. Reading a question and letting the table answer runs around 45 seconds, so a round of eight takes 6 minutes, and marking it takes another 3. That is 9 minutes a round and 45 for all five, which is the number most hosts miss because nobody counts the pen work.
Not for the players. An answer your eye reaches before your brain tries feels like knowledge and leaves nothing behind, which is why every answer here sits behind a button. Hosts get the other half: the toolbar above round one opens all forty at once and copies the questions out for reading aloud.
Five rounds of eight is the shape on this page: clocks and calendars, money, words and letters, shapes and spaces, and numbers that behave strangely. Mixing the kind of thinking matters more than mixing the subjects, so a round of words after a round of arithmetic keeps the whole table in the game.
Ask questions that carry everything they need. A question about a capital city splits the room into people who read that page and people who did not, and a question about a 31-day month starting on a Sunday gives everyone the same five seconds of thinking. Fair rounds are also the ones people argue about afterward.
