This is supposedly the world's most difficult riddle only because the answer is so simple...most don't think of it.

In a survey of Harvard Grads..only 3% answered it correctly.

In a survey of Kindergarteners...a whopping 87% answered it correctly.

Here it is:

It makes polar bears look white.
It makes toast brown.
It makes grown men want to pee.
It makes women wish to comb their hair.
It makes champagne bubble.
If you look at it...it will pop.
If it looks at you...you will pop.

Can you answer this riddle?  (I can think of three plausible answers)

I googled the answer to this, but I still don't get it. I won't post the answer so that others can have a go.

Here is an another riddle: If a chicken says that all chickens are liars, is the chicken telling the truth?

Oh, got it.

The chicken is lying



Damn that first one is simple. I wish I hadn't cheated

This post was last modified: 05-08-2011 02:50 PM by Mytelli!.

So did I! I also don't get the answer. The riddle itself seems to be created by a five-year old (which explains why 87% of that age knew the answer).

(/rant)

This is so stupid... It remind me of riddle we use to do when i was a child.

Like there is a neighborhood with 4 house. A green, a red, a brown, a yellow one. (you need to drawn them on a paper) Where is the white house?

Or an electric train goes in a south-east direction at 56mph. A wind his blowing in a north direction at 12mph. Which direction will the smoke go?

It doesn't make any sense.

Totally does when you know

Didn't get it, then I asked my six year old daughter.................................... bloody kids and their lateral/literal thinking.
Seems to be a skill we lose as we get older.

I really should have been able to get this one on my own. It's interesting that Kindergarteners seem to have such an easy time with this one, because when you ask them if they can count to three, most answer "one, two, three."

I googled it and got several answers. None of them make any sense to me. One kind of does.

I know the "answer" to this, but don't agree, particularly as regards the last two lines; I just can't see how looking at it CAN make it pop, and it can't look at you.  Also, the bit about making polar bears look white?  How does that work?

I like the conundrum about what would happen when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.  Most people say it would cause a huge explosion, but I disagree.  If the unstoppable force is light or water, and the immovable object is glass or wire mesh, then light would go straight through glass, and water would go straight through the gaps in wire mesh.  The light may change it's angle slightly on exiting glass, and there may be a few little ripples at the intersection site of the water and mesh, but nothing has to be destroyed.

Alison

This post was last modified: 05-09-2011 01:09 AM by Alison.

The last two lines seem extreemely illogical; therefore I imagine the answer is illogical as well...

No. Not is the answer, I can't guess it.  My other guesses are time or water.(and they don't make a lot of sense)

If you have an unstoppable force, what is this by definition?

An unstoppable force is a force for which nothing in the universe exists which can stop it. If something exists which can stop it, then it isn't unstoppable.

If you have an immovable object, that similarly means that no force can move it. If a force can move it, then it is not immovable.

So an unstoppable force precludes the possibility of an immovable object, and vice versa. Both cannot exist within the same universe.

Well done AspieGrrl, you put forward 2 of the 3 answers I have come across. And the only 2 of the 3 that make any sense.

You said "No.". That is a correct answer. Well, most kindergarten students simply say "no" as in "no, I cannot answer this riddle". Since the question/riddle is "can you answer this riddle?", then "no" is the correct answer. Silly.

As to what the passage is talking about, "Time" is also correct in an obscure way, since the riddle is supposedly based on this poem:

TIME

The time has come,
winter is here
and those yellow bears disappear.

The time has past
as man looks back with a sigh
and a tear in his eye.

As time is held
boys cross their legs
but of course the toilet begs

As time marches on
Girls loose their blush
and swap a comb for their brush

As time passes
For those held high
their end is nigh

As time catches up
Everyone is equal
when we get to the final sequel

As time turns
Without it we have flour and water
With it we have breakfast for my daughter

As time revolves
How does one turn water and wine
into something so fine

As time runs out
The more in a minute you try and squeeze
the less you can do with ease.

As time ticks
All the time that has past
man cannot comprehend something so vast.

The other answer which is usually given makes almost no sense. At a stretch it might relate to two lines (out of 7).