top of page
Image by Hannah Olinger

2026 MyDiary Engage -
Puzzler Answers

23 Jan

Question

A bakery lowered its price for biscuits from 25c to 20c each. For $4, how many more biscuits could you buy now than before?

Answer

4

30 Jan

Question

A bookworm eats from the first page of an encyclopedia to the last page. The bookworm eats in a straight line. The encyclopedia consists of ten 1000-page volumes and is sitting on a bookshelf in the usual order. Not counting covers, title pages, etc., how many pages does the bookworm eat through?

Answer

On a book shelf the first page of the first volume is on the "inside" so the bookworm eats only through the cover of the first volume, then 8 times 1000 pages of Volumes 2 - 9, then through the cover to the last page of Vol 10. He eats 8,000 pages. If the bookworm ate the first page and the last page, it ate 8,004 pages. This assumes a sheet of paper counts as two pages.

6 Feb

Question

A man was walking outside when it started to rain. He had no umbrella, no hat and no hood, yet not a single hair on his head got wet. How is that possible?

Answer

The man has no hair, he is bald. (don't forget to change/add to the answer sheet to upload to website).

13 Feb

Question

As I was going to Saint Ives, I crossed the path of seven wives. Every wife had seven sacks, Every sack had seven cats, Every cat had seven kittens, Kittens, cats, sacks, wives, How many were going to Saint Ives?

Answer

Only one person was going to Saint Ives. The rest were going in a different direction.

20 Feb

Question

Between noon and midnight, but not counting these times, how often will the minute hand and hour hand of a clock overlap?

Answer

10

27 Feb

Question

Each child in a family has at least 3 brothers and 4 sisters. What is the smallest number of children the family might have?

Answer

9

6 Mar

Question

Georgina left home one afternoon. She turned to the right and started running straight ahead. Then she turned to her left, ran, turned to her left again, ran, turned to her left one more time and ran even faster. She headed for home. Then she saw a masked boy waiting for her. Who was he?

Answer

The masked boy was the catcher. Georgina played in a baseball team.

13 Mar

Question

Gina, Todd and Frankie were picking up their fast-food orders — a burger, a serve of fries and a slice of pizza. "Who ordered what?" asked the woman at the counter. Todd said, "I didn't order the pizza." The boy who ordered the fries said, "Oh, I thought you did." That was all the woman at the counter needed to know. Who got each order?

Answer

Todd got the burger, Frankie got the fries, and Gina got the pizza.

20 Mar

Question

How many books can you put in an empty backpack?

Answer

One! After that, it’s not empty!

27 Mar

Question

How much is 30 divided by a ½ plus 3?

Answer

63

3 Apr

Question

If 50 students fit into a bus, how many buses do you need to get 115 students to school?

Answer

3

10 Apr

Question

If all cars in Australia were pink, what kind of flower would Australia be?

Answer

A pink carnation.

17 Apr

Question

If Helen can paint a room in 6 hours and Danny can paint the same room in 3 hours, how long will it take if they are both painting?

Answer

2 hours

24 Apr

Question

If Mr. and Mrs. Bigger had a baby, who would be the biggest of the three?

Answer

The baby, because he's a little Bigger!

1 May

Question

If the only sister of your mother's only brother has an only child, what would be your relationship to that child?

Answer

It would be you.

8 May

Question

If there are 196 legs and 126 eyes at the Hot Dog School of Puppy Training, how many people and how many dogs are present? (All the people and all the dogs at the school have the normal number of eyes and legs.)

Answer

There are 28 people and 35 dogs.

15 May

Question

Is a circle 1 metre wide bigger than a square with a 1 metre side?

Answer

No, a square is bigger.

22 May

Question

Jenny wants to call all 10 students in her 6th grade class and then have each of them talk to each of the others. What is the minimum number of conversations that will take place?

Answer

45 individual conversations.

29 May

Question

Joe said to his friend at a New Year's Eve Party, "Yesterday I was twenty, but next year I will be twenty-two." When is Joe's birthday?

Answer

December 31

5 Jun

Question

Marilyn, her sister, her daughter and her son are playing beach volleyball. Marilyn’s sister is directly across the net from her son. Marilyn’s daughter is diagonally across the net from the best player's sibling. The best player and the worst player are on the same side of the net. Who is the worst player?

Answer

The worst player is Marilyn’s sister.

12 Jun

Question

My grandson is about as many days old as my son is weeks and my grandson is as many months as I am in years. My grandson, my son and I together are 140 years. Can you tell me my age in years?

Answer

84 years

19 Jun

Question

My son was telling me yesterday, "Four days ago, my school's soccer team won a game 4 to 1, although none of the boys on my school's team scored any goals. Also, the other team didn't score against itself accidentally." How can this be?

Answer

It was a girls team.

26 Jun

Question

Put a coin in a bottle and then stop the opening with a cork. How can you get the coin out of the bottle without pulling out the cork or breaking the bottle?

Answer

Push the cork into the bottle, and shake the coin out.

3 Jul

Question

Replace the asterisks with the correct mathematical signs to make the expression equal to 99.
16 * 12 * 2 * 3 = 99

Answer

16 x 12 / 2 + 3 = 99

10 Jul

Question

Sree’s hands were freezing after building a snow person with no gloves. Should he put his hands under cold water or hot water to warm up?

Answer

Cold water because he wouldn’t feel how hot the hot water was and could burn himself.

17 Jul

Question

Start with a half cup of tea and a half cup of coffee. Take one tablespoon of the tea and mix it in with the coffee. Take one tablespoon of this mixture and mix it back in with the tea. Which of the two cups contains more of its original contents?

Answer

The two cups end up with the same volume of liquid they started with. The same amount of liquid was moved to the coffee cup as to the teacup. The liquid from the tea cup would have a small amount of coffee in it. Therefore the cup of coffee contains a slightly higher proportion of coffee than the tea cup contains of tea.

24 Jul

Question

Take 3 paper cups and put them in a row. Turn the first and third cups upside down, but leave the middle cup right side up. Your task is to get all the cups right side up, but you have to do it in 3 moves, for each move, you must turn over 2 cups at a time—not 1.

Answer

First move: Turn over the first and second cups. Second move: Turn over the first and third cups. Third move: Turn over the first and second cups. Now they should all be right side up.

31 Jul

Question

The maths teacher posted a notice on his class door: "Class is cancelled today on account of Spring.
We will meet again at 1:00 pm three days after two days before the day before tomorrow." What day does the class meet?

Answer

The next day

7 Aug

Question

The water lentil reproduces by dividing into two every day. Thus on the first day we have 1, on the second day we have 2, on the third 4, on the fourth 8 and so on. If, starting with one lentil, it takes 30 days to cover a certain area, how long will it take to cover the same area if we start with 2 lentils?

Answer

29 days

14 Aug

Question

There is a four-digit number in which the first digit is one third the second, the third is the sum of the first and second and the last is three times the second. What is this four-digit number?

Answer

1349

21 Aug

Question

There is a three-digit number that, if you add seven to it, divides exactly by seven; if you add eight to it, divides exactly by eight; and if you add nine to it, divides exactly by nine. What is the number?

Answer

504

28 Aug

Question

Tom is older than Sue and Sue is younger than Mary, who is older than Tom. Who is the oldest of the three?

Answer

Mary

4 Sep

Question

Two thin ropes hang from the high ceiling of an empty room, just too far apart from each other to be grabbed with both hands at the same time. How can you tie a knot with both ends using only a pair of sharp scissors?

Answer

Tie the scissors to one of the ropes and then swing it like a pendulum. Then take the other end rope and grab the scissors as they come towards you, then tie the knot.

11 Sep

Question

Unscramble the 4 words below:

DITY, TACED, RUME NA, LOSEORA

Answer

Tidy, cadet, manure, aerosol

18 Sep

Question

What day would yesterday be if Thursday was four days before the day after tomorrow?

Answer

Friday

25 Sep

Question

What gets bigger and bigger as you take more away from it?

Answer

A hole!

2 Oct

Question

What goes through towns, up and over hills, but doesn't move?

Answer

The road!

9 Oct

Question

What is the closest relation that your mother's sister-in-law's brother-in-law could be to you?

Answer

Father

16 Oct

Question

What is the least number of links you can cut in a chain of 21 links to be able to give someone all possible number of links up to 21?

Answer

Two.

23 Oct

Question

What everyday English word is most often pronounced incorrectly?

Answer

Incorrectly

30 Oct

Question

What is there in the middle of a house?

Answer

The letter “u”

6 Nov

Question

What kind of button won't unbutton?

Answer

A bellybutton!

13 Nov

Question

What kind of ship never sinks?

Answer

Friendship!

20 Nov

Question

What number is missing from this series?

4, 8, 12, 20

Answer

32

27 Nov

Question

What starts with a P, ends with an E and has a million letters in it?

Answer

Post Office!

4 Dec

Question

What word, when you take the first letter and put it at the end, do you get the past tense of the word?

Answer

ATE.

11 Dec

Question

When is a car not a car?

Answer

When it turns into a garage.

18 Dec

Question

Where must a referee be to blow the whistle?

Answer

Behind the whistle.

bottom of page