A number, head and tail refers to it's position on the Periodic Table. Iron (Fe) has a number because it is an element. Not quite sure about the head and tail.

For "smoothing things out", An iron is a tool used to press clothing after it has been washed and dried.

For "an age now gone", there was an "Iron Age" from 1200 - 550 BC.

The head but no tail refers to golf. Where, for instance, you can have a nine iron or eight iron and so on. Other than that, the rest are spot on.

A classic Tolkien riddle.

This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.

time

this is an exterme riddle that has multiple parts. every part must be answered to figure out the final question.

1. there is an airplane carrying 500 bricks. 1 falls out. how many are left?

2. how do you put an elephant in a freezer? (3 steps)

3. how do you put a giraffe in a freezer? (4 steps)

4. the lion king calls a meeting. what animals arent there? (2)

5. an elderly woman needs to cross a gator-infested river,  but there is no bridge or way across. how does she cross it?

FINAL QUESTION: the elderly woman crosses the bridge, but dies on the other bank spontaneously. HOW DOES SHE DIE?

1. 499
2. open freezer, put in elephant, close freezer
3. open freezer, take out elephant, put in giraffe, close freezer.
4. the giraffe and the elephant (although normaly it's should be only the giraffe since you took the elephant out of the freezer)
5. She just swims through it. the gators are at the lions meeting
6. she gets hit by the brick

you've obviously heard that one before. hmmmmm...

its 3:00 AM, and its a work day. your sleeping in your room until you suddenly awake by an exterme SLAMing noise. you look out your window towards your shed, and notice its been opened. you immediately realize your shed has been robbed. then you hear a loud screeching noise that grows fainter in a matter of seconds. you quickly realize the key to your shed door is hanging across your room, so you decide to investigate. you go outside and search your shed. its empty, and your lawn chairs, mower, and everything else in there has been stolen. your shed has no window or hole, and the doors were hanging open. the lock is on the ground, and footsteps are everywhere.

you decide to call the cops, and they arrive. they find nothing you hadnt already, exept for a hairpin in the grass. they also tell you the footprints are extermely fresh. they try to explain how the robbers broke in, but they cannot. when they leave, you do one last check. their are no abrasions on or in your shed, everything is like you left it.

QUESTION:
how did they get into the shed quickly and quitely?

this is my own original riddle. you will need to figure it out.

Well there is two ways:
Lock was open or they used hairpin to open lock.

Clues:
-There's no way to know how long it took them to get into the shed. You were asleep. You only woke up when they slammed the door shut and drove off. They could have been there for an hour, working on the lock.

-They cold have done it quietly just by taking their time.

-A hairpin is not a very effective tool for opening a padlock, despite what TV and movies show. However, with a proper set of picks, they could have opened a padlock with just a little work. They could have tried it with a pin, then given up and used a lock pick set, which they took with them when they left.

The big question is, how did they get all of that stuff into their vehicle? They must have been driving something big to hold a lawn mower, deck chairs and whatever else would be in a shed (chainsaws, weed whacked, cans of paint, a ladder, etc).

Here's my guess: The thieves had a box truck. They worked for who knows how long to quietly open the lock, then lift and carry everything to the truck. The "SLAM" was the sound of the rolling door closing, instead of the shed door opening.

Is there any evidence that these robbers didn't use a bolt cutter to break the lock?