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I actually had to think about this one for a few minutes.

You have to burn both ends of one fuse and one end of the other. When the first fuse burns up, that's 30 minutes. The other fuse should be exactly halfway burned; it has become a "30-minute" fuse. Light the other end of that fuse and should finish burning up in exactly 15 minutes. There's your total of 45 minutes.

Mmmhmmm. Okay, this one is a little better than the others.

Here's my solution:

take one fuse, and bend it around in a loop. Leave the the other fuse in a strand, but match up one end with the other two ends of the looped fuse. Then, light all three ends at the same time.

When the looped fuse burns out, thats exactly 30 mins. Basically, you are burning a one hour fuse at twice the normal rate. Exactly when this happens, light the unlit end of the second fuse. When this fuse burns out, thats another 15 mins, since you are now burning a 30 min fuse at twice the normal rate. (We know it is now a 30 min fuse by virtue of the fact it must have burned off exactly 30 mins of an hour long fuse)

So, 30 mins plus 15 mins is 45 mins! Of course, since the last fuse would be burning at both ends, you wouldn't exactly be able to set off dynamite with it...

So, here is my challenge: can anyone think of a better solution to Tactical Fish's riddle, one where you would be able to stick the end of one of the fuses into a stick of dynamite?

Aww shucks, I took too long to figure it out. Well, at least Ernie's solution isn't any more practical than mine was!

I remember seeing Aknerd's riddle when I first saw it... it's impossible, don't even try to get it xP

how bout this:What has a coat?
Hugs you not in sympathy?
Whose smile you'd rather not see?
Whose stance is a terrible thing to see?
Who is it that brave men run away from?
Whose fingers are clawed?
Whose sleep lasts for months?
And who's company we shunt?

Ernie, Aknerd, you both got it. Nice. I've never seen anyone get it that fast. I'll have to think about your challenge, Aknerd. I don't know if it's possible.

Here's another: You are in a room with three light switches. Each switch is connected to one lightbulb in a separate room. You do not know which switch goes to which bulb. Once you go into the second room, the one with the bulbs, you CANNOT go back into the first room, with the switches. How can you figure out which switch goes to which bulb while not going back into the switch room???

how bout this:What has a coat?
Hugs you not in sympathy?
Whose smile you'd rather not see?
Whose stance is a terrible thing to see?
Who is it that brave men run away from?
Whose fingers are clawed?
Whose sleep lasts for months?
And who's company we shunt?

I remember seeing Aknerd's riddle when I first saw it... it's impossible, don't even try to get it xP

yh tactical_fish got it.

the thing is aknerd, the devil could do a random pattern like red,green,red,red,red,red,red,red,red,rede,green so it would be difficult to know also it might not even be a pattern

have a go at these riddle:

1) You answer me, I'm always there but I wont be if you don't recharge me. What Am I?
2) Everyone needs me but I'm not living, yet the world revolves around me. What Am I?

You are in a room with three light switches. Each switch is connected to one lightbulb in a separate room. You do not know which switch goes to which bulb. Once you go into the second room, the one with the bulbs, you CANNOT go back into the first room, with the switches. How can you figure out which switch goes to which bulb while not going back into the switch room???

more riddles for you all:

1: who's the big man in the main hall?

2: why was 6 afraid of 7?

3: who has the best riddles?

P.S. about half of the answers to my old ones are correct.

Alright, I thought for a while about aknerd's riddle last night while I was in bed. It took me a little while but I think I have the solution:

Everyone puts their hand on the shoulder of the person in front of them. If a person is wearing a red hat, the person behind them puts their hand on that person's right shoulder. If a person is wearing a green hat, the person behind them puts their hand on that person's left shoulder. Everyone should definitely be saved except the first person, who has a 50/50 chance because there are no hands on his shoulder.

bleachfairytail, you got it. Well those are the two best that I know, and you guys got them both in 24 hours. You're either really smart or have too much time on your hands. Or both.

So, here is a way to save at least 66 of the 100 people, and probably a lot more. There is still a way to save 99 people, I'm just putting this out there so that people will believe me when I say that you can do better than 50!

So: every third person could say "red" if the next two people have the same color hat and "green" if the colors are different. For instance, if it went

1=r 2=g, 3=g, 4=r, 5=r, 6=g...

Then person 1 would say "red", and person two would know that he had the same color hat as the person in front of him, who he can see. So person two would say green, since he knows that person 3 has a green hat. Then Person 3 would say green as well, since he knows he has the same color hat as the person behind him. Then, person 4 would say green, five would say red (since he could see person six's green hat) and person six would green. And so on.

So, that's a way you could save 2/3 of the people. But, there is a way you could save 99/100 of them, no matter what the pattern is! And it really isn't that complicated. In fact, it is even simpler than my 2/3 solution. Really.

But, in the meantime, here's another riddle inspired by tactical Fish's:

SO. You are in a room. In this room, there are 100 labeled wires (labeled 1 to 100, that is) coming out of the wall. Also, you have an infinite supply of batteries in this room, but they cannot be taken out of the room.

1 mile away, you have a shed, with the same 100 wires coming out of the wall. You also have one (1) lightbulb. But, unfortunately, the wires in the shed are not labeled. Yikes.

Your task is to label all of the wires in the shed with the same number they have in the room. You can use as many batteries as you want, but you can only attach a wire to one battery at a time, and only two wires to each battery. The light bulb will only light if a circuit is completed, IE you attach two wires to the light bulb that are connected to the same battery in the other room.

There is a large group of Utahraptors bearing down on your position, and you need to get the wires sorted out so you can power up your time machine, or whatever. Basically, seeing as you have to walk a mile each way, you want to do this as efficiently as possible.

The "warm bulb" trick won't work.

What is the fastest way to sort out the wires?

@ Ernie:
I like your thinking, but I think this would violate the "spirit" of the problem. There is a way to solve it by only saying red or green, and doing nothing else. Really.

WAIT!!! I just remembered another. I heard it from a guy that offered $5 to whoever solved it first. My friend figured it out and got the $5, which I will not be offering. So:

One day the town barber tells each of his clients to double the amount of money in the cash register and then take $20 for themselves. The first three clients are able to comply, but the fourth finds the register empty. How much money was in the cash register at the start of the day?