75 Awesome Number Riddles

Last Updated on February 28, 2024 by Michele Tripple

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Ready for a challenge when it comes to riddles? These number riddles are just what you are searching for! Some of these number riddles are simple, some are complex, and some will make you really think! Can you solve these number riddles on the first try? Dive in to see!

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If you love numbers, then you are in the right place! These number riddles are sure to test your skills. These riddles are perfect for kids and adults. Work together to solve these fun number riddles.

While you are at it, grab our fun math riddles and try to solve them too. And if you want some more fun riddles, try our emoji riddles for a different type of riddle.

 
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The Best number riddles

Turquoise circle with number 1, hot pink border with number riddle
  • What becomes smaller when you turn it upside down? The number nine.
  • There is a man with his horse going to town. The man went to the town on Monday. He stayed there for 3 days and then he came back on Friday. How? His horse was not tired, the man wasn’t sleepy. The horse’s name was Friday.
  • What do the numbers 11 and 88 have in common? They both look the same upside-down and backward.
  • I am an odd number. Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I? Seven
  • If two’s a company, and three’s a crowd, what are four and five? Nine
  • A little girl goes to the store and buys one dozen eggs. As she is going home, all but three eggs break. How many eggs are left unbroken? Three
  • What did the triangle say to the circle? You’re pointless.
  • Eggs are $0.12 a dozen. How many eggs can you get for a dollar? 100 eggs, at one penny each.
  • Which is heavier: a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers? Neither—they both weigh a ton.
  • If there are three apples and you take away two, how many apples do you have? You have two apples.
  • How many months of the year have 28 days? All of them, because every month has at least 28 days.
  • When things go wrong, what can you always count on? Your fingers.
  • You’re sitting down for breakfast and realize you have 4 bagels left. You know you’ll run out in four days so you cut them in half. How many bagels do you have now? 4 Bagels
  • If you multiply this number by any other number, the answer will always be the same. What number is this? Zero
  • What did one math book say to the other math book? Do you want to hear my problems?
  • How did the soccer fan know before the game that the score would be 0-0? The score is always 0-0 before the game.
  • A man has 9 children. Half of them are boys. How is this possible? They are all boys.
  • In an odd little town, was an odd little stream with odd little fish in an odd little team. A stranger approached a local fisherman and asked him how much his odd little fish weighed. The odd little man replied, “All the fish in this stream weigh exactly 1/2 of a pound plus 1/2 of a fish.” Isn’t that odd? How many pounds does an odd little fish weigh? One
  • How many sides does a circle have? Two, the inside, and the outside.
  • If there are four sheep, two dogs and one herds-men, how many feet are there? Two because sheep have hooves, dogs have paws, and only people have feet.
pink circle with number 5, hot pink border with number riddle
  • A boy blows 18 bubbles, Then pops 6 eats 7, And then he pops 5 and blows 1. How many are left? 1
  • Why are 1999 ten-pound notes worth more than 1993 ten-pound notes? Because there are more of them.
  • One year has 365 days. How many seconds are in a year? 12 (the second day of each month)
  • You have a basket with 20 apples. You have 20 hungry children. Every child should get an apple but one apple should remain in the basket. How do you do that? You give 19 children one apple each and you give the last one the basket containing the last apple.
  • How do you divide 10 apples into 11 people? You make applesauce.
  • A grandmother, two mothers, and two daughters went to a baseball game together and bought one ticket each. How many tickets did they buy in total?
  • 3 tickets (The grandmother is also a mother and the mother is also a daughter.)
  • At the time of shipping, Jacob can place 10 small boxes or 8 large boxes into a carton. A total of 96 boxes were sent in one shipment. The number of small boxes was less than large boxes. What is the total number of cartons he shipped?
  • 11 cartons ( 4 small boxes (410 = 40 boxes) 7 large boxes (78 = 56 boxes) So, Jacob shipped 96 boxes and 11 total cartons )
  • When Michael was 6 years old, his little sister, Laura, was half is age. If Michael is 40 years old today, how old is Laura? She is 37 years old.
  • What can you put between a 7 and an 8 so that the result is greater than a seven, but less than an eight? A decimal. 7.8 is greater than 7, but less than 8.
  • John was asked to paint the apartment number on plates of 100 apartments which means he will have to paint numbers 1 through 100. Can you figure out the number of times he will have to paint the number 8? 20 times. (8, 18, 28, 38, 48, 58, 68, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 98)
  • What is the maximum possible number of times you can subtract number 5 from number 25? Only once. This is because when you subtract 5 from 25 for the first time, it becomes number 20, then 15, and so on.
  • Leonard works at the aquarium. When he tries to put each turtle in its own tank, he has one turtle too many. But if he puts two turtles per tank, he has one tank too many. How many turtles and how many tanks does Leonard have? He has 3 tanks and 4 turtles
  • A 300 ft. train that is traveling 300 ft. per minute must travel through a 300 ft. long tunnel. How long will it take the train to travel through the tunnel? Two minutes. It takes the front of the train one minute and the rest of the train will take two minutes to clear the tunnel.
  • Marla has four daughters, and each of her daughters has a brother. How many children does Marla have? Five — each daughter has the same brother.
  • Two fathers and two sons are in a car, yet there are only three people in the car. How? They are a grandfather, father, and son.
  • The day before yesterday I was 21, and next year I will be 24. When is my birthday? December 31; today is January 1.
  • A man describes his daughters, saying, “They are all blonde, but two; all brunette but two; and all redheaded but two.” How many daughters does he have? Three – a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead
  • A girl has as many brothers as sisters, but each brother has only half as many brothers as sisters. How many brothers and sisters are there in the family? Four sisters and three brothers.
Orange circle with number 9, hot pink border with number riddle
  • A new clothing store has a unique method of pricing items. A vest costs $20, a tie costs $15, a blouse costs $30, and underwear costs $45. How much would pants cost? $25. The pricing method charges $5 for each letter needed to spell the item.
  • What did the zero say to the eight? “Nice belt!”
  • What 3 numbers give the same result when multiplied and added together? 1, 2, and 3 (1 + 2 + 3 = 6 and 1 x 2 x 3 = 6).
  • Mrs. Green has 5 daughters. Each of these daughters has a brother. How many children does Mrs. Green have? She has 6 children. Each daughter has the same brother. There are 5 daughters and 1 son.
  • I am a three-digit number. My tens digit is six more than my ones digit. My hundreds digit is eight less than my tens digit. What number am I? 193
  • If seven people meet each other, and each shakes hands only once with each of the others, how many handshakes will there have been? Twenty-one
  • It’s raining at midnight, but the forecast for tomorrow and the next day is clear. Will there be sunny weather in 48 hours? No, it won’t be sunny because it will be dark out. In 48 hours, it will be midnight again.
  • Two fathers and 2 sons spent the day fishing, but only caught 3 fish. This was enough for each of them to have one fish. How is this possible? There were only 3 people fishing. There was one father, his son, and his son’s son. This means there were 2 fathers and 2 sons, since one of them is a father and a son.
  • A word I know, six letters it contains, remove one letter and 12 remains, what is it? Dozens
  • 81 x 9 = 801. What do you need to do to make this equation true? Turn it upside down. 108 = 6 x 18
  • A horse was tied to a rope 5 meters long and the horse’s food was 15 meters away from the horse. How did the horse reach the food? The rope wasn’t tied to anything so he could reach the food.
  • You are a bus driver at a station. 10 get on the bus and no one gets off. You drive 10 miles to another station where 3 people get on and 1 gets off. You drive another 10 miles only to get 25 people on and 5 people go off. Next you drive 3 miles while 12 people exit the bus. You drive back to the place knowing that there are a couple more stops along the way until the ride is done. At the 2nd to last station 5 people get on and 2 get off. And at the last station (5.5 miles) 25 people get on for no reason and 1 gets off. What is the bus driver’s eye color? You are driving the bus, so the color is whatever color your eyes are.
  • If there are fifteen crows on a fence and the farmer shoots a third of them, how many crows are left? None. The rest of the crows flew away when they heard the gunshot.
  • Three matches are sitting on a table. Without adding another make for three matches four. You are not allowed to break any of the matches. Shape the 3 matches into a roman numeral four.
  • Tulia has $29.00 dollars. She bought 4 coloring books that cost $3.00 each, and 4 boxes of crayons that cost $2.00 each. She spent the rest of her money on markers. How much money did she spend on markers? She spent $9.00 on markers.
  • You and four other people robbed a bank for 200,000,000 dollars. You evenly split the money. For every person, you get 25% of the money how much do you get?. You get a 100% cut because 25% x 4 = 100%.
  • There are 100 pairs of dogs in a zoo. Two pairs of babies are born for every dog. Unfortunately, 23 of the dogs have not survived. How many dogs would be left in total? 977 dogs (100 x 2 = 200; 200 + 800 = 1000; 1000 – 23 = 977)
  • A group of students is standing in the blazing sun facing due west on a march-past event. The leader shouted at them: Right turn! About turn! Left turn! At the end of these commands, in which direction are the students facing? East. They will turn 90 degrees in a right turn, and they turn 180 degrees in an about-turn, and finally, they turn 90 degrees in a left turn. Therefore, the students are now facing east.
  • A man is twice as old as his little sister. He is also half as old as their dad. Over a period of 50 years, the age of the sister will become half of their dad’s age. What is the age of the man now? He is 50 years old.
  • Double it and multiply it by 4. Then divide it by 8 and you’ll have it once more. What number is it? Any number. If a number is doubled and multiplied by 4, it’s actually been multiplied by 8, so dividing by 8 will get you the original number again.
  • There is a clothing store in Bartlesville. The owner has devised his own method of pricing items. A vest costs $20, socks cost $25, a tie costs $15 and a blouse costs $30. Using the method, how much would a pair of underwear cost? $45. The pricing method consists of charging $5 for each letter required to spell the item.
  • I am a three-digit number. My second digit is 4 times bigger than the third digit. My first digit is 3 less than my second digit. Who am I? 141
  • I add five to nine, and get two. The answer is correct, but how? When it is 9 a.m., add 5 hours to it and you will get 2 p.m.
  • Using only addition, how can you add eight 8’s to get the number 1,000? 888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 =1,000
  • Among those numbers whose literal representation in capital letters consist only of straight line segments (for example, FIVE), only one number has a value equal to the number of segments used to write it. What is the number? 29
  • If you divide thirty by half, and add ten, what do you get? 70
  • Double my number, I’m less than a score, Half of my number is less than four. Add one to my double when bakers are near, Days of the week are still greater, I fear. Six
  • How many times can you subtract the number 5 from 25? Once, because after you subtract 5 from 25 it becomes 20.
  • What two whole, positive numbers that have a one-digit answer when multiplied and a two-digit answer when added? 1 and 9
  • What two whole, postive numbers have the same answer when multiplied together as when added together? 2 and 2
  • What three whole, positive numbers have the same answer when multiplied together as when added together? 1, 2 and 3.  1 x 2 x 3 = 1 + 2 + 3 = 6.
  • What two whole, positive numbers have the same answer when multiplied together as when one is divided by the other? Any number and 1.
  • What two-digit number equals two times the result of multiplying its digits? 36 = 2 x 3 x 6.
  • What two-digit numbers are each equal to their right-most digit squared? 25 = 5² and 36 = 6².
  • What number can you subtract half from to obtain a result of zero? The number 8.  It’s made up of two zeros, one on top of the other.
  • What is the highest number that can be written with three digits? (9⁹)⁹ = 9³⁸⁷⁴²⁰⁴⁸⁹, which is a number with more than 369 million digits.
  • If eleven plus two equals one, what does nine plus five equal? 11 o’clock plus 2 hours = 1 o’clock , 9 o’clock plus 5 hours = 2 o’clock

Do you have some other fun number riddles? Share them in the comments so that we can add them to the list!

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