You guys deserve some R&R...

[Silverwind]

Ah! Yes, that helps. At least now I can define what I'm confused at:

100 plus half his weight is the total weight.

But then shouldn't his total weight equal 150 at this stage? (100 plus half of 100?) I get the rest of the equation, I'm just not seeing how you're arriving at 200 for the value of weight.

Ghadzooks, I can't stop thinking about this accursed riddle. Someone must explain the answer in a manner I can comprehend, please! I beg of you!

[Connors]

OK OK, if this guy weighs 200 pounds then half his weight is 100 pounds, so 100 + 100 = 200
So the answer makes sense.
In algebra form, by the way, there's only one unknown variable (weight) so there is only one answer. Im certain that it's 200.
 

though I agree, that one is friggin hard.
 As for the time travel...
One way to look at it is:
-kid meets guy
-kid travels back in time
-after time traveling, kid knows guy already and guy doesn't know kid yet
-kid says hey to the guy in the past


So at some point, the kid knew the guy and the guy didn't know the kid yet. The kid knew the guy first.
Did I get it???

[Connors]

Oh yeah and I got one!
Actually I have a lot of riddles, I like riddles that are a little more based on thinking outside the box rather than total logic. (or Algebra lol)

    There is a man who lives on the tenth floor of an apartment building. Each day he takes the elevator to the first floor and goes out to his job and to do errands etc.
 Â     When he comes back home he always takes the elevator to the 7th floor and walks the rest of the way to his apartment. Why should this be so?

[Gan]

To burn calories. His wife doesn't want him to get fat.


-Gan

[Connors]

Nope, sorry. And he's not crazy either.
(The answer is not in the question, it's pretty random)

[GMG Mike]

For some reason he can't or won't touch the button for his floor? He can touch 1 and 7 but not 10, and I assume he can't touch 8 or 9 or he would touch one of those and reduce his walking.

[Silverwind]

OK OK, if this guy weighs 200 pounds...

Yes but why are you assuming he weighs 200 pounds?! The only thing established to begin with is that he weighs 100 pounds in addition to half his total weight, but how can you determine what half his weight is when you don't know what his total weight is? What on earth am I missing here?! Surely there must be a way to determine the value of half his weight?

In answer to your riddle by the way, is the guy a dwarf?

EDIT:

I GET IT!!! If 50% of the man's weight equaled anything other than 100 (the only definite included value) it wouldn't equal 50% at all, therefor we know 50% of his weight must equal 100.

Finally! Why didn't you guys explain it to me like that?

EDIT AGAIN:

Actually, having reread Gnome's post he did try to explain it like that! hehehe...

I think the problem is in how you write the sum. My earlier equation for example (weight = 100 + (weight / 2)) is correct to the wording of the riddle yet yields a different answer due to weight having a definite value before being halved.

[Gnome]

Nope, sorry. And he's not crazy either.
(The answer is not in the question, it's pretty random)

Then i it even a riddle?

Thats almost bad as "2 men walk into a bar and have turtle soup, afterwards one jumps for joy and the other commits suicide (morbid i know) why?"

After like 4 hours of guessing, the guy had an elaborate story about a tale of castaways or something, I mean, how were we supposed to get that???!

[Silverwind]

After like 4 hours of guessing, the guy had an elaborate story about a tale of castaways or something, I mean, how were we supposed to get that???!

LOL! But what are the answers to Con and Gan's riddles?

Here's one I wrote:

Rath keeps his gold coins in three leather pouches, and one day he decides to store them in his Bag of Holding. The first pouch contains 35 gold coins, the second pouch contains 55 gold coins and the third pouch contains 90 gold coins. How many must Rath store in his Bag of Holding for it to contain exactly half of his gold coins?

[Mystor]

Oh yeah and I got one!
Actually I have a lot of riddles, I like riddles that are a little more based on thinking outside the box rather than total logic. (or Algebra lol)

    There is a man who lives on the tenth floor of an apartment building. Each day he takes the elevator to the first floor and goes out to his job and to do errands etc.
 Â     When he comes back home he always takes the elevator to the 7th floor and walks the rest of the way to his apartment. Why should this be so?

His work is positioned underground. He heads up to the 7th floor to walk out at ground level.

Mist

[Connors]

Mystor, I'll give you that one! It's not the original answer but the way I worded it that works perfectly so that WOULD be valid.
Oh yeah and this is getting SO CLOSE.

For some reason he can't or won't touch the button for his floor? He can touch 1 and 7 but not 10, and I assume he can't touch 8 or 9 or he would touch one of those and reduce his walking.

And no, it's a simple and reasonable answer, not a short novel.

EDIT EDIT EDIT:
I don't know how or why I missed this but Silverwind got the answer! XD

In answer to your riddle by the way, is the guy a dwarf?

He's too short to reach button 10 but he can reach button 1. lol

[Connors]

Silverwind, I have an answer to your riddle:
His bag contains half the gold coins at the same time that it contains all of them so it already contains half.

AND I have another:
A truck driver was driving a semi and he didn't pay close enough attention to the clearance on a bridge. The trailer hit the bridge and the front end became wedged underneath so that he couldn't move the truck without damaging the trailer further. There is a way to get the truck and trailer out without damaging them that is free and that he could do right away. What is it?

[Silverwind]

Silverwind, I have an answer to your riddle:
His bag contains half the gold coins at the same time that it contains all of them so it already contains half.

True, but he only wants to store half of his gold in the Bag of Holding, not all his gold.

AND I have another:
A truck driver was driving a semi and he didn't pay close enough attention to the clearance on a bridge. The trailer hit the bridge and the front end became wedged underneath so that he couldn't move the truck without damaging the trailer further. There is a way to get the truck and trailer out without damaging them that is free and that he could do right away. What is it?

Let the air out of the tires.

I played Mind Trap too!

[Connors]

Mind Trap? These are out of the "Lateral Thinking Puzzles" book.

[Connors]

the pouch with 90 coins contains half, so 1 pouch.