Curio Cabinet / Teaser Curio

Calculators are great (calculator watches are even better), but we too often use them as a crutch. So today, carefully put down the calculator, slowly step away, and dust off your arithmetic skills. We think this week's Teaser is actually easier to solve without a calculator, despite how it might look at first. Your 5th grade teacher would be so proud of you!
 
Simple question: How many 1s are in the smallest multiple of 17 that is made up entirely of 1s?
 
Put another way: there is a whole number x that is made up entirely of 1s. It is the smallest multiple of 17 that is made up entirely of 1s. How many digits does x have?
 
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #164" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

We don't really think of brain teasers as particularly emotional because well, generally, they aren't. But we hope you feel all the feels from this week's teaser. Ya feel me?
Remember: a word square is similar to a square crossword puzzle, but the same words appear across and down. Here's an example of a 3x3 word square:
 

CAT
AGO
TOY

 
Below are four clues, not in order. Can you make a 4x4 word square out of it?

She sang an emotionally uplifting song.
An often emotionally draining song.
For the highly educated, a time when you are judged.
A way that you just judged others.

 
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #163" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

Election day is hurtling toward us here in the US. Sometimes, it feels futile. You vote, and then you don't always get what you want. But we know what you really, really want: a word riddle. And we aim to please.
 
But vote anyway; you really still should.
 
This is a common 7-letter English word.

(The original word) This is a person.
(Remove the 2nd letter) This is what the person in Clue #1 often does.
(Remove the last and 2nd to last letters) It's made from things you often don't want.
(Remove the 1st and 2nd letters) It's what you get when you don't want what you get first.

What's the original word?
 
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #162" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

Counting is so simple, isn't it? But its simplicity can make it super, super boring (and why you can combine it with sheep to fall asleep). The challenge of this week's Teaser is to stay awake while you're counting from 1 to 1,000,000.
 
Quick; write all the numbers from 1 to 1,000,000. Done? Great!
 
What's the most common digit you wrote? And how many of that digit did you write?
 
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #161" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

John Keats said it best, so we're not even going to try to riff on that. Let's unscramble!
 
This quote about truth is from Winston Churchill. Three phrases from this quote have been scrambled. The phrases of the original quote have the number of words and letters shown below. The phrases were scrambled independently (i.e., the letters from the first phrase aren't scrambled into the second phrase). Can you figure out the original phrases?
 
Remember, no Googling for help! In truth, that's cheating.

The truth is never robotic lint. Malice may attack it, yoga-in-car men deride it, but in the end, I hit trees.
 
The truth is (16). Malice may attack it, (9) (3) deride it, but in the end, (5) (2) (2).

Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #160" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

Here's a little-known fact about bees. They like to geek out! Video games, Dr. Who, subatomic particles... they dig it all. So what do you get when four BFF bees (or Bee-FFs) get together? A geek fest.
 
In the addition problem below, each unique letter represents a different single digit. None of the numbers starts with a 0 (because that's just weird). What are the values of B, E, G, and K?
 

  BEE
  BEE
  BEE
+ BEE
 GEEK

 
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #159" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

You're not worried, are you? There are no prizes if you get the Teaser right, and no penalty if you get it terribly, outrageously, hilariously wrong. Right or wrong, don't worry; it'll start, then it'll end. And who knows? Maybe we do have to give a prize for hilariously wrong answers to this word square.
 
Remember: a word square is similar to a square crossword puzzle, but the same words appear across and down. Here's an example of a 3x3 word square:
 

CAT
AGO
TOY

 
Below are four clues, not in order. Can you make a 4x4 word square out of it?

Worry
Worry when doing a survey
Where your days start
Reading ways to end

 
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #158" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

Whose turn is it? Well, it's our turn to send you a teaser, followed by your turn to bombard us with (hopefully correct) answers. But right after you do, let's flip it around. Send us a teaser (and hopefully correct answer), and we might use it for a future teaser! Ready? It's your turn.
 
This is a common 5-letter English word.

(The original word) You can turn with this.
(Remove the 1st letter) You can turn on this.
(Remove the 1st and 2nd letters) This can be turned delicious.
(Remove the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd letters) This might turn above you (less common).

What's the original word?
 
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #157" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

Genius comes in all shapes. It might come in the shape of a mathematical symbol. Or in the shape of a pair of glasses with tape in the middle. Or, in the case of Word Genius, a 10x10 grid of letters meant to tickle your genius bone. And, in the case of this specific Word Genius puzzle, round is beautiful.
 
Today's daily Word Genius puzzle has no proper nouns and no multi-word answers. Solve it in Word Genius to learn an interesting fact about the puzzle's theme (and earn Word Genius coins, too!).

Did you get it? Get more (a LOT more) in Word Genius, available for iOS and Android.

Sometimes, you just want a simple question with a simple answer. No silliness, no lengthy preamble, just get down to business. Bringing the heat...
 
On an analog clock with smoothly moving hands, what is the first time after midnight where the minute and hour hands are 90° apart?
 
Note: the answer isn't a nice round time, so you can leave your answer with fractional time, or round it to the nearest tenth of a second.
 
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #155" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

Kids are great! Really, they are. But sometimes, just sometimes, when they're being extra bratty, you just wanna tag out and not deal with them. This time of year, there are times you want to camp out in front of the TV, especially on the weekends, away from any bratty kids.
 
This quote from Jimmy Fallon might suggest that he wants to watch a lot of TV on the weekends, too. Two phrases from this quote have been scrambled. The phrases of the original quote have 2 and 4 words, respectively, with the number of letters shown. The phrases were scrambled independently (i.e., the letters from the first phrase aren't scrambled into the second phrase). Can you figure out the original phrase?
 
Remember, no Googling for help! We'd call you a brat for that.

Thank you... fantasy fat doll of brat, for letting me know that even in my fantasies, I top mad as brats.
 
Thank you... fantasy (8) (5), for letting me know that even in my fantasies, I (2) (3) (2) (6).

Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #154" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

So it looks like you successfully figured out our phone number, and then did it again after we changed it. Persistent, are we? OK, ok, so now you want our area code. Fine.
 
Easy! Our area code is the largest 3-digit number that:

is the sum of two consecutive whole numbers
is the sum of three consecutive whole numbers
is the sum of five consecutive whole numbers
is the sum of seven consecutive whole numbers
is the sum of nine consecutive whole numbers

What's our area code?
 
Again, that's not our actual area code. This is just a math teaser, but you knew that, right?
 
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #153" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

Solving a word square is all about being comfortable with the language. And we know that regular solvers of the Teaser Curio are comfortable with the language because we love word teasers. So, get to it, linguaphiles!
 
Remember: a word square is similar to a square crossword puzzle, but the same words appear across and down. Here's an example of a 3x3 word square:
 

CAT
AGO
TOY

 
Below are four clues, not in order. Can you make a 4x4 word square out of it?

You might need to know the language to get a good one
You might mess up the language if you get one too many
The language for an estimated 80,000 people
The place with an estimated 2,000+ languages

 
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #152" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

Feelings, nothing more than feelings, trying to forget my feelings of love. Teardrops…
 
First, you're welcome! We're glad that you appreciate us getting that song stuck in your head all day. If you need to get it out, focus on feeling your way around this word riddle.
 
This is a common 8-letter English word.

(The original word) Maybe you do this if a lot of you feel scared
(Remove the last letter) Maybe you did this if you felt angry
(Remove the 1st and last letters) Maybe you did this if you felt things were too loose
(Remove the 1st, 2nd, and last letters) Maybe you feel this way after solving this teaser

What's the original word?
 
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #151" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

What are the only things math geeks like more than numbers? Mathematical symbols. While there are only 10 digits, math uses Latin letters, Greek letters, Hebrew letters, symbols of operators, logical symbols, squiggly things, Facebook thumbs-up symbol, straight angular things, dotted things, etc. OK, we just threw one of those in to see if you were paying attention, but you get the point.
 
Today, though, you have to solve the teaser with some mathematical handcuffs. Using all of the digits and symbols below exactly once each and no other symbols or digits, can you construct a valid equation? (For instance, if you had 1 2 3 4 + + =, you could make 1+4=2+3.)

1 2 3 4 9 ✕ ✕ =

OK, that was probably pretty easy. Let's make it a little bit harder and take away one multiplication symbol.

1 2 3 4 9 ✕ =

And just for fun, you don't need that last multiplication symbol, do you?

1 2 3 4 9 =

What are the three equations? (And no, you do not get to rotate the ✕ into a +, or split the = into two separate lines, or anything like that. Nice creativity, though!)
 
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #150" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

Have you ever seen a disgustingly dirty cuff on a sushi chef? Did you know that you can take that dirt off with laughter? At least that's true according to Victor Hugo in the quote below. Either that, or things got a little scrambled again.
 
Two phrases from this quote from Victor Hugo have been scrambled. The phrases of the original quote have 2 and 3 words, respectively, with the number of letters shown. The phrases were scrambled independently (i.e., the letters from the first phrase aren't scrambled into the second phrase). Can you figure out the original phrase?
 
Remember, no Googling for help! The chef would not approve.

Laughter is the sun that ever wins dirt from a tuna chef hem.
 
Laughter is the sun that (6) (6) from (3) (5) (4).

Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #149" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

Word Genius isn't really dangerous. The most it will do to you is get your pulse racing, make your heart beat a little faster, and maybe make you wish you had a bigger boat. So kick up your feet, make some popcorn, sit back and enjoy.
 
Today's daily Word Genius puzzle has 8 proper nouns and no multi-word answers. Solve it in Word Genius to learn an interesting fact about the puzzle's theme (and earn Word Genius coins, too!).
 

 
Did you get it? Get more (a LOT more) in Word Genius, available for iOS and Android.

Repent! The end is near! Repent for all your sins of any shapes! The sin of greed is rectangular, like money or gold bars. The sin of gluttony is circular, like a donut or a pizza or a donut pizza. The sin of sloth is strangely couch-shaped.
 
As we've never said before because it barely makes sense, if loving word squares is a sin, we are definitely guilty. Remember: a word square is similar to a square crossword puzzle, but the same words appear across and down. Here's an example of a 3x3 word square:
 

CAT
AGO
TOY

 
Below are four clues, not in order. Can you make a 4x4 word square out of it?

A famous place of sin
This curve starts with sin
It's not a sin to steal one
Sin agua

Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #147" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

Ron and Ava challenge each other with number challenges all the time. They love the flexibility, power, and most of all, precision of numbers. One day, Ava thought of a challenge that she thought would get him.
 
Ava: "I've grouped all the digits into two groups. The first group includes 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7. The second group has 6, 8, and 9. Where does 0 go?"
 
Ron: "What about 4? You skipped 4."
 
Ava: "Well, that's a bit complicated, because it's not clear. Sometimes 4 is in the first group, and sometimes it's in the second."
 
Ron, confused: "What? That doesn't make any sense... 4 should be in one or the other, not both!"
 
Ava, smirking: "And yet, it is!"
 
Ron twisted his brain into a pretzel, but it suddenly it dawned on him.
 
Where does the 0 go and why?
 
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #146" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!

Be very wary, Mary. This week's riddle is a little hairy, but you can do it solitary, or to the contrary, do it with a full military. It's customary, though, to do it with nary a dictionary. You don't have to be visionary; the words are all ordinary and are in your vocabulary. But enough! Let's bury the unnecessary commentary. To the riddle!
 
This is a common 7-letter English word.

(The original word) Something you carry
(Remove the 3rd letter) Terribly scary
(Remove the 2nd and 3rd letters) When you should parry
(Remove the 1st and 3rd letters) One is to marry

What's the original word?
 
Think you know the answer? Email support@curious.com with the subject "Teaser #145" and let us know, or check back next week to find out!