Can someone please help me solve this riddle?

[foreverold]

Was put on parents group chat and driving me mad. Person posting says it's so easy that even 'toddlers could work it out if they read it properly'.

Riddle - there are three tarantulas in a round tank and five tarantulas in a rectangle tank. How many legs are in the rectangle tank?

I did the obvious 5x8 = 40 but obviously that's not it...anyone any idea?

This riddle is based on appalling sentence construction. Therefore the “answer” is invalid.

Worst riddle ever . Does not even make sense .

Ahh thanks @takingmytimeonmyride I really wasn’t up for the headache of having to find it!

Does anyone have the Lin to Boswell? Can't find it anywhere

Yes I was so excited to see that recent thread with Boswell solved.

Many posters on the original thread got the gist but it hadn’t been written properly

All of the riddles on that linked thread were shit.

And I'm not convinced that was the Boswell answer. I could add to the original "Boswell" and claim the answer. Hmph.
I bought DS2 a Sherlock Holmes riddle book for Christmas. Maybe I'll steal it and do some of those.

The "original" Boswell riddle read:

"There once was a man called Boswell. For short they called him 'Bos'. And he walked up the post office steps'

OP insisted it was that wording exactly.

But SHE WAS WRONG.

The actual riddle is;

"There is a man call Bosswell and for short they call him Boss and he walks into the post office in the morning. What is his name and occupation?"

Answer being, Andrew Bosswell, Post Master.

Can someone say the Boswell answer pls

Sorry but your binary doesn't work.
64, 32,16,8.4.2.1.
1 0 0 0 0 0 1

64 +1 = 65.

@Whythesadface
Are you talking to me?

If so, I'm 33.. and your binary is wrong... sozzles.

If you meant something else... as you were

So long ago since I did Binary but thought it went up in 2.
We always wrote it as units on the right.

Laughing at myself, it's pure coincidence, your 100001, and the answer is 1000000.
Best face palm moment of my year so far....

Yea...but you added an extra 0 between my 1s....

Try reading this Binary poem..
11 was a Racehorse
22was12
1111race
22112.
clue use your numbers.

I learnt binary in lockdown 1.0
It was obviously a good use of time because I can't remember it now

After8 has got it. A tank doesn't have legs. And the riddle doesn't say 'how many legs are inside the tank. It just asks how many legs the tank has. So its zero

there are three tarantulas in a round tank and five tarantulas in a rectangle tank

So you're supposed to read it as (3 tarantulas in a round tank + 5 tarantulas) in a rectangle tank?

That is not intuitive!!

@cherrybunx0

as riddles go, that's up there with one of the worst I've seen. doesnt really make sense, nothing in the original wording to suggest that the round tank is in the rectangular tank. I like a riddle normally, especially wordy ones, but this was really quite shit lol!

It's not even a riddle.

Idiocracy becoming real life.

This link should take you to the poster giving the Boswell answer for what it's worth
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/a4156434-This-puzzle-answer-is-ridiculous-right?msgid=104383675#104383675

Oops I was late to the party but the link goes to the message without having to trawl through the thread.

It’s fairly easy (5+3) x 8 = 64
You need to count both tanks because there isn’t a comma between the tanks described:
there are three tarantulas in a round tank and five tarantulas in a rectangle tank
If it was:
there are three tarantulas in a round tank, and five tarantulas in a rectangle tank
it would be 40

To be fair a child (not a toddler) would be more likely to get it, because our adult brains are reading too much into the question.

However it’s very poorly worded and would be better written as :
there are three tarantulas in a round tank and five tarantulas, in a rectangle tank
and the meaning would then be clear.
I’m a punctuation pedant.

Whoops, I see you’ve now moved on ...

@SilverBirchWithout

It’s fairly easy (5+3) x 8 = 64 You need to count both tanks because there isn’t a comma between the tanks described: there are three tarantulas in a round tank and five tarantulas in a rectangle tank If it was: there are three tarantulas in a round tank, and five tarantulas in a rectangle tank it would be 40

To be fair a child (not a toddler) would be more likely to get it, because our adult brains are reading too much into the question.

However it’s very poorly worded and would be better written as :
there are three tarantulas in a round tank and five tarantulas, in a rectangle tank
and the meaning would then be clear.
I’m a punctuation pedant.

The comma makes no difference

A comma wouldn't imply that the tanks were linked or connected or one inside the other.