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?

🤷‍♀️

How's this for a riddle:

There are 17 people in a parents group chat and one of them is an annoying twat.

Figure that out.

@malmi

It would work better if they were different types of spider. Then, the alternative interpretation of the sentence structure sounds more natural.

E.g.

Original:
There are three black widows in a round tank and five tarantulas in a rectangle tank.

Punctuated version:
There are three black widows (in a round tank), and five tarantulas, in a rectangle tank.

There are two black widows in a room. A tarantula enters the room through the window. How many legs are there now in the room?

That could be 24 or 18 or 12.

We need more information. Are there footprints in the butter?

@P999

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

is says how many legs are IN the tank in the OP

And why is a writing desk like a raven ?

@DGRossetti because they can both produce a few notes!

@DGRossetti

And why is a writing desk like a raven ?

I thought it was because they were both written on by Poe?

Boswell was solved on a recent thread. The original OP had made some errors in their telling of the riddle. It should have a question at the end - what is his name and occupation?

Boswell solution here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4156434-This-puzzle-answer-is-ridiculous-right

Ha ha so in the Boswell riddle basically the OP got the wording wrong and then they and their family decided to create some great secret to cover that? I wasted so many hours of my life on that thread (although it was very funny because of the other posts).

Add on the legs on the tank? 44 ?

Why would the tank have legs?

None

Ok so i think i can see how they got the answer...

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

Basically its says ‘ three tarantulas in a round tank and’ which implies including the next part ‘ five tarantulas in a rectangle tank’ so three tarantulas and five tarantulas legs all together is 8 x 8 = 64

There should be a comma after the 2nd 'tarantulas' - in order for the answer to be 64

@iklboo

For the benefit of the competitive mumsnetters who will now come out of the woodwork to insist that their 3 month old can do calculus

3 months? Pshaw! DS could do calculus and calculated pi to 45 trillion and 6 places. All while rewriting War & Peace in Mandarin. Fourteen seconds after conception.

I'm just grateful no numpty posted a pic of a tarantula for us arachnophobes who were wibbling about opening the thread (just me, maybe). It's a crap riddle. As was Boswell.

Absolutely what @PurplePrimula says re Riddles.
(but I'll have a quick squint at the Anglo Saxon ones before I biff off)

Riddles are meant to be clever. The tarantula one just isn't

I'm just happy that I finally heard about the Boswell resolution - I'd missed the previous post with the answer.

Spiders are arachnids so only have 6 legs? (I think)
5x6 is 30

Spiders have 8 legs.

Maybe they can climb out of a rectangle tank but not the round one

That was shite.

Worse than the riddle on Box Hill.

It could have been 40 as if the round tank is within the rectangular tank then the spiders within the round tank are ALSO in the rectangular tank. That seems more satisfying to me.