Well, if I was in the mood to be sarcastic (which, I assure you, I am) I'd tell you that you are a riddle, or perhaps a human with an odd case of mistaken identity. Since sarcasm is rarely helpful however, I suppose I can offer you the real answer as well. You're a number: 25 to be exact. Congratulations, I hear it's something of a milestone!
If you're wondering how I got this answer, it's remarkably simple. The only part of the riddle that really matters is the last statement before the question, the one that tells you that 1/5 of the answer is equal to 5.
Why? Quite a few numbers fall between the range of 15 and 40, many of which - specifically 20, 25, 30 and 35 - double to numbers that end in zero. With only these two clues to work from, figuring out the answer is a futile exercise in guesswork. The third statement leaves you with only one possible answer, as only one number can claim five as its fifth. To find that number, you multiply 5 x 5. The answer to that equation is 25.
A lot of the time, these simple riddles include complicated elements just to trip you up and wrongly lead you to believe that the answer is more difficult to find than it actually is. Riddles are brain exercises after all, and they exist to help your mind become more limber, thus enabling you to work through quandaries great and small with smooth speed and excellent finesse.
Or to put it more simply, they teach you how to sort out the important and helpful information from the superfluous details.
Also, they're fun and they're rewarding, and the amount of fun reward you can derive from a riddle is directly equivalent to your ability to solve it yourself. You have your answer now, but next time don't forget that half the fun of a riddle is in discovering the solution by applying your own awesome brainpower to the problem.
If you're wondering how I got this answer, it's remarkably simple. The only part of the riddle that really matters is the last statement before the question, the one that tells you that 1/5 of the answer is equal to 5.
Why? Quite a few numbers fall between the range of 15 and 40, many of which - specifically 20, 25, 30 and 35 - double to numbers that end in zero. With only these two clues to work from, figuring out the answer is a futile exercise in guesswork. The third statement leaves you with only one possible answer, as only one number can claim five as its fifth. To find that number, you multiply 5 x 5. The answer to that equation is 25.
A lot of the time, these simple riddles include complicated elements just to trip you up and wrongly lead you to believe that the answer is more difficult to find than it actually is. Riddles are brain exercises after all, and they exist to help your mind become more limber, thus enabling you to work through quandaries great and small with smooth speed and excellent finesse.
Or to put it more simply, they teach you how to sort out the important and helpful information from the superfluous details.
Also, they're fun and they're rewarding, and the amount of fun reward you can derive from a riddle is directly equivalent to your ability to solve it yourself. You have your answer now, but next time don't forget that half the fun of a riddle is in discovering the solution by applying your own awesome brainpower to the problem.
