The answer to the famous riddle 'what goes up but never comes down?' is 'your age'. A person's age is something that will always increase (go up) and will never decrease (go down). There are many alternative answers to this riddle, but 'your age' is the classic retort. As one of the oldest and most famous riddles quoted, the answer is not as much of a puzzle as many riddles answers are.
A riddle is typically defined as a statement that has a double veiled meaning that needs to be solved as a puzzle. There are two main categories of riddles - enigmas and conundrums. The former, enigmas, are problems that are normally expressed using metaphorical and allegorical language. These enigmas need to be thought about careful and require a reasonable amount of ingenuity to figure out. In comparison, conundrums are questions that are based around puns in either the question or the answer. The riddle 'what goes up but never comes down?' is an example of a conundrum. The question relies on the pun that is referring to something going up or down. Typically this is an action that is associated to an object but in fact the answer is nothing solid. This could also be considered as an enigmas as it requires some careful consideration and thinking to try and calculate the answer. Riddles are commonly used in games and in more contemporary humour. For example, the question 'What's brown and sticky?' comes with the punch line 'A stick.'.
The Open Directory Project (available at http://www.dmoz.org/Games/Puzzles/Brain_Teasers/Riddles/) has a whole database of websites that contain a number of different riddles. While some have answers, the others are left open for readers to try and solve on their own. Riddles, puzzle and brainteasers can be solved by all ages and can be used as quick and simple entertainment that requires a bit of brain power.
A riddle is typically defined as a statement that has a double veiled meaning that needs to be solved as a puzzle. There are two main categories of riddles - enigmas and conundrums. The former, enigmas, are problems that are normally expressed using metaphorical and allegorical language. These enigmas need to be thought about careful and require a reasonable amount of ingenuity to figure out. In comparison, conundrums are questions that are based around puns in either the question or the answer. The riddle 'what goes up but never comes down?' is an example of a conundrum. The question relies on the pun that is referring to something going up or down. Typically this is an action that is associated to an object but in fact the answer is nothing solid. This could also be considered as an enigmas as it requires some careful consideration and thinking to try and calculate the answer. Riddles are commonly used in games and in more contemporary humour. For example, the question 'What's brown and sticky?' comes with the punch line 'A stick.'.
The Open Directory Project (available at http://www.dmoz.org/Games/Puzzles/Brain_Teasers/Riddles/) has a whole database of websites that contain a number of different riddles. While some have answers, the others are left open for readers to try and solve on their own. Riddles, puzzle and brainteasers can be solved by all ages and can be used as quick and simple entertainment that requires a bit of brain power.
