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Riddle...Can you solve this?
A man in a restaurant asked a waiter for a juice glass, a dinner plate, water, a match, and a lemon wedge. The man poured enough water onto the plate to cover it.
"If you can get the water on the plate into this glass without touching or moving this plate, I will give you $100," the man said. "You can use the match and lemon to do this."
A few minutes later, the waiter walked away with $100 in his pocket. How did the waiter get the water into the glass?
Hint: The glass will be upside-down when the water is in it.
7 Answers
- 1 decade agoFavourite answer
First, the waiter stuck the match into the lemon wedge, so that it would stand straight. Then he lit the match, and put it in the middle of the plate with the lemon. Then, he placed the glass upside-down over the match. As the flame used up the oxygen in the glass, it created a small vacuum, which sucked in the water through the space between the glass and the plate. Thus, the waiter got the water into the glass without touching or moving the plate.
Source(s): ive heard this one before - 1 decade ago
First, the waiter stuck the match into the lemon wedge, so that it would stand straight. Then he lit the match, and put it in the middle of the plate with the lemon. Then, he placed the glass upside-down over the match. As the flame used up the oxygen in the glass, it created a small vacuum, which sucked in the water through the space between the glass and the plate. Thus, the waiter got the water into the glass without touching or moving the plate
- quasi coolLv 41 decade ago
First, the waiter stuck the match into the lemon wedge, so that it would stand straight. Then he lit the match, and put it in the middle of the plate with the lemon. Then, he placed the glass upside-down over the match. As the flame used up the oxygen in the glass, it created a small vacuum, which sucked in the water through the space between the glass and the plate. Thus, the waiter got the water into the glass without touching or moving the plate.
EDIT: oh, darn, Brandon T already got it... interesting he ended up with this answer verbatim when he had just "heard this one before." Someone needs to cite their sources!
Source(s): http://archives.gophercentral.com/Gopher_Bits_Firs... (the same place you apparently got the riddle in the first place) - Dj_EzLv 41 decade ago
The match did not use up the oxygen creating a vacuum. What happened was the match heated the available air causing some of it to exit under the glass. When the air cooled after the match burned out, that's what created the vacuum sucking the water into the glass. Other than that small mistake, what the top two posters said.
