Brain Teasers
How Many Letters?
How many letters are there in the answer to this question?
Hint
There is only one possible answer.Answer
Four. It's the only number that describes the number of letters in its own name.Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
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this is good. It is a bit confusing at first but when you think about it it does make sence.
Actually, there's 63 letters in the answer!
In the answer which I give here to the question “How many letters are there in the answer to this question?†there are exactly one hundred twenty-eight letters.
0
How many letters are there in "the answer to this question"?
the=3 answer=6 to=2 this=4 question=8
Well gee.. I count 23. Anyone else?
the=3 answer=6 to=2 this=4 question=8
Well gee.. I count 23. Anyone else?
the=3 answer=6 to=2 this=4 question=8
None of those are an answer though.
I thought this teaser was incredibly clever and fun!
None of those are an answer though.
I thought this teaser was incredibly clever and fun!
Oh well seeing where you are coming from now (stupid me). It would have to be a trick question to qualify for that kind of silly answer Atty.
Apparenty, I still don't get it because it makes absolutely no since to me, will someone please explain it.
uhhhhhhhh? i still dont get it
Atropus - yup i got 23 letters in "the answer to this question" as well...
Good Job. I thought it was a nice teaser!
I am confused
I don't get it someone help me
I don't get it someone help me
No, really. It's 63.
Lol, yea... you should of only put "four". Which is not the only answer. 0 (like sum1 else said), "There are fifteen." is another, " There are 8."is another. "There are 15 letters" "There are exactly 54 letters in the answer to the previous question"
The number 4, when written "four" has 4 letters. It is the only number that has the same number of letters as the actual number itself. eg. one = 3 letters, two = 3, three = 5, four = 4. Hope this helps. Too clever for me, I counted 23 too.
I think it should be 0 because the question asked how many letters are in the answer to this question = 0 letters because it should be a number but if u spell 0 zero then its 4
YUP!i guessed 23 too................but i still dont get why the answer is 4 .....
ummmm, i don't get it!
I also guessed 23. There are so many possible answers that aren't really straightforward.
I actually guessed zero before I guessed 23, because it is a number, but numbers can still be written out, so I guess that's wrong, too.
I said 4! I liked this one a lot! EZ but fun!
i thought 23 , also
I will agree there are many answers to the question.....four was the first one that popped into my mind.
I was going to guess four or 0 but four won because it made more sense
I said 23..."the answer to this question" ... very sneaky
i say it was 23 but four works i have no clue how you get onehundred somethin, though.
I loved it, and also, the person that got a hundred something had exactly that many letters in their comment. I also have another answer:
There are seventeen.
There are seventeen.
Very interesting .. since a lot of commenters are providing alternate answers .. how about:
The square root of 225. .. Neat trick teaser!
The square root of 225. .. Neat trick teaser!
i also got four but another posible answer possible answer could be ten letters
pretty easy but it was fun!!!!!!!
what about 0?
you could also use I. II, and III in roman numerals
you could also use I. II, and III in roman numerals
I said 23. I sort of get it. Bah, of course not!
Oh, I get it now :p
i thought of 23. : ) that one was good.
Actually I got 22. The question is "How many letters are there." H-O-W-M-A-N-Y-L-E-T-T-E-R-S-A-R-T-H-E-R-E. Just a thought!
I thought it was 0 because its a number bot a letter
*not
After reading the various comments, I have concluded that there are an infinite number of answers that are all equally correct.
For those of you that answered 23: Your answer has either two digits or eleven letters. The phrase "the answer to this question" does have 23 letters, but if your answer is "23" then you are incorrect.
63!!!! I win!!!!
i think we should get the writer here to explain. but when you think about it 0=zero=four letters
Please explain, where did "four" come from? I understand that "four" {4} has "four" letters to it but how does it pertain to the teaser? I am utterly confused....
dont know dont know how dont get it
i got 24 cause it said "in the answer or watever" and i counted that
The question should be "What number has the same number of letters as it is?" That way, 0 would be zero which has 4 letters. 5,000 would be five thousand which would have 12 letters. That is what the question is asking.
However, i thought of an alternative answer, since other people were. "Not one nor two but twenty-five" if you don't count the hyphen as a letter but if you are weird and you do then "Not one nor two but twenty-seven"
However, i thought of an alternative answer, since other people were. "Not one nor two but twenty-five" if you don't count the hyphen as a letter but if you are weird and you do then "Not one nor two but twenty-seven"
I'm thinkin' exactly the same thing as kayleeskitties. Someone help us all!
that was tricky, it was very entertaining
I'm sure it would make sense if it was explained, but as it is, I totally don't get it.
That made no sense whatsoever. I get what people are trying to say about "four" or something, but I believe the answer is 23 like a lot of other people. I truly thought this was a dumb and confusing teaser and hope you can come up with the right answer to your own teaser next time.
i agree with the people who also have no idea where four came from...
please, someone explain how you get four from "How many letters are there in the answer to this question?"
this teaser needs to give us a clue to what the answer IS before we can figure out how many letters there are.....
i got 23 since i read the question as asking how many letters are there in "the answer to this question"....thought i was being clever and tricky....
please, someone explain how you get four from "How many letters are there in the answer to this question?"
this teaser needs to give us a clue to what the answer IS before we can figure out how many letters there are.....
i got 23 since i read the question as asking how many letters are there in "the answer to this question"....thought i was being clever and tricky....
hee hee
i love it
there should be a category that is called VERY tricky!
i love it
there should be a category that is called VERY tricky!
How does that answer the question.
I thought it was 23 because I counted the number of letters in 'the answer to this question'. Well, honest mistake!
confused, well i think i get it, kinda, maybe cuz the #four has4 lettters in it am i right??????
This was creative! I liked it!
0 as in zero works too
I thought it was 9... there are 9 letters in "the answer"... but, then again, I'm starting to realize I'm not so good at most of these! ;)
The answer/ question made no sense whatsoever. First i counted the letters in the question (47), and then got 11 from counting that answer. DON"T MAKE THESE QUESTIONS SO VAGUE!
That was really easy once I thought it out. Great teaser, keep them coming!
And you silly people commenting on this, 4 is the only plausible answer.
And you silly people commenting on this, 4 is the only plausible answer.
No duh, it's 25...
T H E A N S W E R T O T H I S
Q U E S T I O N
(Again, a prime example of nerfhead logic! Tell me if i counted it wrong!)
T H E A N S W E R T O T H I S
Q U E S T I O N
(Again, a prime example of nerfhead logic! Tell me if i counted it wrong!)
Oh, I get it now! D'oh!
(Thank you, slow reaction time.)
(Thank you, slow reaction time.)
I think this is very tricky. But I actually had a better time reading all of the crazy comments.
Aww I thought I was being smart saying 23! Dang...
Maybe cruiser is no longer on the site as so many of you have asked for an explanation of this teaser. Folks what he was asking was the number of letters in the answer to the question. The question was tricky sure, but if you say numbers from one to whatever the only one that has the same number of letters as the word is just what he said it was. One has three letters, two has three letters, three has five letters, four has four letters, five has four letters, six only has three and etc. Sorry to give away the answer to everyone else, but if those of you who questioned this one ever come back to read it again, this was how the "answer" was arrived at.
Sorry for the dp, but zero does not work because it has four letters, not 0.
very clever! it took me a little while to get that one
I thought "the answer to this question" has 23. Oh well.
I thought it was 23. I don't get it.
It means in the anwser.
I don't get it
huh????? i don't get it...
I counted all the letters in:
"the answer to this question"
"the answer to this question"
ITS WAS REALLY CONFUSING
Jun 04, 2008
20--you only count the letters that are "answer to this question".
Jun 05, 2008
I need someone to help me....the answer--I don't understand the explanation. Please reword if you understand.
Jul 31, 2008
Depending on the language.
in English: four
in German: vier
in Italian: tre
in Russian: три or одиннадцать
in English: four
in German: vier
in Italian: tre
in Russian: три or одиннадцать
ugh.... thats confusing lol
Ha! I got that right ;]
I get it. Sorta. I don't know how to explain it right...The answer to the question is a number, right?And the number has to have the same number of letters the number itself has right? So four, four letters is the answer. Hope this helps.
Possible answers:
0.
Four.
There are forty-nine letters in the answer to this question.
There are seventeen.
There are twenty-five letters.
0.
Four.
There are forty-nine letters in the answer to this question.
There are seventeen.
There are twenty-five letters.
Four is the one I got, but you shouldn't rant on about it changing the number of letters.
This is an old Lenny Conundrum from Neopets. The answer was four or zero.
everyone keeps trying to explain about the whole "four" thing... yet no one has answered what on earth that answer has ANYTHING of relevance to do with the question whatsoever.
Four has four letters. Get it?
i counted twenty three >: P hmm it wuz okay
Hopefully this will help anyone who is still stumped.
Notice that the question starts with the phrase "How many", which tells you that the answer will be a number. Any question starting with "How many" will have a number as its answer.
So the idea is to answer with a number, and the only way to be correct is to say a number that has an amount of letters in its name that is the same as the quantity the number itself represents.
For example, say you thought the answer was 1. That's O-N-E, which has three letters. If you say "One" as your answer, this answer has THREE letters in it, which contradicts itself. So the answer can't be "One". Next try "Two": T-W-O, which is a three-letter answer, leading to the same dilemma. Next try "Three": T-H-R-E-E, which has five letters, still no good.
Now try "Four": F-O-U-R. This is a four-letter word. So if your answer is "Four", your answer has four letters. This is correct because the number of letters in the answer, and the quantity the answer denotes, don't contradict each other.
This teaser reminds me of Escher's sketch of two hands drawing each other. One depends on the other. It's sort of a paradox in that way, but in this case it's possible! Very clever. IMO, more of a logic teaser than a trick.
Notice that the question starts with the phrase "How many", which tells you that the answer will be a number. Any question starting with "How many" will have a number as its answer.
So the idea is to answer with a number, and the only way to be correct is to say a number that has an amount of letters in its name that is the same as the quantity the number itself represents.
For example, say you thought the answer was 1. That's O-N-E, which has three letters. If you say "One" as your answer, this answer has THREE letters in it, which contradicts itself. So the answer can't be "One". Next try "Two": T-W-O, which is a three-letter answer, leading to the same dilemma. Next try "Three": T-H-R-E-E, which has five letters, still no good.
Now try "Four": F-O-U-R. This is a four-letter word. So if your answer is "Four", your answer has four letters. This is correct because the number of letters in the answer, and the quantity the answer denotes, don't contradict each other.
This teaser reminds me of Escher's sketch of two hands drawing each other. One depends on the other. It's sort of a paradox in that way, but in this case it's possible! Very clever. IMO, more of a logic teaser than a trick.
Haha! I guessed 23 as well. But "four" was clever. That was fun.
Confusing at first but very smart teaser
i'm confused where did four come from
May 14, 2012
How about 1,000,000,000. O-N-E-B-I-L-L-I-O-N. 10 letters and digits
Why is the answer four? I got 23
This teaser is great! It's very clever.
Since there is such a thing as negative numbers, how about the following as alternative answers: "positive fifteen" and "positive seventeen"?
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