Brain Teasers
Growing Down
Trick
Trick brain teasers appear difficult at first, but they have a trick that makes them really easy.Trick
What grows down while it grows up?
Hint
Try to think of alternate meanings.Answer
A goose! (Down is the type of feathers that geese grow)Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
Well not everyone knows that geese grow downs when they get older.
Down is different from a feather. it is an undercoating of soft puffiness grown for warmth by geese ducks and other water birds, so the answer could also be any waterfowl.
Or a stalactite, which grows down from a cave ceiling as it gets older.
The Weeping Willow Tree would also work here.
Any plant that has roots growing down into the earth will also work.
Yea, any plant does that. ???
I heard better in kindergarten.
I heard better in kindergarten.
Great-grand parents grow down by shrinking, when they get older too!
I like smurfy's answer
good answer smurfy, but don't great-grand parents settle, rather than "grow down"?
dumb...sorta
Good effort. This teaser needs a little more info. to rule out other possible answers. There are many correct answers as it is written. A really good teaser needs to have only one answer. Keep trying.
Smartly and inventive and creative and factful and smoogleburp (it's pretty hard to spell smoogleburp, you know)
see, i agree with smurfy. i thought old people, too. (p.s.-love the name smurfy! )
i hate my name. made it like 3 yrs ago.
i agree with Mysterious, if no one can get the teaser because of all the possible answers that will work, then it is not presented well.
i do understand the answer, and it is funny, and all of that, but there are soooo many other things that could work as the answer, that the clues need to narrow it 'down' to one answer.
as some have said, 98% of all forms of vegetation do this.
98% of all architecture does this
(in construction you dig 'down' into the Earth, the taller the building the deeper the footing)
98% of long hair does this
100% of life expectancy does this...
In this way, it is not about getting the right answer, but not getting all of the incorrect possible answers.
Like: What's black and white and red all over? You could say 'a newspaper....'
but then i could say..'no, a penguin with a sun burn'
or...'no a chess board painted red'
or 'Michael Jackson blushing'
Michael Jackson would actually work for the answer of THIS teaser, too!!!
The age of his partners get younger, while he grows older.
The size of his nose gets smaller, as his hair grows longer.
The amount of respect for him gets smaller, as his popularity still grows bigger.
i could go on and on with these examples..but there are young members viewing these comments.
i do understand the answer, and it is funny, and all of that, but there are soooo many other things that could work as the answer, that the clues need to narrow it 'down' to one answer.
as some have said, 98% of all forms of vegetation do this.
98% of all architecture does this
(in construction you dig 'down' into the Earth, the taller the building the deeper the footing)
98% of long hair does this
100% of life expectancy does this...
In this way, it is not about getting the right answer, but not getting all of the incorrect possible answers.
Like: What's black and white and red all over? You could say 'a newspaper....'
but then i could say..'no, a penguin with a sun burn'
or...'no a chess board painted red'
or 'Michael Jackson blushing'
Michael Jackson would actually work for the answer of THIS teaser, too!!!
The age of his partners get younger, while he grows older.
The size of his nose gets smaller, as his hair grows longer.
The amount of respect for him gets smaller, as his popularity still grows bigger.
i could go on and on with these examples..but there are young members viewing these comments.
you taught me something i didn't know
nice but EZEE
go timilee!
pretty good try, but I agree with all the constructive criticism mentioned. Regarding M.J., isn't he innocent until proven guilty? Wait, that can't be right...look at OJ, guilty though proven innocent!
Liked it, but if you have a few other clues like...
can be seen high in the air or down on the ground
OR
Gains popularity durring the holidays
Might make it easier (not that it was hard) but will weed out wrong answers
can be seen high in the air or down on the ground
OR
Gains popularity durring the holidays
Might make it easier (not that it was hard) but will weed out wrong answers
good one, a few answers would have worked...like: hair....but only the right answer will work
thanks everybody for the constructive criticism
wow kind of like my riddle...what gets wet as it dries??? lol thets pretty easy tho
libra0890
libra0890
a towel right?
1.
@.
@.
deadeye823...YES!!! UR RIGHT!! CONGRADULATIONS!! lol
libra0890
libra0890
thank you, thank you *takes a bow*
lol that was so great
libra0890
libra0890
I didn't know that!!
now you do
lol r u guys talking about my joke?
libra0890
libra0890
what joke?
the towel one?
the towel one?
UMMMMMM, POtatoes?
I loved the answer! Very clever!!
thanks sweetime
there are wayyyyyyy too many possable answers for this
Yes, there could be many answers to this with out added info. I was thinking of a tree. Good Effort though.
LOL great answer smurfy
Plants should be the answer, roots...
I have never heard the term 'growing down' used by anyone refering to plants. Taking root is more likely. Nothing can really grow down, it doesn't make sense. I liked your riddle deadeye and the hint leads right to the point - it only reads correctly using the bird related definition of down. You get it or you don't and don't overthink, you quit and move on.
Thanks gummy, thats what I've been thinking as i read most of these comments...although i didn't say it...
i people (like old people shrink and stuff) or a weeping willow.
I thought it was a carrot
I guessed it without the hint, so it must be very clear! Cute.
Thanks
I had carrot but Goose fits better!
I thought of either a tree or a plant of some kind, but goose definitely works well here, considering it's a trick catagory.
I thought it was stalactites. It needed much more information to rule out the other possibilities. Nice try, though.
I was thinking plants...the tops were growing "up" and the roots were growing "down".
I was thinking "humans." But then again, many living things "grow down" as they "grow up." Thanks for getting my brain working, anyway.
Plants can grow down too.
I had stalactites and icicles.
I like the play on words. Using a homonym was great. I thought 'life expectancy' but that would be more 'grows short' not 'down'.
Great teaser! Have a fabulous day!
Great teaser! Have a fabulous day!
This would have done better as joke/punch line rather than brain teaser
i said carrots or any other root vegetable!
The worst this year.
I thought the same thing about a carrot. At least the carrot is growing up and down at the same time. This teaser wasn't that interesting.
I was thinking potatoes, but carrots would be the same. Never thought about geese. Thanks for posting.
Yay I got it right away!!
Great start to my day thx.....good teaser....& one can never please doehead so ignore him lol
Great start to my day thx.....good teaser....& one can never please doehead so ignore him lol
Admittedly, I could be better, but it was pretty good!
Two words, NI CE!!!
personally i thought of roots and hanging tomatoes......
I was thinking banyan trees - don't their branches grow down into the ground? AGAIN, I failed to notice that it was a TRICK question!
Good quiz, though, with room for lots of answers!
Good quiz, though, with room for lots of answers!
Carrots.....
Admittedly, root plants kind of answer the riddle, but the point is a trick riddle. Did the goose answer serve to bring a little joy into our lives. It worked for me. I liked it. I didn't guess the answer, but i liked it. I certainly liked it much more than another riddle where someone is named "nobody". I feel that the riddle worked. Nice job!
Down are the small feathers that grow between the larger feathers of most birds not just geese. Feathers continue to grow during the lifetime of a bird much like our hair does.
Sorry Irish I didn't see your post until after mine.
I was thinking a mustache or a beard.
I disagree with the others, the hint was good and got you to the one true answer. (before the hint i was thinking iceberg)
Good Teaser!!
Good Teaser!!
I also thought of vegetables, beets, radishes, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, rutabagas, etc.,etc.,etc.
I think a tree would also count.
To many possibilities, it needed to be written better.
Feb 26, 2009
Here's a simple way to improve it:
I go from place to place,
you've seen me around.
And as I grow up,
I also grow down.
It doesn't apply to vegetation because they don't really go anywhere. Also not stalagmites because they don't grow up.
I go from place to place,
you've seen me around.
And as I grow up,
I also grow down.
It doesn't apply to vegetation because they don't really go anywhere. Also not stalagmites because they don't grow up.
I was going to comment, but I forgot what I was gonna say while I was reading all the other comments
At first I thought it was carrots .
So, try and be a tad more specific for us. Have a lovely day!
-Gwen
So, try and be a tad more specific for us. Have a lovely day!
-Gwen
No one said growing down was a term. It is just what root vegetables do. Goose is a cute answer, but like so many have said,"there are lots of answers to this one."
Very cute! I like this one!
Hundreds of answers. Sorry,but this was poorly thought out before being published.
I had thought trees at first, but that was too obvious an answer. Unable to think 'outside the box' on my own, geese (or ducks) was a much better answer. (And yes, I know that's a dangling modifier, but tough nuggies; it's BC, before coffee!).
Actually, duck was my first thought. It's the old poser I heard in grade school: How do you get down from an elephant? Ans: You don't, you get down from a duck. I guess it pays to be an old country boy at times.
A BEARD; a carrot or many tubers; almost any hanging fruit and so on.
What about a tree whose roots grow while the tree grows up.
nice job , never thought of that . but what about a projectile released in air . while it goes ( grows) up it accelerates ( grows) down
I remember a question that people used to ask a long time ago, that was..."How do you get down off an elephant? The answer was, you don't. You get down off a duck> Therefore I got the correct answer this time around.
Nothing to say that has not been said before.
While I like and understand the answer it is not the one I got.
I was among those who thought of stalactite.
I also like the idea of a tree.
While I like and understand the answer it is not the one I got.
I was among those who thought of stalactite.
I also like the idea of a tree.
Carrot
roots...also, as others have said
Does "duck" count?
As all plants grow roots, I said a tree.
The Incredible Shrinking Man.
I guessed duck - and I enjoyed all of the possible answers that were suggested in the comments. It was a fun teaser, but the comments made it most enjoyable!
I thought of stalactite, carrot and hair. But in each case, I was uncomfortable with "as it grows up" to mean "as it ages". No one talks about a tree being "all grown up". The idiom is used pretty exclusively for animals.
My problem was that I treated the teaser as a riddle. I did not notice it was a trick, so I didn't delve into creative interpretations, even after reading the hint.
I thought the actual answer was terrific. I had no complaint with all my inferior wrong answers. I just slapped my head and said, "Ah! That's so much better. Nice!"
My problem was that I treated the teaser as a riddle. I did not notice it was a trick, so I didn't delve into creative interpretations, even after reading the hint.
I thought the actual answer was terrific. I had no complaint with all my inferior wrong answers. I just slapped my head and said, "Ah! That's so much better. Nice!"
I got down as my answer. I first thought carrot, but since it was a trick question I ruled that out along with the other root type answers.
Corn, corn, corn...this one belongs in a kid's joke book.
Fun and entertaining teaser; I did not get it - never would have thought of goose.
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