You have 30 cows and 28 chickens. How many didn’t? The answer is 10, because 28 can be heard as twenty ate, making the setup mean that twenty cows ate the chickens. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “The Answer to the “30 Cows and 28 Chickens” Riddle”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
And Grant, I have a mathematical riddle for you.
Yes, please.
There are 30 cows and 28 chickens.
How many didn’t?
30 cows and 28 chickens.
How many didn’t?
28 chickens.
10.
Oh, good.
That’s good.
That took me forever.
That’s nice.
Right.
30 cows and 28 chickens.
That is, the cows ate the chickens.
So it sounds like the number 28 projection thing, 20-A-T-E.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That’s a tough one, right?
Yeah, it’s great.
You have to try that one out on your kid.
I will totally get that.
He’ll crack up.
That’s just his kind of thing.
He loves it.
Words have more than one meaning.
It’s strange.
Yeah.
And that’s funny.
Yes, and we love talking about that kind of thing on the show.
So call us, 877-929-9673, or send your stories about language to words@waywordradio.org.
