To be, or not to be? is the opening phrase of a soliloquy from Prince Hamlet of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet and also one of the most famous passages in English literature. However, this is not the only question left unanswered both in Shakespeare's play and in real life. In reality, there are more questions left unanswered than there are answers.

Although it may seem that the older we get, the more answers we gain, the truth is that we only grow to understand how much we yet don't know and how many hard questions are left unanswered. And possibly never will be. While many hard to answer questions can be scientifically explained and given an answer to, there are many confusing questions that even science can't provide a solution to.

Despite humans being the only (yet discovered) most intelligent species, some facts are so challenging to uncover that they escape the grasp of human logic. Not everything can be explained at this stage in our lives, and the many unanswered questions stem from this. For now, the only option is to refer to those questions with no answers as philosophical and hope that perhaps we will find the explanations to all seemingly unanswerable questions in the future.

Below, we've compiled some very impossibly hard questions to answer that go beyond the human brain's abilities. So if you are looking for an easy way to make your brain hurt, the many questions below will do the trick. Do you know of any more confusing questions to ask? Let us know!

#1

How important do you have to be to be considered assassinated and not just murdered?

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CalicoKitty
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

IMO, it's not about how important you are overall. It's about how your death frees up the path for an overarching goal. Jimmy Who Hates Your Sort and Jane Who Runs A Competing Taco Truck murder you. Johnson Who Finds Your Taco Truck Obstructive To The Taco Mafia assassinates you, and then everyone calls it murder because nobody wants to legitimise the Taco Mafia.

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#2

How do you know that you see colors the same way that another person sees them? For instance, what if what’s red to you is blue to them, but they still call it red?

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Natalie H
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I’ve had this this thought before. My conclusion was that it’s impossible to figure this out

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#3

If life is so short, why do we do things that we don’t like and like so many things that we don’t do?

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Jon C
Community Member
6 months ago

This comment has been deleted.

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#4

Why is the objective of golf to play the least amount of golf?

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Weed in the Garden
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You need to hear Robin Williams explanation of golf to really understand the game. The Scots invented it - you knock a ball into a gopher hole....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9fXG2v0bS8

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#5

If a vampire bites a zombie, does the zombie become a vampire or does the vampire become a zombie?

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#6

How do you know you’re not crazy and just hallucinating your whole life?

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#7

How far up do bald people go when they wash their face?

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Laura Ketteridge
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My husband says he washes up to where his hairline used to be.

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#8

Isn’t the word ‘queue’ just the letter Q followed by four silent letters?

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#9

How did the person who invented the calendar know what day it was?

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#10

If you had fun while you were wasting time, can you still say that you wasted time?

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Natalie H
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nope. If you had fun, then that time is no longer considered wasted.

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#11

Do caterpillars know that they’re going to be butterflies or do they build the cocoon not knowing what will happen?

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#12

What would happen if Pinocchio said ‘My nose will grow now’?

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Alias Delfs
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The world would blip out of existence from the resulting paradox thanks a lot Pinocchio

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#13

When they say that something is ‘new and improved’, how can it be improved if it’s new? What is it improving on?

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Weed in the Garden
Community Member
6 months ago (edited) Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Currently, it means the package is smaller with fewer contents while more expensive.

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#14

Why isn’t there mouse-flavored cat food?

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Red Hair Blue Soul
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why don't they just make it butt flavored? They are always licking theirs anyway?

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#15

Where does a thought go when it’s forgotten?

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#16

Why did we decide to give February just 28 days when lots of other months have 31 days? Couldn’t we have just taken some of the 31st days from other months and added them to February?

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Laura Ketteridge
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

TED-Ed has a video all about this. :o) https://ed.ted.com/best_of_web/MXwQDDs8

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#17

Why do people say that they ‘slept like a baby’ if they slept through the night when babies are known for not sleeping?

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Adam Zad
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"I slept like a baby." Meaning I woke up every two hours screaming and crying.

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#18

Where do they put the bible in libraries – fiction or non-fiction section?

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#19

Who decided what’s right and wrong?

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#20

Why do they say that you have a cold when your temperature goes up?

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Dennis Rowe
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Our brains make us feel cold to help implement several physiologic measures to produce a fever.

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#21

Why are they called buildings if they’re already built?

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kitten levels tokyo
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

For some reason the word “erection” fell out of use in the construction industry.

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#22

How do we know that a new dogfood has an “improved taste”?

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#23

If you punch yourself and it hurts, are you weak or are you strong?

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#24

If tomatoes are a fruit, is ketchup considered a smoothie?

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Omiyaru
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in fruit salad.

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#25

If you had a dream that none of your dreams would come true, and you woke up and had none of your real-life dreams come true, would that be a dream come true?

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kitten levels tokyo
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I feel like these are all just the same question worded 153 different ways.

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#26

Is the opposite of opposite the same or opposite?

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Laura Ketteridge
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

'Left' is the opposite of 'right'. 'Right' is the opposite of 'wrong'. 'Left' and 'wrong' are not the same, but neither are they opposites. :o)

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#27

What do people who are born deaf hear when they think?

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BoredPip
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some people think in pictures, I remember the day I found out :))))

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#28

Why is Goofy considered a person and Pluto considered a pet when they’re both dogs anyway?

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#29

If you told someone to ‘be a leader and not a follower’, wouldn’t they become a follower by following your advice?

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Joseph Grimmett
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You can lead and follow. In fact that is how the military works.

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#30

If the early bird gets the worm, why do good things come to those who wait?

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CalicoKitty
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Shut up and stop complaining."

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#31

Is it really possible to experience anything objectively?

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Weed in the Garden
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Disappointingly, the answer is no. People cannot experience anything objectively. Although we can do scientific tests and use our collective human minds to figure out how the universe works, we will always be experiencing reality from our own perspective. Therefore, very little in life is actually objective.

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#32

What makes you, you?

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#33

Why do we hit our hands together (clapping) when we like something?

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#34

If you’re trying to fail and you succeed, did you fail or did you succeed?

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#35

How do you grow a seedless fruit?

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Alias Delfs
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Most of the time the plant is the hybrid offspring of two fertile species

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#36

If the fountain of youth can make you live forever, can you drown in it and still die?

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CalicoKitty
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It makes you young, so I expect it performs some wacky DNA-repair-telomere-extension alongside all that Magic Physical Morphing. Last I checked, this doesn't make you a fish, so I expect you'd still die. But at least you'd be a youthful corpse...?

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#37

If Cinderella’s shoe fit her perfectly, then why did it fall off?

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#38

If the number 2 pencil is the most popular, why is it number 2?

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#39

What was the first man to milk a cow trying to do?

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Laura Ketteridge
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Humans have been making milk for their babies since long before we had language. People would understand the similarities between mammals feeding their young. The first person to milk a cow would undoubtedly be trying to milk a cow!

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#40

If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, will we ever know it?

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CalicoKitty
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Switch the US and UK dictionaries and you can survey the academics to find out >:)

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#41

Why is there a fridge light but no freezer light?

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#42

If you expect the unexpected, doesn’t that make the unexpected expected?

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Nikki Sevven
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You can't expect the unexpected. Doing so changes the event from "unexpected" to "expected."

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#43

If a cyclops were to close its eye, is it winking or blinking?

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#44

Why do we cook bacon and bake cookies?

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#45

If you hate haters, does that make you a hater and will you hate yourself?

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Nikki Sevven
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't hate haters, though. I don't tolerate their behavior, and I find it disturbing that someone taught them to hate, but I don't hate them. I pity them. They're unnecessarily impoverishing their lives by automatically excluding people based on things that don't matter, like skin color or gender.

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#46

If you are halfway from your destination, is it from the beginning or the end?

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#47

Do coffins have lifetime guarantees?

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#48

Is there life after death?

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Weed in the Garden
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If I could find the answer to this question on BP, I could finally justify the hours I spend here.

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#49

How long will you be remembered after the day that you die?

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#50

If you describe something as indescribable, haven’t you already described it?

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#51

When you get to heaven, do you look as you do at the age that you die?

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Duesvolent90
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That'd be cool. "What age shall you present yourself henceforth?" uhhh let's do 18 NO 22!

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#52

If revenge is a dish that’s best served cold, and revenge is sweet, then is revenge ice cream?

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Phoebe Stein
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

*sigh* NO IT'S A MILKSHAKE! (made with your enemy's blood of course!)

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#53

Why does “slim chance” and “fat chance” have the same meaning?

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Nikki Sevven
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They don't. "Slim chance" means there's a possibility, however minute. "Fat chance" means "no way in Hell, dude."

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#54

Do sheep get static cling when they rub against one another?

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kim morris
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No, because their wool is coated with lanolin.

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#55

If a bunch of cats jump on top of each other, is it still called a dog pile?

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#56

Do we have free will or is everything predestined?

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CalicoKitty
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Define "free will". Define "will", and "free" too, while you're at it. Wait - define "predestined" as well, and "random", and "imaginary", and "reality", and - oh no brain hurty :(

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#57

Is it possible to know what is truly good and what is evil?

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#58

Do you ever really do anything out of your own conscious choice, or are we always controlled by some external stimulation or motive?

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ormondotvos
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Hitchens: you have free will. God demands it.

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#59

If you took a ship and replaced all of its parts until none of the original parts are intact anymore, is it the same ship or a completely different ship?

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#60

How is it possible that the world is in debt?

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#61

Why is the alphabetical order that way? Who said that that’s the order that it had to be?

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Dennis Rowe
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ask the Romans and Greeks. Then ask the crazy people who invented English.

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#62

Can blind people dream?

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Laura Ketteridge
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes, blind people dream. Blind does not mean they are totally blind. Most blind people still have some sight. However, even totally blind people might be able to dream in pictures. If they have had sight, then the chances are high they will dream with pictures, but that can fade over the years. If a person has never seen, then their dream worlds are created from other sensory information (smell, touch, taste, vibrations, heat, etc).

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#63

What would a room made of mirrors look like if there was nothing inside that room to create a reflection?

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Nikki Sevven
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Pitch black. If there was nothing inside the room to create a reflection, then there could not be a light source inside the room, as the source would reflect. Without light, there can be no reflection, therefore the room would be dark.

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#64

Was there ever a time when nothing existed or has something always been in existence?

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Enothor
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How anything can begin is an idea I can’t handle. Even people with god, how did god begin? How did the nothingness for something to exist inside become?

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#65

Which arm rest is yours in the movie theater?

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#66

If you decide to be indecisive, which are you?

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#67

Is it okay for an endangered animal to eat an endangered plant?

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Omiyaru
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ok, this is one of those questions that it like duh, you can't really stop it from happening

#68

Do prison buses have emergency exits?

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#69

Is there a time limit on fortune cookie predictions?

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Dennis Rowe
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Only if qualified in the message, or death will usually render it meaningless.

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#70

Which orange came first – the fruit or the color?

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Alias Delfs
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The fruit, orange(the color was called red, bonus almost all of history blue was called black)

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#71

What is freedom and does it really exist?

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#72

In the word ‘scent’, which letter is silent? S or C?

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#73

When does it stop being partly sunny and start to become partly cloudy?

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T J
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

According to the National Weather Service they mean the same thing but only partly cloudy can be used at night

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#74

If we learn and improve from our mistakes, why are we so afraid to make mistakes?

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#75

Isn’t good health just a slower rate at which to die?

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Mike Beck
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I believe it was Samuel Clemens I'm paraphrasing: All those health nuts are gonna feel awful silly dying of nothing!

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#76

If a baby’s bum pops out of its mother at 11:59 PM, and the head comes out at 12:01 AM, what day will the baby be declared to be born on?

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Benita Valdez
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Birth- the emergence of a baby or other young from the body of its mother; the start of life as a physically separate being. That being said, once the baby is fully out then time is declaired.

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#77

Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of the bottle?

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Alias Delfs
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Contact with two bindable surfaces and air

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#78

If God created Adam and Eve, did they have belly buttons?

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BoredPip
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The real question is does God have a belly button

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#79

Is your answer to this question ‘no’?

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#80

What is the color of a mirror?

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Nikki Sevven
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

All colors. Mirrors reflect light, and light is the combination of all colors in the spectrum.

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#81

What would happen to the world’s oceans if every person on Earth jumped into the water at the same time?

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Mark Berry
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

On their respective coastlines? Not much. Concentrated in one location? A tsunami.

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#82

Why is vanilla ice cream color white when vanilla itself is color brown?

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CalicoKitty
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Real vanilla is expensive and vanilla extracts/essences are awful in significantly colouring qualities.

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#83

Who taught the first ever teacher?

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#84

If nothing is impossible, then would it be possible for something to be impossible?

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#85

Why do noses run but feet smell?

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#86

Isn’t it that when you wait for the waiter to come back with your order, you become the waiter in the process?

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#87

Will tomorrow ever come?

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#88

Would time continue if everything in the world was frozen?

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Joseph Grimmett
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Times flow has nothing to do with our planet. Our planet could completely be destroyed, and eventually will be, and time would still keep going.

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#89

What would the water look like if the sky didn’t exist?

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Enothor
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The sky isn’t reflecting the water. The atmosphere is causing the scattering of certain light frequencies and it makes it look blue.

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#90

Can a homeless kid ever be given homework?

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#91

If a guy that was about to die in the electric chair had a heart attack should they save him?

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Jason Morgan
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This happened in Oklahoma. They revive them to kill them.

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#92

Do cannibals think clowns taste funny?

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#93

When did time begin?

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#94

Did we invent math or did we discover it?

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#95

What is the goal of humanity?

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#96

What is ‘god’?

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BoredPip
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

1. (in Christianity and other monotheistic religions) the creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority; the supreme being. 2. (in certain other religions) a superhuman being or spirit worshipped as having power over nature or human fortunes; a deity. can't give anything more than that I'm afraid XD

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#97

Is the Earth alive?

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Dennis Rowe
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes, but probably not the way you think.

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#98

Did you arrive at this point in your life because you willed it or because you were destined to be here?

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Mark Berry
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You can't will an unforeseen outcome. God knows we've all experienced plenty of those.

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#99

What shape is your field of vision?

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Phoebe Stein
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sideways oval I believe; because you don't have a sqaure shaped set of eyes, and your eyes themselves are such shape.

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#100

Are we living or slowly dying?

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#101

Is a body transplant just the same as a brain transplant?

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Omiyaru
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A head transplant has occurred, a brain transplant has not

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#102

How far east do you have to go before you start going west?

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CalicoKitty
Community Member
6 months ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'd argue that east and west are more rotational than directional. East is anti/counterclockwise relative to the north pole, and west is clockwise.

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#103

Are children who act in R-rated movies allowed to watch the film when it’s done?

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