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Logic riddles
What goes up but never comes down?
A one-direction riddle. Nearly everything that rises eventually falls, so the answer has to be a quantity that only ever increases.
What goes up but never comes down?
Hint: It changes on your birthday.
Reveal the answer
Your age
Your age only ever goes up.
How to solve it (spoilers)
How to think about it
- Rule out physical objects: balloons pop, rockets fall, smoke disperses.
- Switch to numbers that attach to a person and move in one direction over a lifetime.
- The hint mentions your birthday. What changes every birthday and never reverses?
- Your age goes up each year and never comes back down.
Why “your age” is the answer
Age increases by one every birthday and can never decrease, so it goes up and never comes down. The riddle tempts you to think of things in the sky, but the real answer is a number. Height is a common wrong guess because it rises for years and then stops, and it can even shrink a little late in life.
Common wrong answers
- A balloon. Helium balloons rise, but they come down when the gas leaks out.
- Your height. Height stops increasing in adulthood and may drop slightly with age, so it does not only go up.
Related riddles
- When I was six, my sister was half my age. Now I am 70. How old is my sister?
- The more you take, the more you leave behind. What are they?
- What belongs to you, but other people use it more than you do?
- The more of this there is, the less you see. What is it?
- What can fill a room but takes up no space?
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