Riddles and Brainteasers

[Captain]

Heres a nice little thread to post your riddles. When one gets answered toss up another.

I'll start:

Kids get this quicker than adults. Programmers take the longest. Pilots take...well, see for yourself.

8809 = 6
7111 = 0
2172 = 0
6666 = 4
1111 = 0
3213 = 0
7662 = 2
9313 = 1
0000 = 4
2222 = 0
3333 = 0
5555 = 0
8193 = 3
8096 = 5
1021 = 1
7777 = 0
9999 = 4
7756 = 1
6855 = 3
9881 = 5
5531 = 0
2581 = ????

 

[Jim Logajan]

The number of closed loops in the symbols on the left side of the equals sign.

Ah - so an "8" has 2, a "6" has 1, and so on. That would explain why programmer's like myself have problems. Seeing all numbers sets our mental state to find patterns in the numbers, not in the font set itself.

 

[Jim Logajan]

It's been about a year. Time to dig it up...

A bat and ball cost $1.10. The bat costs one dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

I'll buy as many as you have at that price.

 

[Jim Logajan]

On a standard 12 hour clock, the hour and minute hands line up at midnight. Exactly what time (HH:MM:SS) will the hour and minute hands line up again?

At 1:00 AM the hour hand is at the 5 minute mark traveling 1/60th as fast as the minute hand, which is at the 0 minute mark. The time t, in minutes after 1 AM, when they meet is, I think:

t = t/60 + 5

solving for t yields:

t = 300/59 = 5.0847457627 minutes

Converting to hours, minutes and seconds:
01:05:05.0847457627

Not sure if I screwed up somewhere....