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A new riddle is making the rounds on social media and this one centers around Dr. Dolittle’s room and seeing lots of animals on the bed. Here’s a look at the answer to the riddle and just how many legs are on the floor.
The riddle typically reads like this:
Riddle me this. You walk into Dr. Dolittle’s room and see a bed. On the bed there are 2 dogs, 4 cats, a giraffe, 5 cows and a duck. There are also 3 chickens flying above the bed. How many legs are on the floor?
Some versions leave out the Dolittle part and just read:
You walk into a room and see a bed. On the bed there are 2 dogs, 4 cats, a giraffe, 5 cows and a duck. There are also 3 chickens flying above the bed. How many legs are on the floor?
Are you ready to see the answer? Read on.
Here’s the Answer to the Riddle
Six legs are on the floor.
The traditionally accepted answer is six. Some people might think the trick is that all the animals listed are on the bed and the chickens flying are a distraction. So they might be tempted to say 0 legs are on the floor.
But the distraction is actually all the animals. It distracts you from realizing that a bed itself has four legs. (The question doesn’t ask how man “animal legs,” it just asks how many legs.) Also, if a person (you) walks into the room, then that’s another two legs that are on the floor. So this gives us a total of six legs on the floor.
Some people have pointed out that in some cases, a bed doesn’t have any legs and just sits directly on the floor. In that situation, the answer would be two legs — your legs are the only legs on the floor.
Others may get tricked and say there are eight legs because they think Dr. Dolittle is there too, since it’s his room. But the riddle actually never states that Dr. Dolittle is in the room too, only that it’s his room. That’s another part of the trick.
So in summary: the answer is six legs. However, an argument could be made that on occasion, depending on the type of bed, the answer might be two legs.
This is just one of many riddles that are circulating on sites like Facebook and Instagram during the coronavirus pandemic. If you’ve seen the “How Many Ducks Do You See?” riddle and were stumped, check out Heavy’s explanation here. If you ran into the “I Met a Man on London Bridge” riddle and have no idea what the man’s name is, you can find the answer in Heavy’s story here. The answer to the “You Enter a Bedroom” riddle is here, and the answer to the “Can You Open the Lock Using These Clues?” riddle is here.
If you’re looking for the answer to the “Hotel with 100 Rooms” riddle, it’s here. The answer to the “State Without an A” riddle is here. The answer to the “How many letters are in the answer?” riddle is here. And the answer to the “Penny Has 5 Children” riddle is here.
