In this classic riddle, what gets bigger and bigger the more you take away from it?

Introduction / Context:
This riddle challenges your intuition about size and subtraction. In most everyday situations, when you take something away from a collection, the collection becomes smaller. However, the puzzle asks you to think of something that gets bigger the more you take away from it. The trick is to interpret take away as physically removing material and to look for a situation where removing material actually enlarges the thing being described. This style of riddle is common in logical reasoning practice because it promotes flexible thinking and spatial imagination.

Given Data / Assumptions:

- There is an object or structure whose size we can measure. - We repeatedly remove something from this object or from its surroundings. - With each removal, the object in question gets bigger rather than smaller. - Candidate answers include a hole in the ground, a debt, a pile of sand, a queue of people, and a shadow. - We focus on the most natural and traditional solution used in classic riddle collections.

Concept / Approach:
The classic answer is a hole in the ground. A hole is defined by the empty space where material is missing. If you dig out more earth from the hole, you are taking material away from the ground, but the empty space, which is the hole, becomes larger. Therefore, the more you take away in terms of soil, the bigger the hole becomes. None of the other options behave in precisely this way when you interpret take away in the ordinary sense of removing parts of the thing itself or the material around it.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Consider a hole in the ground. The hole exists because earth has been removed, creating an empty space. Step 2: If you dig deeper or wider, you are taking away more earth. Step 3: As you remove more earth, the volume of empty space, that is, the hole, increases. Step 4: This means the hole gets bigger as more material is taken away. Step 5: Consider a pile of sand. If you remove sand, the pile becomes smaller, not bigger. Step 6: Consider a queue of people. Taking people away shortens the queue rather than lengthening it. Step 7: A shadow may change size due to light angle, but taking away material does not reliably make it bigger. Step 8: Therefore, only a hole in the ground clearly gets bigger as you take more material away.

Verification / Alternative check:
Imagine digging a small hole with a shovel. At first, you remove a few spades of earth and create a shallow depression. As you continue digging and taking away more soil, the hole deepens and widens. If you stop removing earth, the hole stops growing. The relationship between removal of soil and growth of the hole is direct and intuitive. By contrast, consider a debt: while people may say that paying off a debt reduces it, the riddle talks about taking away from the thing itself. A debt is not a physical object you can dig out, so the metaphor is weaker. The hole example fits both the physical interpretation and the classic tradition of this puzzle.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
A debt can seem to grow the more you pay interest, but paying away money is not the same as taking away part of the debt itself. A pile of sand and a queue clearly shrink when you remove parts. A shadow does not consistently grow in size because something is taken away from it; instead, its size depends on light and geometry. Only a hole behaves such that removing material around it enlarges it, which is why it is the established answer in reasoning books and puzzle collections.

Common Pitfalls:
Some learners choose debt because they think metaphorically about financial situations where making payments seems never ending. Others may overthink the role of shadows or queues. The essential clue is to look for a structure defined by absence rather than presence. Holes are defined by what is missing. Once you focus on that idea, the relationship between taking away material and increasing hole size becomes obvious and resolves the riddle in a satisfying way.

Final Answer:
The thing that gets bigger the more you take away from it is a hole in the ground.