-Caveat Lector-
FWD:
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CLASSIC LATERAL THINKING EXERCISES (?)
Try these to loosen up the old brain cells.
1. There is a man who lives on the top floor of a very tall building.
Everyday he gets the elevator down to the ground floor to leave the
building to go to work. Upon returning from work though, he can only
travel half way up in the lift and has to walk the rest of the way unless
it's raining! Why?
This is probably the best known and most celebrated of all lateral
thinking puzzles. It is a true classic. Although there are many possible
solutions which fit the initial conditions, only the canonical answer is
truly satisfying.
2. A man and his son are in a car accident. The father dies on the
scene, but the child is rushed to the hospital. When he arrives the surgeon
says, "I can't operate on this boy, he is my son!" How can this be?
3. A man is wearing black. Black shoes, socks, trousers, jumper, gloves
and balaclava. He is walking down a black street with all the street lamps
off. A black car is coming towards him with its light off but somehow
manages to stop in time. How did the driver see the man?
4. One day Kerry celebrated her birthday. Two days later her older twin
brother, Terry, celebrated his birthday. How?
5. Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones?
This is logical rather than lateral, but it is a good puzzle that can be
solved by lateral thinking techniques. It is supposedly used by a very
well-known software company as an interview question for prospective
employees.
6. A man went to a party and drank some of the punch. He then left
early. Everyone else at the party who drank the punch subsequently
died of poisoning.
Why did the man not die?
7. A man died and went to Heaven. There were thousands of other people
there. They were all naked and all looked as they did at the age of 21.
He looked around to see if there was anyone he recognized. He saw
a couple and he knew immediately that they were Adam and Eve.
How did he know?
8. A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of
the same year. But they were not twins. How could this be so?
9. A man walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water.
The barman pulls out a gun and points it at the man. The man says
'Thank you' and walks out.
This puzzle claims to be the best of the genre. It is simple in its
statement, absolutely baffling and yet with a completely satisfying
solution.
Most people struggle very hard to solve this one yet they like the
answer when they hear it or have the satisfaction of figuring it out.
OKAY. Give Up? Here are the answers.
SOLUTIONS
1. The man is very, very short and can only reach halfway up the
elevator buttons. However, if it is raining then he will have his
umbrella with him and can press the higher buttons with it.
2. The surgeon was his mother.
3. It was day time.
4. At the time she went into labor, the mother of the twins was
traveling by boat. The older twin, Terry, was born first early
on March 1st. The boat then crossed a time zone and Kerry,
the younger twin, was born on February the 28th. Therefore,
the younger twin celebrates her birthday two days before her
older brother.
5. A square manhole cover can be turned and dropped down the diagonal
of the manhole. A round manhole cannot be dropped down the manhole.
So for safety and practicality, all manhole covers should be round.
6. The poison in the punch came from the ice cubes. When the man drank
the punch, the ice was fully frozen. Gradually it melted, poisoning the
punch.
7. He recognized Adam and Eve as the only people without navels.
Because they were not born of women, they had never had umbilical
cords and therefore they never had navels. This one seems perfectly
logical but it can sometimes spark fierce theological arguments.
8. They were two of a set of triplets (or quadruplets, etc.). This
puzzle stumps many people. They try outlandish solutions involving
test-tube babies or surrogate mothers. Why does the brain search
for complex solutions when there is a much simpler one available?
9. The man had hiccups. The barman recognized this from his speech and
drew the gun in order to give him a shock. It worked and cured the
hiccups-so the man no longer needed the water.
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"From the rage of today's downtrodden comes the revenge of tomorrow's
revolutionary force." Edward Britton ><>
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5285/connector1.html
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