Classic Lateral Thinking Exercises
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*Test yourself with these thinking exercises. The solutions are at the
bottom of the page. **Don't be lazy. Try hard to figure these out before
you look! It'll be a lot more satisfying. *
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, coat, gloves
and ski mask. He is walking down a back 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.
*
10. *A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three
rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins
with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions that haven't eaten in 3
years. Which room is safest for him? *
11. *A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him under water for over
5 minutes. Finally, she hangs him. But 5 minutes later they both go out
together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How can this be? *
12. *There are two plastic jugs filled with water. How could you put all
of this water into a barrel, without using the jugs or any dividers, and
still tell which water came from which jug? *
13. *What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when
you throw it away? *
14. *Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday? (or day names in
any other language) *
15. *This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious how quickly you can find
out what is so unusual about it. It looks so plain you would think nothing
was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is unusual though.
Study it, and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But
if you work at it a bit, you might find out. *
*The solutions are below. Don't be lazy. Try hard to figure these out
before you look!*
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*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. (Just what a HUMOR list
needs!!) ;^) *
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. The is a simple puzzle to
state but a difficult one to solve. It is a perfect example of a seemingly
irrational and incongruous situation having a simple and complete
explanation. Amazingly this classic puzzle seems to work in different
cultures and languages. *
10. *The third. Lions that haven't eaten in three years are dead. *
11. *The woman was a photographer. She shot a picture of her husband,
developed it, and hung it up to dry. *
12. *Freeze them first. Take them out of the jugs and put the ice in the
barrel. You will be able to tell which water came from which jug. *
13. *The answer is Charcoal. *
14. *Sure you can: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow! *
15. *The letter "e," which is the most common letter in the English
language, does not appear once in the long paragraph... *
*Alternate Solutions*
*Kyle Power offers several alternate solutions that fit and that are
actually simpler, thus meeting Occam's Razor. (when presented with two
explanations, the simpler of the two is probably the correct one)*
1. *Because one of them did not necessarily celebrate their birthday on
the day they were born, but celebrated later or earlier. Much simpler than
having Mom giving birth while crossing the International Date Line and
tossing in a Leap Year and the like. Needlessly complicated.*
2. *Because he was the one who put the poison in the punch. Of course he
wouldn't drink any *after* he poisoned it. Who goes to the effort of making
poison ice cubes, except Bond villains and those bad guys in the
"Encyclopedia Brown" mystery stories we read in elementary school?*
3. *Because they were adopted. It's a coincidence they were born on the
same exact day. OK, so Occam's Razor could be applied equally to both
solutions...*
*Other alternate solutions offered:*
1. *Elaine wrote: There's another good answer to the gent in black being
seen by the black car. (#3) Both were lit by the headlights of a car coming
the other way.*
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*வாழிய செந்தமிழ்! வாழ்க நற்றமிழர்!
**வாழிய பாரதமணித் திருநாடு!
*
