Lateral thinking
1. You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus
An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
An old friend who once saved your life.
The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.
Knowing that there can only be one passenger in your car, whom would you choose?
Hint: You can make everyone happy.
Your car can only contain one passenger, so whom should it be?
Answer: The old lady of course! After helping the old lady into the car, you can give your keys to your friend, and wait with your perfect partner for the bus
2. How could a baby fall out of a twenty-story building onto the ground and live?
Hint: It does not matter what the baby lands on, and it has nothing to do with luck.
Answer: The baby fell out of a ground floor window.
3. A man and his son are in a car crash. The father is killed and the child is taken to hospital gravely injured. When he gets there, the surgeon says, 'I can't operate on this boy - for he is my son!!!' How can this possibly be?
Hint: This has nothing to do with adoption or time travel.
Answer: The surgeon can not operate on her own son; she is his mother.
4. The Waiter
Three men in a cafe order a meal the total cost of which is $15. They each contribute $5. The waiter takes the money to the chef who recognizes the three as friends and asks the waiter to return $5 to the men.
The waiter is not only poor at mathematics but dishonest and instead of going to the trouble of splitting the $5 between the three he simply gives them $1 each and pockets the remaining $2 for himself.
Now, each of the men effectively paid $4, the total paid is therefore $12. Add the $2 in the waiters pocket and this comes to $14.....where has the other $1 gone from the original $15?
Answer:
The payments should equal the receipts. It does not make sense to add what was paid by the men ($12) to what was received from that payment by the waiter ($2)
Although the initial bill was $15 dollars, one of the five dollar notes gets changed into five ones. The total the three men ultimately paid is $12, as they get three ones back. So from the $12 the men paid, the owner receives $10 and the waiter receives the $2 difference. $15 - $3 = $10 + $2
5. The Boxes
There are three boxes. one is labeled "APPLES" another is labeled "ORANGES". The last one is labeled "APPLES AND ORANGES". You know that each is labeled incorrectly. You may ask me to pick one fruit from one box which you choose.
How can you label the boxes correctly?
Answer:
Pick from the one labeled "Apples & Oranges". This box must contain either only apples or only oranges.
E.g. if you find an Orange, label the box Orange, then change the Oranges box to Apples, and the Apples box to "Apples & Oranges"
6.The Double Jeopardy Doors
You are trapped in a room with two doors. one leads to certain death and the other leads to freedom. You don't know which is which.
There are two robots guarding the doors. They will let you choose one door but upon doing so you must go through it.
You can, however, ask one robot one question. The problem is one robot always tells the truth ,the other always lies and you don't know which is which.
What is the question you ask?
Hint: The two robots know each others personality. That they talk when they're bored, lonely, etc. Try to get the two robots to cancel their evil & good ways out.
Answer: Ask one robot what the other robot would say, if it was asked which door was safe. Then go through the other door.
7. The Frog
A frog is at the bottom of a 30 meter well. Each day he summons enough energy for one 3 meter leap up the well. Exhausted, he then hangs there for the rest of the day. At night, while he is asleep, he slips 2 meters backwards. How many days does it take him to escape from the well?
Note: Assume after the first leap that his hind legs are exactly three meters up the well. His hind legs must clear the well for him to escape.
Hint: Try to think the problem through for a five meter well. Now what is the solution for the 30 meter well?
Answer: 28
Each day he makes it up another meter, and then on the twenty seventh day he can leap three meters and climb out.
8. The Socks
Cathy has six pairs of black socks and six pairs of white socks in her drawer.
In complete darkness, and without looking, how many socks must she take from the drawer in order to be sure to get a pair that match?
Answer: 3
Socks do not come in in left and right, so any black will pair with any other black and any white will pair with any other white. If you have three socks and they are either colored black or white, then you will have at least two socks of the same color, giving you one matching pair.
9. There is something about Mary
Mary's mum has four children.
The first child is called April.
The second May.
The third June.
What is the name of the fourth child?
Answer: Mary.
Mary's mothers fourth child was Mary herself.
10. (사실에 기초) Many shops have prices set just under a round figure, e.g. $9.99 instead of $10.00 or $99.95 instead of $100.00 . It is assumed that this is done because the price seems lower to the consumer. But this is not the reason the practice started. What was the original reason for this pricing method?
Answer: The practice originated to ensure that the clerk had to open the till and give change for each transaction, thus recording the sale and preventing him from pocketing the bank notes.