Lateral thinking
11. (사실에 기초) The famous 'Penny Black', the world's first postage stamp, was introduced in England in 1840. The idea of postage stamps was a great success and was taken up worldwide. Yet the 'Penny Black' was in use for only one year before it was replaced by the 'Penny Red'. Why?
Hint: The reason still makes sense today, which is why you rarely see black stamps.
Answer: The postmark used at that time was always black. It was therefore difficult to tell whether a stamp had been franked or not. This led to people re-using used stamps. on a 'Penny Red' the black postmark was clearly visible.
12. (사실에 기초) An American nightclub called 'The Coconut Grove' had a terrible fire in which over 400 people died. A simple design flaw in the building led to the death toll being so high. Subsequently, regulations were changed to ensure that all public buildings throughout the country eliminated this one detail which proved so deadly. What was it?
Answer: The doors at 'The Coconut Grove' opened inward. In the mad panic to escape the fire, people were crushed against the doors and could not pull them open. After 'The Coconut Grove' disaster in 1942, all public buildings had to have doors which opened outward.
13. A woman has incontrovertible proof in court that her husband was murdered by her sister. Both the woman and her sister are before the Judge. The judge declares, "This is the strangest case I've ever seen. Though it's a cut-and-dried case, this woman before me cannot be punished." How can this possibly be?
Hint: The sister is alive and so could technically speaking be punished, but although probably not by the laws of any western judicial systems.
Answer: The sisters are Siamese twins.
14. A man was driving alone in his car when he spun off the road at high speed. He crashed through a fence and bounced down a steep ravine before the car plunged into a fast flowing river. As the car slowly settled in the river, the man realized that his arm was broken and that he could not release his seat belt and get out of the car. The car sank to the bottom of the river. He was trapped in the car. Rescuers arrived two hours later, yet they found him still in the river, but alive. How come?
Answer: The water in the river only came up to the man's chest.
15. A man buys rice at $1 a pound from American growers and sells them at $0.05 a pound in India. As a result of this he becomes a millionaire. How come?
Hint: This really could happen, and probably does in some form or other.
Answer: The man is a philanthropist who bought great quantities of rice to sell to poor people at prices they could afford. He started out as a billionaire, but lost so much money in his good works that he became a millionaire!
16. A New York city hairdresser recently said that he would rather cut the hair of three Canadians than one New Yorker. Why?
Answer: Because he would earn three times as much money!
17. Mr. Dodgers and the children in the neighbourhood are raking leaves at Mr. Dodger's house. They have three piles of leaves in the back yard, and seven piles of leaves in the front yard. When Mr. Dodgers and the children put all the piles together, how many piles of leaves will they have?
ANSWER:
One big pile.
18. Mel Colly stared through the dirty soot-smeared window on the 26th floor of the office tower. Overcome with depression he slid the window open and jumped through it. It was a sheer drop outside the building to the ground. Miraculously after he landed he was completely unhurt. Since there was nothing to cushion his fall or slow his descent, how could he have survived?
ANSWER:
Mel Colly was so sick and tired of window washing, he opened the window and jumped inside.
19. Two cars made their way along the winding country road and came to an abrupt stop at the park's gate. Seven men got out of the two cars and were walking along a footpath when it began to rain. Six of the men began to walk faster to get out of the rain but the seventh man couldn't be bothered. Ironically it was the seventh man who remained dry and the other six got soaked. Since all seven men arrived at their destination together, how was this possible?
ANSWER:
The six men were carrying the seventh man in a coffin.
20. There are seven coins which look identical. one of the seven coins weighs slightly less than the other six. Using a balance scale, how could you determine which is the light coin in just two weighings?
ANSWER:
Minimum is two weighings. Weigh three coins against three coins. If they balance, the lighter coin is the seventh one, not on the scales. If they don't balance, take the lighter three coins, and weigh one against one. Again, if they balance, the lighter coin is the one off the scale, otherwise, it is the coin on the lighter side.