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I am not sure if you have heard these before. If you haven't, then solving these can be real fun. If you already know the solutions, then I suggest that you can give some time for the others to reply to the post. I can post the replies to these puzzles in 2 days from now, giving ample time for everyone to discuss the solutions (for those who have not heard them).

1. There is a man that 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 that 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 too but somehow manages to stop in time. How did the driver see the man?

4. Title: The Elder Twin
One day Kerry celebrated her birthday. Two days later her older twin brother, Terry, celebrated his birthday. Why?

5. Title: Manhole Covers
Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones?
(This is logical rather than lateral, but it is a good puzzle, which can be solved by lateral thinking techniques. It is supposedly used by M$ as an interview question for prospective employees.)

6. Title: The Deadly Party
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. Title: Heaven
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. Title: Trouble with Sons
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. Title: The Man in the Bar
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 has 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. You are participating in a race. You overtake the second. What position do you finish?

11. You are participating in a race. ...If you overtake the last then you arrive...?

12. Once there was loving couple travelling in a bus in a mountainous area. They wanted to get down at some place. The couple disembarked the bus and it moved on. As the bus moved on a humongous rock fell on the bus from a mountain and crushed the bus to crumbs. Everybody on board was killed. The couple upon seeing that, said, "We wish we could be on that bus?" Why did they say that?

Enjoy...

Love is blind, but marriage is a real eye opener.

STOP reading if you want to solve the questions by yourself, I'm explaining two of them :-)

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?

Oh, this one's so old and easy: It's the mother of course (it's told only women can solve this enigma ;-)

Title: The Deadly Party
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?

I know the solution because we had an evening in WG asking many of those question. It's really so easy but none knew the answer, I like it :-) Did you find it on Internet? Oh, I just have to solve this, too. Null knows the solution, too so... :-)

The poison was in the ice cubes which were melting only after the man had gone. :-)

OK, I'll leave the rest for the others :-)

"Sie wollen nichts anderes. Sie wollen kämpfen! Sie sind Soldaten! Fucking Wahnsinnige!" - Noel G.

Yup, your answers are correct.

Did you find it on Internet?

I had got this in a mail 5 years back. Spent some nice fun-filled 4-5 hours trying to solve them. Got 4 out of 12 correct, had some nice explanations for the rest of them, unfortunately incorrect ones :)! It has been doing the rounds in mails for quite some time now, I think for decades. As soon as I got this today, I thought of posting it.

Yes, you can get these and more such type of questions on the internet. And, you can get the answers too over the net, but I guess, it is more fun when trying to solve them yourself.

Love is blind, but marriage is a real eye opener.

12 has me stumped. I have three different answers for number 5, all of which are plausible and each of which represents a completely different viewpoint, but I'm not sure which one is the "right" one.

I have the rest, I'm pretty sure.

As for number 12, I can only guess that the answer is too strange for me to figure out. I'll keep thinking about it. Perhaps the couple was going up the mountain in order to commit suicide, and now they have to hike a bit before they can accomplish it.

By the way, the first one assumes a bit too much to be really plausible, which makes it that much tougher to figure out (I have it, but I won't disclose the answer to the group).

Here's why this isn't plausible:

Is the man always the only one in the elevator when he gets home from work? If he lives in an extremely tall building, that is awfully unlikely. Also, since when does he have to wait for it to rain to overcome this major inconvenience? I'll not say any more than that. ;)

I will be interested to see the canonical answers.

C

Sig Wanted -- Apply Within

Is the man always the only one in the elevator when he gets home from work?

I agree with you Chris, the answer to the elevator problem does not seem to be plausible based on the assumptions. But, then again, maybe the person is working on a night-shift, and when he comes back to home from work, then he is the only one in the elevator!

Also, since when does he have to wait for it to rain to overcome this major inconvenience?

Maybe he doesn't want to be the odd one out when it's not raining ;-).

I'll not say any more than that.

Neither will I :).

Love is blind, but marriage is a real eye opener.

Perhaps the couple was going up the mountain in order to commit suicide, and now they have to hike a bit before they can accomplish it.

Not even close! :) But good try, though!

Love is blind, but marriage is a real eye opener.

I figured out the 12th one:

If the couple had not been dropped off, the bus would have been further along the road (because it would not have stopped) and thus not been hit by the rock, saving thousands (I exaggerate) of lives.

C

Sig Wanted -- Apply Within

This post was edited by chris on May 24, 2002.

Good work Chris! That indeed is the right answer.

Love is blind, but marriage is a real eye opener.

1) You are standing at the edge of a completely sheer chasm 100 meters across and 100 meters high. It is infinitely long. All of the ground that you can see is flat and smooth. You have access to as much rope as you need. How do you cross?

2) A square hole in the ground 10x10 meters has a square island in the center that is 5x5 meters. You have only two boards, each 2.4 meters long by 10 centimeters wide, and nothing to bind them together with. How do you get from the edge of the hole to the island inside?

Have fun!

C

Sig Wanted -- Apply Within

Okay, I think I got the second one. Not before spending a lot of time on it though. I think what we can do is keep a lot of weight (more then my weight, if I am the one who is going to cross over to the island), on one of the boards. The board will be hanging in between. Place the other board on top of this board. Now, when I try to cross towards the other side, the other board is not going to fall, because it is supported by the first board, which is in turn supported by some weight. Once I reach to the other side, to be on safe side I can put some weight on the other board too. Am I right? Is this the answer you were looking for?

For the first question, I could not figure out anything. If it was not a flat land, and if only there was a tree around, we could use the ropes to tie to the tree, and somehow build a rope bridge across the chasm. Not sure how to go about solving this when there is nothing in the sight, and just plain smooth and flat land on either side!

Love is blind, but marriage is a real eye opener.