questions that make you think deeply
Answers
Someone falls out of a thirty story building, but lives. With luck and their landing pad not being factors, how could they have survived the fall?
Question #2
There are a dozen eggs in a carton. Twelve people each take a single egg, but there is one egg left in the carton. How?
Question #3
A boat has a ladder that’s ten feet long, and hangs off the side of the boat, with its last two feet submerged in water. If the ocean tide rises five feet, how much of the ladder will be underwater?
Question #4
There are ten birds perched on a fence. A farmer aims his rifle and shoots one. How many birds are left?
Question #5
What weighs more – 100 pounds of feathers, or 100 pounds of quarters?
Question #6
Which countries have the 4th of July out of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, and Canada?
Question #7
If you were alone in a dark cabin, with only one match and a lamp, a fireplace, and a candle to choose from, which would you light first?
ANSWERS
Answer #1
The person fell out of the first-story window. A critical thinker might try to identify possible landing pads that would allow survival of a thirty-story fall, but the lateral thinker will realize that the story did not specify what floor the person fell out of. They can safely, within the logic of the story, conclude that the person fell out of a ground floor window.
Answer #2
The last person took the carton with the egg inside. Since everyone else in the story takes a single egg, the last person taking the whole carton is a new, but not impossible.
Answer #3
Two feet. If the ocean rises, so will the boat, and the amount of ladder under the water will remain the same. A critical thinker might be tempted to work out the math in this obvious trick question, but a lateral thinker will spot the attempt at misconstruction.
Answer #4
One – the dead bird that the farmer shot. This is another trick question. Some people might want to answer seven, since the farmer only shot one bird, while others might want to twist the story and suggest the farmer indirectly killed the others while just firing a single bullet. The correct answer is one, because after the farmer fires a single shot, the other birds fly away, startled.
Answer #5
They weigh the same – 100 pounds.
Answer #6
They all have the 4th of July. This question is a trick that will likely work only on Americans, since in the United States, the “4th of July” is a holiday also known as Independence Day. Their first train of thought when hearing “4th of July” will likely equate it with the holiday, making the easy answer “the United States.” Really, all countries “have” the 4th of July, since it’s just another day on the calendar.
Answer #7
You would light the match first. Without it, you couldn’t light any of the other appliances.