Questions tagged [lateral-thinking]
A puzzle solved through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable only using logic.
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3 snails on a triangle. When will they all approach one another?
There are 3 snails at the vertices of an equilateral triangle of side length L.
Snail 1 crawls towards snail 2, snail 2 towards 3, and 3 towards 1. All snails crawl at the constant speed V.
If they ...
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Cracking the Cryptic Logo
The well-known Cracking The Cryptic YouTube channel has a logo consisting of 12 circles joined by 16 straight lines running horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
What is the significance of this ...
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The muddy water leaked into the campus
Sometimes, for whatever reason, you need to make a change.
Maybe something inside of you changed, and you want the outside to reflect it.
Maybe you want to change something from the outside in.
Maybe ...
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Aliens have landed!
Aliens from planet Stirwet have landed on earth! Being hyper-intelligent and possessing superior technology, they immediately took over.
After having a quick look around, they found humans and apes (...
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A cinematic masterpiece in matchsticks
Polanski's magnificent Chinatown (my all-time fourth favourite film) was produced among numerous other movies by Robert Evans, the second anniversary of whose death is today1.
What better excuse for a ...
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A semi truck weighing exactly 10,000 pounds
A semi truck weighing exactly 10,000 pounds gets onto a bridge that is 100 miles long. The bridge's actual weight limit (not the posted limit) is exactly 10,000 pounds; any more will break the bridge. ...
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A Loooooong Sequence of Calculations
$53466+25123+16334+86556+5856\cdot 32454+8565+2235+7067-2345\cdot 1086+|23457|+4754\cdot 89510+9523-3458-9234+84233-|947\cdot 137\cdot 98\cdot 142-407119|\cdot (-1024)\cdot 5^{10}+645\cdot 9814\cdot ...
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His ring and her digits
A young lady named Thea decided to change the traditional codes and asked her boyfriend to marry her at the Eiffel Tower.
As he loves puzzles, she said while showing him this text, "rightly ...
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Seventh System Shattered
By Jove! I just dropped my seventh calculator, and now it's telling me that a circle with an area of nothing has radius 3. You know that:
The calculator calculates perfectly well
The calculator's ...
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What language am I learning?
I arrive at the location I've agreed with my European friend, who is teaching me their native language. Today we're learning some history of their country.
But to aid in my learning, I've been banned ...
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A poorly approximated crossword
Today's crossword topic is flowers:
Across
Daffodils, erica, dogbane, ursi, candytuft and tithonia.
Daphne, eustoma, dianthus, orchid, ixia and dietes.
Down
Alstroemeria, dianella and day.
...
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How does 100 1000 become 200?
Turn these characters into 200:
100 1000
Using only one bit of information.
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They say that I am sexy - who am I?
Who am I?
They say that I am sexy
And that I'm a lady
I have four syllables
Only when said slowly
Hint #1
Hint #2
Hint #3
Hint #4
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It sounds all good until
If
4 + 4 = 8
10 - 5 = 5
5 x 1 = 5
8 - 1 = 7
2 + 4 = 7
Then,
8 / 1 = ?
Is it 6 or 7 ?
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A box of mutating birds
What is evolution but the result of countless mutations to genetic structures over time. Some mutations provide benefits such as the gift of flight, while others can be harmful, such as the burden of ...
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Twisted Timekeeping [closed]
Two office workers need to arrive at work at the exact same time. However that's not likely to happen because the only thing they use for telling the time is their watches and their timekeeping is a ...
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Arrange the wooden blocks in the box
Little Johnny is the naughtiest child in the kindergarden today. The kind who always wants more than the other children. When he saw that little Tim was playing with the same set of wooden blocks as ...
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Matchsticks: Fix the Equation
Here's a simple puzzle I just created:
Move just one matchstick to fix the next equation:
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You should mind your P's first
This should be short and sweet.
Given his strength, he must be the almighty. Given his health, he must use ointments. Given his status, should we board his ark?
Hint 1:
Hint 2:
Hint 3:
Hint 4:
...
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Hero Worms and The Minotaur
And so, Wormeus had a great time, eating every apple in sight, surviving several close calls with the Pink Lady Stickotaurs, respawning after the occasional horribly squishy death, exploring different ...
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Three riddles of a common (and repetitive) format
What do you call it when a historically discredited means of contraceptive is vindicated by new research?
I was just looking over my son's book report on speed reading strategies; what are you doing ...
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A splash of Minecraft?
I was playing Minecraft the other day and came across a beautiful splash message. Subsequently, I was inspired to create a puzzle for it.
Svir, look out below!
Shorty's slang stays surprisingly stout....
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What is my favorite color?
Oh the sweet joys of favoritism! I have another puzzle for the community; as always good luck to you all, and I hope you enjoy it!
Go to the bottom you'll see.
Rounded but right there with me.
...
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Eleven divided by two is two, and two plus four is seven. This is proven, it is as true as two equals three
Seemingly the title went unnoticed, it has some important logic:
Eleven divided by two is two, and two plus four is seven. This is proven, it is as true as two equals three
So, what is:
...
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How do you transport 42 cars?
You're a soldier in the dictator's army. The dictator is very impressed with your incredible abilities. He asks you this question:
There are 42 cars in this parking lot over there. How do you ...
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Four equations for the same number?
Using creative thinking can you show
9 = 4
9 = 8
9 = 14
9 = 24
All four equations follow the same logic/method.
While you are at it can you also show (same logic)
55 = 4
Hint:
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An international affair: Find the common property in incorrect equations
Chaos at the international conference for world leaders: What should have been a peaceful exchange of ideas for common growth quickly exploded into hostility shortly after the German speaker addressed ...
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He's a real mama's baby
Monday morning baby Alex awoke in his mother's loving embrace. His mother changed him, fed him, and snuggled him, which he of course loved. But when she went to get her coat and suitcase baby Alex ...
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You see what I am a part of every day, yet you never see me! What am I?
You see what I am a part of every day, yet you never see me! What am I?
Some clues?
A5: The big, flying GG around me.
B3: Red, yellow, green or blue will all work.
B4: Hit my head too hard :(
(It's my ...
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A Standard English Daily Routine
At 10:30, I shear some fleece.
At 13:30, I grow a foot.
At 16:00, I strut.
At 16:30, I look at my palm.
At 19:30, I set a trap.
What am I?
My first riddle involving lateral thinking, enjoy!
Subtle ...
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Doctor's Dilemma
I found the following puzzle by Martin Gardner in an archived copy of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. I've heard it before, but in a more vulgar setting, involving condoms instead of gloves. ...
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Non-sensical talk from a drunk man
Uncle John drinks a lot. Yesterday when he was drunk he saw something and told me:
A man put some threads in water and after his subsequent actions, residents of the house were captured and the ...
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Ten squares inside a rectangle
You are given 10 squares with side length of 1 to 10 units each. You want to put them in a rectangle such that there is no overlapping and no piece of a square
is outside the rectange. The sides of ...
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Girl is looking at an object
I remember this very old riddle involving lateral thinking.
Girl is looking at an object.
During the flow of the time, it is becoming thinner at one side and thicker at another.
What is she looking ...
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A rhyming riddle: "Line them up in order..."
Line them up in order,
And into teams as well.
Each of them’s a character,
Under someone’s spell.
Some have foreign accents
And put on different things:
A cute hat, something grave,
Tails and dots and ...
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Who has betrayed me?
Imagine my horror to discover that I'd been betrayed. I knew it was one among five of my most trusted inner circle, so I sent them this message:
Dear Anna, Bess, Chrissy, Diana, and Eva,
I know one ...
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Variation of 100 coins puzzle (no flipping) [closed]
You have 100 coins laying flat on a table, each with a head side and a tail side. 10 of them are heads up, 90 are tails up. You can't feel, see or in any other way find out which side is up. You ...
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Grandpa's Crazy Math. Yes? No?
"This is really straightforward if you are from the other side of the pond", said Grandpa.
"Put your lateral thinking hat on and prove this to me:
Yes x No = VIIX
Being from US, this ...
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How to Balance?
You are given a scale which has 4kg and 2kg stones on the left side and an 8kg stone on the right side of the scale. You have an additional 1kg. How will you balance the scale?
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What is the minimum number of helpers that an explorer need to cross the desert?
There is a desert which can be crossed only by walking and this takes six days. The explorers of the desert can carry at most four days' water and food. If they want, they can take helpers with them. ...
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A quickie for the cryptic crossword enthusiasts: Here is the clue. / Cut cut! / What crazy, bloodthirsty creature remains? (5 letters)
Here is the clue.
Cut cut!
What crazy, bloodthirsty creature remains? (5 letters)
EDIT I added the word 'crazy'. Apologies that I missed this out before.
Please use typical cryptic crossword ...
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How did the king pay the worker? [duplicate]
A humorous king pays his worker with one inch gold bar everyday. He had a $31$ inches gold bar and he paid the worker $31$ days of a month cutting it in just $4$ places. How is this possible?
Taken ...
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A variant of the doctor's dilemma
This puzzle is a variant of the Doctor's Dilemma.
There are two patients in a hospital (let's call them A and B), both of them need an operation by two different doctors (let's call them X and Y) ...
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Scientific Discovery Rebus Puzzle
What scientific discovery is represented by the following image?
NOTE: Some tags have been deliberately omitted since I don't wanna reveal too much 😊
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Make 93 using 2, 0, 2, 2 and a least powerful set of operations [closed]
Use some mathematical operations to make an expression equal 93.
You must use each one of the digits 2, 0, 2, 2 exactly once, and no other digits.
To score the solutions, your set of operations used ...
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My infix and suffix are given, but my prefix is not
My prefix is not known,
Rather it has some meaning or some mark,
But my suffix has magic powers,
And my infix depends on smart remark.
My whole is about choice, has a meaning or two.
Can you guess ...
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Can you find what I am?
Here's a simple affix-riddle .
My prefix is the sound of an animal.
My infix, the missing of the cast.
My suffix, what children like to hear.
My whole, deals with the past.
Can you guess the ...
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"Physical" height of an infinitely distant joint point
When driving along long straight roads, this is what you would typically see:
Photo by Luke Stackpoole on Unsplash
As you're probably aware, the solid lines on the sides of the road are parallel, in ...
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Odd numbers to Even numbers
Remember the old puzzle?
"Can you take just one letter out of an odd number and make it even?"
Note the clever wording. It just says make it even; not "make it an even number"...
...
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