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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Totally not spam; don't delete me
Thanks for registering for our super-not-spam mailing list! We'll let you unsubscribe if you can find a super-special password!
Here are the criteria for the password:
Matches the following regex ...
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Knights of the Square Table
I am of the order of the valiant Knights of the Square Table, an elite fraternity—far more so than those so-called Knights of the Round Table. There are so many of them, but only two of us! I serve my ...
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Strange addition
Professor Devonshire was losing his marbles, Dr. Wallaby thought, staring at the equations filling the board in Dr. Devonshire’s office. What kind of addition was this?
1+1 = 6
2+1 = 6
1+6 = 6
2+6 = 6
...
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Larry and Laura Literal
Larry Literal loved Laura Literal, his lovely long-suffering wife. They'd lived together as husband and wife 50 long years. Longing to live near long-lost loved ones, they'd recently re-located to a ...
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Cryptobiology? Biocryptology?
I have a friend who is a self-proclaimed cryptobiologist. Okay, maybe I don't, but if I did, I like to think she would have presented me with this puzzle:
Find the hidden message:
441344•...
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Easy Riddles #1 - Who lives in the white house?
Mr. Blue lives in the blue house, Mr. Pink lives in the pink house, and Mr. Brown lives in the brown house. Who lives in the white house?
I don't know why, but I'm obsessed with easy riddles.
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Who is the only pre-teen that has traveled to outer space?
Who is the only pre-teen that has traveled to outer space? Sort of a trick question. But also not quite a trick question. This is a person, not a dog or chimpanzee or other animal.
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Don't Pair Program a Puzzle
My friend William and I wanted to make a word search (number search?) of five digit numbers in a 5x5 grid, filling all spaces to form 12 clues.
To simplify things, we decided we would add a single ...
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Blindly choosing a ball from a bag [closed]
You are blindfolded. You are handed a bag and told that there are three balls and two cubes, all of which are the same size and are equally likely to be chosen. You blindly choose one of the items ...
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What is the next number in the series?
What is the next number of this series?
1 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 9 , 11 ?
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Bizarre number sequence
My friend sent me this tricky puzzle...
Please explain the reason for the mistake in the number sequence - what is it trying to communicate?
8139, 8140, 8141, 5493, 8143, 8144
Hints:
1.
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Does this equation make sense?
"The two sides of this equation appear to be different, don't they?" asked Grandpa
I looked at the numbers he had written on a piece of paper and nodded in agreement.
2011 = 1012
"Can ...
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A fun lateral-thinking Chess puzzle [closed]
Which famous movie is suggested by the following chess position (by Trevor Tao)?
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Fun with Letters, Words and Sentences? [closed]
I have a game, but first, I need to explain how it works.
Take a sentence, completely meaningful. Suppose the sentence is, "Yes, yesterday we ate the meal sometime at night".
In this ...
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That's fine, most of my family doesn't want to acknowledge being related to me either [closed]
Today I share a 100% true story from my past.
I use to meet my little brother to eat together with him regularly, but any time his friends or others that knew him would meet me the conversation always ...
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Ma turned 34 in 2002. Really?
My friend said to me:
“In February of the year 1970 at 1:12 AM Ma turned 18. Ma turned 34 in
February of the year 2002 at 2:16 AM. How is this possible?”
“And yes. Same Ma!” he ended with that.
Hint
...
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With a little effort, one can prevail
What is common between the following words and names?
(Inspired by this except that I actually know the answer to this one)
Defeat
Kleenex?
Guanaco
Nerdiest
Sardar
Ian McKellen
Dingo
Gun
Diablo
...
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A Matchstick puzzle with a little twist
Here is a matchstick puzzle with TWO (possibly more) solutions.
There are two types of matchsticks.
1 Short (eight and = sign) Total 9
2 Long ( All ones) Total 4
Please move 3 matchsticks and ...
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A talk with Four Brothers
Once upon a time, on going to the small park nearby to take some fresh air, I met four quite peculiar brothers and had a talk with them. Each had a different story to tell.
The first two brothers ...
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Stop the robot by changing value of variable Z
You're a computer security expert (i.e a hacker who doesn't break law). Your neighbour is infamous professor MacGoofy himself. He specializes in designing programming languages and programming ...
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An X-Mensa dq question
Which of the numbers should fill in the ?.
4, 3, 4, 7, 0, 45, 7, 15, 64, 0, 1111, 55, 5, 5, 0, 20, 32, 1, ?
a) 2
b) 0
c) 20
d) 1
Hints:
1.
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Found the key, but what to unlock?
Here's a series of text messages between me and my friend.
Me: Couldn't use ebg13, so used ______ to hide my messages.
Him: What? How is this possible???
Me: A big prime ______, what else did you ...
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People have many things to say about me
You could say I'm straight, or you could say I'm gay.
You could say I'm a virgin, or you could say I've had sex.
You could say I've always been the youngest of my family, or you could say I had a ...
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Ohh, NSA Again? #2
This puzzle is the second part of story Ohh, NSA again?. Hope like this story. Here it is:
John got the target, it was Stack. Problem is, it can be Stack Overflow or Stack Exchange.
Another problem ...
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One more heart that never beats
It is from the Internet, I changed it a bit, I will put the link after it is answered.
I have a heart that never beats,
I have a home but I never sleep.
I can take a mans house and build anothers,
...
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The Strange Conversation
One morning, I was riding along my bicycle around town and I stopped outside the shopping center as there were 2 old-persons, one man and one woman (let's call them A and B) standing outside and ...
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A No - Sensa IQ Question?
“This is a Non-sensa IQ Test Question,” said Grandpa giggling.
“It is not math but there may be some science behind it.
If
X is 527 and
I is 810 Then,
IX is?
A: 2810
B: 75310
C: 110
D: A or B
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Why are the tires flat on one side?
I have a long commute, so I spend a lot of time staring at the cars ahead of me. One unusual thing I've observed is that on most cars the left-hand side tires look like they have less air than the ...
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A function. Really?
If you give me a 5, I give you a 21.
If you give me a 6, I give you a 2.
If you give me a 7, I give you a 12.
If you give me a 10, I give you a 101.
What am I processing to get the result?
Hint 1
...
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Oh no, not again
I wanted to say something, but I forget what it was. Can you help me?
10 - [A-z] (-2)
255 - #beginningfirst00
15 - Period.
0 - You forgot one. You forgot one. Since every beginning has an end,
let's ...
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Who drinks beer while running anyway?
A variant (I don't have the book in front of me, so this is a paraphrase) of this puzzle was in the book Brainteasers and Mindbenders, by Robert Hamilton. It has stuck in my mind since I read it in ...
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Scoring a grid
As a professor of Awesomeness at the prestigious Ad Hoc University (other questions in this series), I decided to assign my students this puzzle. Unfortunately, they were all unable to get it! I want ...
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Matchsticks 9 + 9 = 8 [closed]
You are given the wrong equation (made out of matchsticks) 9 + 9 = 8 and you can move at most 3 matches. Your aim is to find all possible correct equations. Selected answer will be one that discovers ...
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2 + 2 = Fish. Who am I?
This is a simple problem that my friend asked me:
2 + 2 = Fish
3 + 3 = Eight
7 + 7 = ?
Can you figure out what is represented by the question mark?
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It's been a while hasn't it?
Why can't I say hello? Anyways, it's Emma!
I know it's been a while, but I've been busy with work, and life, and I haven't had much free time lately.
With that in mind though, I've got a new puzzle!
...
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Who is a zombie amongst the 3 and why?
Here is a picture of $3$ people eating food.
Can you spot who is a zombie amongst them? and why?
Taken From :- 7-Second Riddles
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The unknown wheat-and-chessboard problem
You can read the original story of the Wheat and Chessboard problem on Wikipedia. (But you won't get anything useful from it :))
An eternity after the original ...
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Murder on the Fairway
A body has been found at the Green Estates Fairway. Next to the body was a bloody golf club which was later confirmed by the medical examiner to be the murder weapon. Thankfully, only ten men ...
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Old Bob is ill : Said Grandpa
“Darn good computer, this new one I just got. So you can have my old one”, said Grandpa to my sister.
I was impressed, but a bit cynical. “What’s the catch?”
Grandpa smiled. “Just guess the 4 letter ...
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It's your turn now!
What is the simple rule behind these three relations below?
$F$ $\rightarrow$ $C$ :: $R$ $\rightarrow$ $I$ $\rightarrow$ $\sqrt{F}$ ::
$IA$ $\rightarrow$ $D$
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What is the snake trying to tell us?
My friend's pet snake told this below message to us...
What is the message it is trying to tell us? What is the pattern?
PL,MKOIJNBHUYGVCFTRDXZSEWAQ
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What should the captive say? [duplicate]
You are lost in a jungle and suddenly get caught by a tribal group who are cannibals. They keep you captive and however think of offering you a second chance to save your life.
Their leader says- &...
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Sudoku Logic From Another Planet
This is the brutally hard Tatooine Sunset Sudoku puzzle by Philip Newman ... except the Noble Happy Star has goofed! Two of the digits have been swapped and there are multiple solutions. Fortunately, ...
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Fit the board into the hole
How can you divide the board into exactly $2$ equally-shaped and sized pieces such that it fits the hole?
Bonus: Can you do the same problem in $3$ pieces, such that one of the pieces of the board ...
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Was someone there in the room, or it was just an illusion? [closed]
We were a very happy family of $3$ members, me and my mother and father. Sometimes my parents would go outside to visit my grandmother and I used to live alone freely, doing my work and reading ...
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Matchstick Problem: Turn 1 into 12 by removing a matchstick [closed]
Below are some matchsticks arranged to display an expression.
Your task is to remove one matchstick so that the resulting value of the expression will be twelve.
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A Creepy Birthday Party
A little girl was invited to her friend's birthday party. After blowing out the candles and eating the cake, the children went out to play in the garden. The little girl's mother stayed in the kitchen ...
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Checkmate all the kings #2
Following the rules created by Lord of dark in this puzzle, the idea is to find the minimum number of consecutive white moves to checkmate all the black kings (in this case just 1). You cannot make a ...
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What kind of car do I have?
What kind of car do I have?
The clue words:
stories, robbery, rock, minimum, old, ducks
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