t’s the most complex, intricate piece of machinery in the known universe, yet most of us pay more attention to maintaining our cars.
“Machinery” is too clunky a word to do it justice. “Supercomputer” is better, but even that doesn’t come close. Your brain is where You live. When it fails, not only are all your physical and mental skills in jeopardy, but the very essence of who you are.
Let the mind games begin!
Riddles and puzzles are fun – but they also stretch your brain and make you look at things from a different angle. Here are some classic puzzles that test your brain’s ability to think creatively, logically and visually
Lateral thinking
“Lateral thinking” means problem-solving using an indirect, unexpected and creative approach. The term was first used by writer Edward de Bono in his 1967 book, New Think: The Use of Lateral Thinking.
1. Murder mystery
The police get a phone call telling them a murderer is at a particular address. All they know about the culprit is his name: Wayne. When they get to the house, they find four people: a truck driver, a fireman, a mechanic and a carpenter. Without knowing what the murderer looks like, they arrest the fireman. Why?
2. Shared birthday
A woman has two daughters. They were both born in the same year, on the same day, in the same hour. But they’re not twins. How is this possible?
3. Gun sense
A woman walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun and points it at the woman. She thanks him and leaves. What happened?
4. Lift or stairs?
A man lives on the tenth floor of a building. Every day he goes down in the lift to go to work, but when he gets back he only takes the lift to the seventh floor, then gets out and walks the rest of the way. Why?
Eye-brain skills
These puzzles give your eye-brain connection a workout.
5. Perfect equality
Your eccentric aunt Matilda gives you a delicious chocolate cake for your birthday – on condition that you only use three cuts to slice it up. You have to share the cake equally between eight people at the party. How do you manage it?
6. The Stroop Test
Out loud, as fast as you can, name the colours in which these words are printed. Time yourself.
Green Blue Red Purple Blue Purple
Now do the same with this list:
Blue Green Purple Red Purple Green
Notice the difference?
- Compiled by Olivia Rose-Innes, Health24, June 2011
References
Stroop, John Ridley (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology 18 (6): 643–662.
http://www.health24.com/mind/Memory_and_cognition/1284-1297,63741.asp
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If you have any brain teasers, please share it with us!
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Chris
Jim and Jane are lying dead in a small pool of water on the ground. Next to them is broken glass and a cricket ball, what happened?
PS I will post the answer tomorrow, but please give your ideas
PPS I will also add another brain teaser tomorrow so be sure to sign up to receive updates from this post.
Chris
Answer to yesterday’s brain teaser…. Jim and Jane are gold fishes (don’t you give your pets names?), and the cricket ball hit the fishbowl!
As promised another brain teaser:
“A group of mountaineers discovered a cave high on top of a frozen mountain, inside the cave they discovered the bodies of Adam and Eve, how do they know for sure it is Adam and Eve?”
Hint: Think logically but keep the Christian history in mind
Best of luck I will post the answer tomorrow.
admin
Thanks for the postings Chris, our guess would be that they wore fig leaves?
Chris
Sorry guys, anyone could have frozen to death in fig leaves
The answer to yesterday’s brain teaser… Adam and Eve had no navels because they were never born!
I have another one:
“What has four legs, then two legs and then 3 legs?”
Will post the answer next week
to give you the whole weekend to think about it.
Chris
Morning All,
The answer to last weeks’ brain teaser is… a human! We crawl on four legs when we are babies, then walk straight on 2 legs when we grow up, and when we are old we walk with a walking stick!
Hope you enjoyed it!
admin
Thanks for all the brain teasers, hopefully it stimulated some of our readers’ minds.
admin
We have another brain teaser for you:
The famous hat designer, Guido, wants to give presents to his three favourite supermodels, Anastasia, Babette and Kiki – but he’s not going to make it easy for them.
First, he shows them five gorgeous hats: three red and two purple. Then he blindfolds the models and makes them stand in a row, one behind the other, all facing the same way. He puts a hat on each of their heads. Each woman can see the model(s) in front of her, but not her own hat or anything behind her.
“Darlings,” says Guido, “If you can name the colour of the hat you’re wearing, you get to keep it!”
Anastasia says she doesn’t know the colour of her own hat. Babette, too, admits defeat. But clever Kiki immediately knows what colour hat she’s wearing. How does Kiki know? And what colour is her hat?
We will post the answer next week.
admin
Kiki’s hat is red, because she can see the 2 models in front of her wearing the 2 purple hats, she knows that the only color hat remaining is red.
Note: It proves not all models are dumb!
admin
We have found another brain teaser for you…
A man lives all alone. One night he unwisely gets very drunk, but manages to go upstairs, switch off the light, get into bed and fall asleep. The next morning, he wakes up, turns on the radio and is horrified to learn that he’s caused the tragic deaths of hundreds of people. What could be the explanation?
We will post the answer next week if no one can provide us with it.
Chris
He’s a light house keeper?
admin
Very good Chris, Light house keeper is the correct answer.
A ship wrecked with hundreds of people on.