how smart?

[QrioCT]

i wanna c how smart intps really are. ;D

post brainteasers(original or heard elsewhere), wait a while for people to respond and post the answer if no one was clever enough to get it for while.

Here's mine:

1. (from a website)You own two shoe factories faraway from each other. recently you discover that employees have been stealing from both factories. How do you stop this, without firng them and without using security?

2.(original...and hard) Why can't the quote, "there's an exception to every rule" be logically possible? (im not saying its philosophy, but its logical possibility to happen in reality) so far, no one ever got it whoever i told.

[Serotonin]

I have no idea about number 1, maybe something to do with counting the ratios of left to right shoes in each one... followed by some sort of threat to employees

Anyway, 2. "There's an exception to every rule" is a rule in itself, in which an exception would be a rule that has no exceptions is in existence. But this is a direct contradiction of the original postulate.

[mgb]

For 2. I think its because if there is an exception then its not a rule.

[philotech]

1. Create a company uniform that includes boots(or a shoe not made by the company).
2. If there are exceptions to every rule it follows that there really aren't any rules. :unsure:

[Edmond Zedo]

Thos are HARD! Aaa! My brain has been teased! <shoots self>

fwiw, 1. left factory/right factory, 2. as stated by others (easiest brainteaser ever)

[jimkopelli]

1. Zedo got it, but explaining... one factory makes only left shoes, the other makes only rights... unless you have employees with two left feet, this should solve the problem.
2. It's a rule in itself, therefore it has an exception, therefore there is a rule somewhere that has no exception, thereby invalidating the first rule. (You can't rollerskate in a buffalo herd...)

[QrioCT]

wow, damn, all cracked in less than 5 posts. :Du all are genius. i didnt think people would get the second one especially cuz people i told it to never got it.

anyone got other onez?

[Edmond Zedo]

How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?

[booyalab]

I wish people wouldn't start threads based on brainteasers. After the first person gets it right, there's nowhere for the topic to go.

[QrioCT]

people could post new ones even if the last one's answer isn't posted yet. just give it a shot.

[jimkopelli]

How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?
As much wood as any good woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

[QrioCT]

How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?

the wood chuck could chuck as much wood as the wood chuck "wood(would)" chuck.

is this supposed to have a logical conclusion?

PS. Several from me:

1. How can you go back in time and kill your grandfather? ( i got this right after the person who asked left. grrr...)

2. There's two exactly identical women, with the same last names. and they are not twins. how is this possible? (has such a simple answer:D and no, they are not clones either.)

3. Another logic question from me: Why can't the quote "everything is possible" be logically possible? (pretty easy, i think)

[jimkopelli]

1. If you go in a time machine, and kill your grandfather, (and note- after he sired whichever of your parents) then it's easy, provided you have a time machine.

2. 2 of 3. Triplets. Or more. Identical anythings aren't exactly the same, there's a small margin of genetic difference.

3. If everything is possible, then it's possible that there's something that's impossible.

How about some good ones?

[QrioCT]

:D yeah, that was E-Z wasnt it. let me think of some other ones. and people...ur welcome to post ur own to test other people.

1. the best way to actually do that is go back to a date after you were born. cuz he might have caused it.

2. ur rite. :D

3. thats another way...sorry to nitpick(ya u had a good answer J, but i was thinking something else)

the thing is, if you say "If everything is possible, then it's possible that there's something that's impossible." it doesnt completely cut it because it's only possible that there's something impossible, so it only possibly contradict the original statement that everything is possible.

I was thinking that if everything is possible, then it would be impossible for something to be impossible. Therefore, something is impossible and it contradicts the original statement.

[QrioCT]

new ones(originally from thespark.com IQ test. not hard, just needs thoughts)

1. There are three doors in front of Bob. Beyond two lies dragons that will tear him apart and kill him. and beyond one is freedom. Here were the messages on the doors:

Door 1: Freedom is not behind this door.
Door 2: Freedom is not behind this door.
Door 3: Freedom is not behind the blue door.

Bob knows that at least one of them is lying, and at least one of them is telling the truth. he goes through the 3rd door and escapes.

Which one was the blue door?

2. Five studs were arrested after a robbery. Each made two statements to police, telling the truth in one and lying in the other.
Rod said: It was Earl. It wasn't Brasher.

Brasher said: It wasn't Chuck. It was Rod.

Chuck said: It was Brasher. It wasn't Earl.

Delicious D said: It was Chuck. It wasn't Rod.

Earl said: It was Delicious D. It was Rod.
The cops know the criminal acted alone. Who committed the crime?
Rod
Earl
Brasher
Chuck
Delicious D

[Hamro]

you've probably heard this one..

in a backyard there is a

Carrot
Hat
Buttons
Scarf

howd they get there

[Arioch]

new ones(originally from thespark.com IQ test. not hard, just needs thoughts)

1. There are three doors in front of Bob. Beyond two lies dragons that will tear him apart and kill him. and beyond one is freedom. Here were the messages on the doors:

Door 1: Freedom is not behind this door.
Door 2: Freedom is not behind this door.
Door 3: Freedom is not behind the blue door.

Bob knows that at least one of them is lying, and at least one of them is telling the truth. he goes through the 3rd door and escapes.

Which one was the blue door?


Door three is Blue

Why? Cause door 1 was saying the truth as was door 2. After all neither had freedom behind the door and since one door was lying it meant that 3 was lying. Ergo, three is blue.

Of course if you define death as freedom it's door 1 or 2 ^_^
But I don't think they meant that.



2. Five studs were arrested after a robbery. Each made two statements to police, telling the truth in one and lying in the other.
Rod said: It was Earl. It wasn't Brasher.

Brasher said: It wasn't Chuck. It was Rod.

Chuck said: It was Brasher. It wasn't Earl.

Delicious D said: It was Chuck. It wasn't Rod.

Earl said: It was Delicious D. It was Rod.
The cops know the criminal acted alone. Who committed the crime?
Rod
Earl
Brasher
Chuck
Delicious D

It was delicious D.

One of the statements that earl said was true so it had to be either Delicious D or Rod. Why wasn't it Rob? Cause delicious D said that Chuck did it and Ron didn't. Chuck didn't do it so that ios the lie which makes the second statement truth. Ron didn't do it

[philosupial]

in a backyard there is a
carrot
hat
buttons
scarf

This one is too simple, though I haven't heard it. The snow melted.

[booyalab]

In a room with no doors and one double paned window on the south wall, there's a Zebra sitting on an old muffler from a '57 Chevy belair. What happened?

[QrioCT]

Door three is Blue

Why? Cause door 1 was saying the truth as was door 2. After all neither had freedom behind the door and since one door was lying it meant that 3 was lying. Ergo, three is blue.

Of course if you define death as freedom it's door 1 or 2 ^_^
But I don't think they meant that.



It was delicious D.

One of the statements that earl said was true so it had to be either Delicious D or Rod. Why wasn't it Rob? Cause delicious D said that Chuck did it and Ron didn't. Chuck didn't do it so that ios the lie which makes the second statement truth. Ron didn't do it

great. both are right.

[EdwinJefferson]

In a room with no doors and one double paned window on the south wall, there's a Zebra sitting on an old muffler from a '57 Chevy belair. What happened?

Well quite obviously what happened was that this used to be a garage and the owner kept his pet Zebra and the old muffler fitting from his '57 Chevy belair in there.. but he decided to turn it into a room, thus a wall and window were put in on the south side (which is where the garage door used to be) and only when they finished did they realise that there was no door.

So because of that, and as the question asks what happened, the zebra got scared and so they had to knock part of the wall down to get it out.

[Shai Gar]

okay here is one for you
you are walking down the road and you meet an old philosopher who kidnaps you and puts you in a room with two guards standing in front of a door each and he says "there are two doors, behind one is certain death, behind the other is freedom, both of the men are liars and you can only ask one of them one question" and then you will have to go through a door. choose carefully.

what do you do?

[matthew0028]

okay here is one for you
you are walking down the road and you meet an old philosopher who kidnaps you and puts you in a room with two guards standing in front of a door each and he says "there are two doors, behind one is certain death, behind the other is freedom, both of the men are liars and you can only ask one of them one question" and then you will have to go through a door. choose carefully.

what do you do?

You got it slightly wrong. The answer to this question is to say "is the door you're guarding the door leading to freedom", and if he say "no" go through that door, else go through the other, since you know the guard you asked is lying.

The real puzzle is the same scenario, but one guard always tells the truth and the other lies. What question do you ask?

[Shai Gar]

no, i know all about that one and the 2 possible answers. this is my own original one. now what would you do?

[matthew0028]

now what would you do?

As I said:


The answer to this question is to say "is the door you're guarding the door leading to freedom", and if he say "no" go through that door, else go through the other, since you know the guard you asked is lying.


(since they're both liars. Assuming that by being a liar you assume they always lie. Else you're SOL.)

[booyalab]

Well quite obviously what happened was that this used to be a garage and the owner kept his pet Zebra and the old muffler fitting from his '57 Chevy belair in there.. but he decided to turn it into a room, thus a wall and window were put in on the south side (which is where the garage door used to be) and only when they finished did they realise that there was no door.

So because of that, and as the question asks what happened, the zebra got scared and so they had to knock part of the wall down to get it out.

ALL WRONG.

[booyalab]

okay here is one for you
you are walking down the road and you meet an old philosopher who kidnaps you and puts you in a room with two guards standing in front of a door each and he says "there are two doors, behind one is certain death, behind the other is freedom, both of the men are liars and you can only ask one of them one question" and then you will have to go through a door. choose carefully.

what do you do?
ok since this is apparently one you made up and requires a different answer than the standard 2 lying guards riddle....

Ask the philosopher which door's the right one. If the philosopher's always a liar, then either both doors lead to certain death and you're screwed anyway, or they both lead to freedom and either one is ok to go through.

Edit: if the philosopher refuses to answer, beat him up-which should be easy since philosophers spend all their time pondering life and are flabby and physically useless, then run away in the direction you came.

[EdwinJefferson]

ALL WRONG.

You're just upset I got it right.

[booyalab]

You're just upset I got it right.

you didn't even try to answer why the zebra was sitting on a muffler

[EdwinJefferson]

you didn't even try to answer why the zebra was sitting on a muffler

Didn't I?

I thought I said.. ok.. I'll repeat myself..

The zebra thought it was a chicken and used to sit on the muffler as it thought that was what it's eggs looked like. All metallic and oddly shaped.

[Shai Gar]

okay here is the answer to mine, in fact there are two answers depending on your own morbid personality

1. ask which door is the door to freedom, and when he lies and tells you the door to certain death. go through THAT door. because living assures you the certainty of death. and death is absolute freedom. :)

2. go back through the door you came in through.

[jimkopelli]

Find out how much the philosopher is paying the guards. It's probably not much, as it's notoriously hard to make money at philosophy. Offer more to just be let out. Failing that... Beat the shit out of both of the guards, and force one of them to walk through each of the doors. Listen for the screams, and choose the other door. (Side note... the philosopher only said "certain death", not, "certain immediate death... and you'll still die through either door... eventually... so they might both be safe in any case...) Take the remaining guard(s) and go find the philosopher.

[booyalab]

okay here is the answer to mine, in fact there are two answers depending on your own morbid personality

1. ask which door is the door to freedom, and when he lies and tells you the door to certain death. go through THAT door. because living assures you the certainty of death. and death is absolute freedom. :)

2. go back through the door you came in through.

you moron, the first one is the standard one (which you said it wasn't)and the second is what I guessed......(sorry, couldn't resist the insult)

My answer, which you all chose to ignore, was the best. Just so everyone knows.

[EdwinJefferson]

you moron, the first one is the standard one (which you said it wasn't)and the second is what I guessed......(sorry, couldn't resist the insult)

My answer, which you all chose to ignore, was the best. Just so everyone knows.

No one pays attentions to the answers here. It's the questions.

[Crazy]

In a room with no doors and one double paned window on the south wall, there's a Zebra sitting on an old muffler from a '57 Chevy belair. What happened?

The way I see it, since there is no doors and one double paned window on the south wall, they must have gotten there through either an entranceway on one of the other three walls, through the roof, through the floor, or maybe even through a doorway in the south wall, which would be easy since there are no doors. As for why the Zebra is sitting on the muffler, you are going to have to ask the Zebra for that one. I'm sure that since mufflers are not designed to hold the weight of a zebra, the next thing to happen will be the zebra crushing the muffler.

[matthew0028]

okay here is one for you
you are walking down the road and you meet an old philosopher who kidnaps you and puts you in a room with two guards standing in front of a door each and he says "there are two doors, behind one is certain death, behind the other is freedom, both of the men are liars and you can only ask one of them one question" and then you will have to go through a door. choose carefully.

what do you do?

Just go through a door, and hope that when the philosopher was talking about "certain death" he was referring to the fact that I will certainly die from old age, and when he's referring to freedom, that he was referring to the freedom that comes from death that will happen when I die from old age.

[QrioCT]

there's a lot of ways to interpret these.

[matthew0028]

Okay, here's a tricky one I got from a book from a problem solving class I took. I accidentally left the book at my parents' house 100 miles away, but I think I can remember how it goes...

Okay, so you're in a 50 foot x 50 foot x 50 foot room. The room is suspended 100 feet above the ground. The room has one exit in the corner, with a secure place where one could tie a rope to right by it. There are two 50 foot ropes suspended from the ceiling, 1 foot apart. You are an excellent rope climber and are very good at tying knots. All you have in your posession is a good quality knife. You can only safely drop about 10 feet.

How can you get out of the room and onto the ground safely?

edit: the *bottom* of the room is 100 feet above the ground

[matthew0028]

And a (possibly) easier one.

In the upstairs of a house, there are 3 standard 60 watt lightbulbs. In the downstairs of the house you have a light switch that turns on one of the 3 upstairs lightbulbs, but you don't know which one. You have no way of seeing the light from downstairs, nor any other means of telling if the light is on or off from there. How can you determine which lightbulb the switch activates, while only going upstairs once? (note, you're all alone, so you can't go upstairs and have your buddy turn all the lights on one at a time, or anything like that).

[booyalab]

Okay, here's a tricky one I got from a book from a problem solving class I took. I accidentally left the book at my parents' house 100 miles away, but I think I can remember how it goes...

Okay, so you're in a 50 foot x 50 foot x 50 foot room. The room is suspended 100 feet above the ground. The room has one exit in the corner, with a secure place where one could tie a rope to right by it. There are two 50 foot ropes suspended from the ceiling, 1 foot apart. You are an excellent rope climber and are very good at tying knots. All you have in your posession is a good quality knife. You can only safely drop about 10 feet.

How can you get out of the room and onto the ground safely?

OK, the answer seems obvious to me if by "suspended 100 feet above the ground"- you mean the top of the room to the ground is 100 feet in distance (as the electron flies). I would climb up one of the ropes until I reach the top, reach over to the other rope- cut it off, then climb down. Go over to the exit with the rope, tie the rope to the secure place. Open the door, grab rope, then climb down. (if it's 100 feet from the bottom of the room to the ground, you needed to be more specific...and i'd have to think a bit more..but i won't think about it until you specify)

[Crazy]

And a (possibly) easier one.

In the upstairs of a house, there are 3 standard 60 watt lightbulbs. In the downstairs of the house you have a light switch that turns on one of the 3 upstairs lightbulbs, but you don't know which one. You have no way of seeing the light from downstairs, nor any other means of telling if the light is on or off from there. How can you determine which lightbulb the switch activates, while only going upstairs once? (note, you're all alone, so you can't go upstairs and have your buddy turn all the lights on one at a time, or anything like that).

That's easy, turn one of the lights on for a while, then after a few minutes, turn it off and turn on one of the other ones. Go upstairs. The light that is on is controlled by the switch that is on. Touch the other two light bulbs, the one that is hot is the one that was turned on for a few minutes, and the other one is the one that was never turned on.

[Crazy]

How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?


This is difficult to question answer. The amount of wood that woodchucks would chuck on a given day varies greatly with the individual woodchuck. According to a Wall Street Journal article, New York State wildlife expert Richard Thomas found that a woodchuck could chuck around 35 cubic feet of dirt in the course of digging a burrow. Thomas reasoned that if a woodchuck could chuck wood, he would chuck an amount equal to 700 pounds.

There is your answer.

[matthew0028]

OK, the answer seems obvious to me if by "suspended 100 feet above the ground"- you mean the top of the room to the ground is 100 feet in distance (as the electron flies). I would climb up one of the ropes until I reach the top, reach over to the other rope- cut it off, then climb down. Go over to the exit with the rope, tie the rope to the secure place. Open the door, grab rope, then climb down. (if it's 100 feet from the bottom of the room to the ground, you needed to be more specific...and i'd have to think a bit more..but i won't think about it until you specify)

The bottom of the room is 100 feet above the ground.

[Shai Gar]

FINALLY, an answer to the woodchuck question

[Crazy]

Okay, here's a tricky one I got from a book from a problem solving class I took. I accidentally left the book at my parents' house 100 miles away, but I think I can remember how it goes...

Okay, so you're in a 50 foot x 50 foot x 50 foot room. The room is suspended 100 feet above the ground. The room has one exit in the corner, with a secure place where one could tie a rope to right by it. There are two 50 foot ropes suspended from the ceiling, 1 foot apart. You are an excellent rope climber and are very good at tying knots. All you have in your posession is a good quality knife. You can only safely drop about 10 feet.

How can you get out of the room and onto the ground safely?

edit: the *bottom* of the room is 100 feet above the ground

Begin by taking the bottom of one of the ropes and tying it around your waist. Climb the other rope all the way to the top. Use your knife to cut the rope that you tied around your waist a few feet from the top. Use what is left of the rope to tie a loop that is just big enough to thread the rope through. Make sure that the loop does not close on you, and it will be able to slide through. Thread the cut off piece of the rope through the loop, leaving enough rope through the loop to be able to tie it to the other rope. Tie a knot on the short side that will be able to support your weight. Climb onto the long side of the rope, and cut the other rope as close to the top as possible. Tie the two ropes together, climb down the rope, and once you reach the floor, pull on the other rope until the rope threads all of the way out of the loop and falls onto the floor. You should now have two ropes tied together in order to make one section of rope that is over 90ft long. Tie one end of that rope to the tie off point, and let the rest of the rope fall to the ground. Climb down the rope and to the ground.

[Edmond Zedo]

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

There is your answer.
I need a total, not some cooked up daily average.

[Crazy]

I need a total, not some cooked up daily average.

Well, then we will need more information. Male or female? What size wood chuck? What type of wood? Time span?