Brain Teaser No 3

pipped at the post ....

When the guy at the back had his blindfold removed he didn't see two white hats, if he had of done he'd of known for sure that his hat was black. So he decided to keep quiet.

When the middle guy had his blindfold removed he thought, umm, the guy at the back must of seen at least one black hat. Then he looked forward and saw the front guys hat and he decided it best to stay quiet. Had he seen a white hat he'd of known his hat was black.

The front guy by now fearing the worst and hoping that his fellow safari hunters were not colour blind. Suddenly realises that the middle guy must of seen a black hat, so he shouts out I'm wearing a black hat

Beano

I think so too Beano. But hm, colourblind?

quote:

Originally posted by AlexanderVH:
I think so too Beano. But hm, colourblind?

I'm glad someone spotted it, the bold type was deliberate too LOL, it was a brain teaser after all

Beano

A simple one...

The man who invented it doesn't want it. The man who bought it doesn't need it. The man who needs it doesn't know it. What is it?

Beano

A tomb?

Ooh not bad, the answer is coffin.

Not bad, but surely we all need a coffin in the end! George

Society says we need a coffin. A bag would suffice.

Absolutely! I buried a lovely dog once for a friend, and it had no coffin!

It was frozen and was unfortunately a Doberman! I buriied it six foot deep and we planted an apple tree on top. Why I mention that the dog was frozen was the fact that it was frozen with its legs stricking straight down as if it was standing up, so the hole was not much smaller than would have been needed for a human! I could not bend it to fit a smaller hole! It took all day to dig down and refill the hole. The dog's name was Daisy, which sounds as unlikely as it actually was!

ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
Not bad, but surely we all need a coffin in the end! George

I think that's a suppository.

I doubt if coffin drops are effective when administered that way.

But I have a brain taser. Spot the odd one out in attached image. And explain. Repeat...

quote:

Originally posted by Adam Meredith:

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
Not bad, but surely we all need a coffin in the end! George

I think that's a suppository.

Dear Adam,

When I finally need a suppository, you will not see me for dust! I can tell you a funny story about me and a suppository!

In 2000 when I drove my splendid old Volvo to Norway to see my Aunt only weeks after my lovely old grandmother had died from cancer [and therefore the drugs cabinet was full of painkillers] I had a broken tooth play up, and keen not to pay Norwegian dental charges I found these Morphine suppositories! I did not fancy shoving it up my proverbial so I ate two of them! It worked and I had no more pain at all for a day, by which time I was back in UK!

It was horrible and waxy, but much better than having the two parts of the second back tooth on the bottom right play merry hell!

But the idea of shoving such a thing where the sun shineth not is more than I could take. Two bottles of Vodka, possibly a spliff, six foot of rope, and high beam would be preferable!

Haha! Goodnight from George

For AVH,

Sorry,

I have no idea about your brain taser! I would never have got a job at Bletchley!

ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by AlexanderVH:
I doubt if coffin drops are effective when administered that way.

But I have a brain taser. Spot the odd one out in attached image. And explain. Repeat...

I suspect this is not what you mean but here is one answer...

The circle is the only shape with no verticies

Of the remaining only the triangle has no curved edges

Of the remaining the only the last shape has 3 verticies

Of the final two one has a straight edge and the other doesn't

The correct answer is likely more interesting !


Ian

That's an interesting approach and a nice set of replies Ian. But it's not necessary to eliminate shapes from the set. You just pick a random shape and explain why it's the odd one out in the set of 5. Then you repeat the process with the same set. As long as possible.
Most of your answers are already valid without modification.

It's a brain taser for a reason George! There is something upsetting to it when you're conditioned by tests that have one right answer.
ATB, Alexander

Thanks for the clarification Alex.

How about, the last figure is the only one which would fall over if stood on a table

There are plenty of contrived, mundane answers ,
e.g. The 4th one is the only one with a flat upper side but I guess we are looking for interesting oddities.


Ian

The circle is the odd one out. If you were to trace a point along the drawn line, the rate of change of direction you need to maintain to follow the curve is constant. It is the only one of the shapes with this characteristic.

I makes sense to me - maybe I am conditioned.

quote:

Originally posted by Ian G.:
How about, the last figure is the only one which would fall over if stood on a table

Sounds pretty good to me. Because I was thinking the same thing

quote:

There are plenty of contrived, mundane answers ,
e.g. The 4th one is the only one with a flat upper side but I guess we are looking for interesting oddities.

You know how it works. The mundane answers aren't wrong, but they aren't fun either. They don't click into place. I could see in the book (an old book by Edward de Bono) if there are any answers given. Or not.

Maybe there is some rule for creating the rows of numbers in I.Q. tests, that one answer has to be much much more plausible than the others. The challenge then is to ruin the test ...

I suspect answers in the form of a negative are stronger: dot dot is the odd one out because it's the only one that is not dot dot dot. (Hi there, Don

Rob, your answer is fine with me. If you want to check whether you're conditioned though, you have to see if you can come up with a different solution It reminds me of the Peter Jackson torture: yes you did that 20th take of the scene very well, now would you do it again?

Three attempts:

The fourth one is the only one that has a mixture of straight and curved edges.

The second one is the only one that is not created by covering parts of an ellipse.

The first one is the only one that no concave edges, including the borderline case of straight edges.

quote:

Originally posted by AlexanderVH:


The second one is the only one that is not created by covering parts of an ellipse.

Unless I have three pieces of paper to do it

I know But it still feels right if I look at the images.

Hi AlexanderVH,

I have tried to come up with a different solution but each time I return to my original solution as being the most appealing to me, so perhaps I am conditioned after all.

I reject the triangle as being the odd one out. Whilst it is the only shape consisting entirely of straight lines, when tracing the outline, in common with shape 5, there are three distinct changes of direction.

I reject the third shape as being the odd one out. Whilst it is the only shape consisting of two similar shapes, in common with shape 4, when tracing the outline it has two distinct changes of direction.

I reject shape four as being the odd one out. Whilst it is the only shape consisting of a curve and a straight line, in common with shape 3, when tracing the line it has two distinct changes of direction.

I reject shape 5 as the odd one out. Whilst it is the only shape consisting of three curved lines, in common with the triangle when tracing the line there are three distinct changes of direction.

I understand the idea of shape 5 being the odd one out because it is the only one that would not stand up on a table, but to my mind that is an untidy solution as it places the object in an environment not defined in the question. It is however a good example of lateral thinking.

Using the lateral thinking approach, shape 1 is the odd one out because it is the only shape that would roll smoothly across a flat plane (table). However the original reason I gave for its oddity is more compelling to my mindset than this reason.

An interesting teaser.

Rob

Rob, as an alternative to outright rejection you could always consider grading your solutions on a scale from 1 to 10

At face value, the second shape still jumps out most with me.

The 4th shape is only ethnicly mixed group of lines. In the other cases straight lines and curves stick with their own kind.

More tabletop visions: the third one is the only one out of equilibrium.
Taking in account that the fifth may be unstable, but it's still in equilibrium.

Shape 5 is also the only object with high center of gravity.

Shape 2 is the only shape you'd remain dry under when it rains.

A bit introspective: 4 shapes conjure up images related to water:
5: a fountain
4: a bowl
3: someone's head over the waterpit
1. the waterpit.

Shapes 1, 3 and 4 make me think of things Naim(a knob, a knob from the chrome days, an upside down logo). Almost...

In the original example the triangle had two sides of equal length, so 4 shapes had an axis of symmetry. Pity I didn't notice.

quote:

Originally posted by AlexanderVH

In the original example the triangle had two sides of equal length, so 4 shapes had an axis of symmetry. Pity I didn't notice.

Aha, I had wondered about that - that will likely be the 'correct' answer. It is the kind of question they posed in school IQ tests many moons ago.

Ian

quote:

Originally posted by Ian G.:
It is the kind of question they posed in school IQ tests many moons ago.

Ian

Bet you it's been more moons ago with me BTW, Dun Eideann, isn't that Edinburgh? It's on the bottle I'm tasting. I've got 10 bottles of whisky to taste and it's hard work.