Lateral Thinking Puzzles

Post Reply New Topic

couldn't number 8 have even another answer? i thought he might have been shooting at a reflective surface (though i guess it would have to be metal, not glass. and then again--what would a reflective surface be doing in the wilderness.)

never mind!

You need to figure out why the situations described (which are those puzzles) took place, what lead to them, why it happened so.

It could, if you are able to find more solutions it’s only a proof of your creativity.

they're really fun. (uh oh. new puzzle obsession!) do you find them mainly on the net, or are there other sources?

All the puzzles known to me are from the net, I never read any specific books on them. But there are many of them according to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situation_puzzle I’m glad I planted a new obsession into your head.

thanks!

It seems you really like those so maybe when you have an idea for a couple of brand new ones post them here

a person who is here is in the shower so i have time to write a little thing.

a zany idea:

maybe there was a woman who was wearing a mink coat and a raccoon hat that was kneeling in a flower garden in front of the white house. the hunter thought she was fair game and shot her. then she screamed "ohmagawd!! !!" as she died (or otherwise made a human sound).
he realized he had made a mistake. then, minutes after that, he was pelted with sniper fire from security perches around the white house.

I remember these puzzles from my youth.

The puzzles are not really supposed to be figured out in one fell swoop like that. The idea is that one person knows the solution, and the other person asks yes/no questions to the person who knows the answer. That gives him clues until he gets close enough to make a reasonable guess.

While I had no idea what a lateral puzzle was before I opened this thread, I was thinking they were more like the logical puzzles of deduction... puzzles like, "John, Jane, and Jerry were standing in line. John is wearing a red shirt, Jane is carrying a flower basket. Who is wearing sneakers?"

hmm. it does work though, doesn't it?

they do seem to get a little easier with practice. i've actually gotten a couple; came close on another.

do they seem to help with finding creative solutions to things overall?

I could see that... kinda like playing 20 questions, which I love.

I'm really suck at this puzzles, does that mean I lack creativity?
I always seen myself has creative ............I least I'm imaginative.

OMG, I sucked at trying to figure those out. Couldn;t figure a single one out without looking at the solution.

No, it doesn't mean you lack creativity; it just means you think of different--probably more creative--solutions which could work.

And that's why I hate them with a passion besides them giving me nightmares when I look at the solution (don't ask me, I just do for some strange reason.)

Personally, I came to a conclusion that these puzzles are like what if scenarios we're taught in school. The only problem with these puzzles is that many solutions can exist, but just finding one solution? That's like saying the next event in a book has to be the only possible choice to link with the previous event. Sorry, but that's just leads to stupidity right there. Am I suppose to read the author's mind or something? One cause has many effects that can occur.

I don't think of lateral puzzles as puzzles because, actually, there are so many ways how it can be interpreted, and besides, how can you test creativity with one solution? How can a situation have one answer, especially ones like these? It's like you coming up with a solution as to who told the Nazis where Anne Frank lived; it's like you claiming what happened to Mega Man, Roll, Bass, Rush, and the others between Mega Man 9 and Mega Man X or like you claiming who the Zodiac Killer is; it's like questioning the Bible on how the five loaves of bread and two fish fed all those people and the disciples came back with twelve baskets of the same five loaves and two fish. I think of them as a joke because--well--the author is having the last laugh. If I would use these, I would use these in a party game where the people applaud for how creative one's answer is. One solution doesn't cut it for me since the answer seems to be closed minded, biased of one's experiences and definitely prejudice if one's culture (or even subculture for that matter) never has these thing. In other words, no answer can exist in these types of puzzles.

Sorry, but if I want a puzzle with creativity I would look at Lonpos, tangrams, mysteries, or something that actually have one solution and require you to think outside-the-box at the same time (or around it if you don't use the cliche.)

I love tangrams!