Lateral puzzle

[kalidas]

1. There is a man who lives on the top floor of a very tall building. Every day he takes the elevator down to the ground floor to leave the building to go to work. Upon returning from work though, he can only travel half way up in the lift and has to walk the rest of the way unless it's raining! Why?

2. A man and his son are in a car accident. The father dies on the scene, but the child is rushed to the hospital. When he arrives the surgeon says "I can't operate on this boy, he is my son!" How can this be?

3. A man is wearing black. Black shoes, socks, trousers, jumper, gloves and balaclava. He is walking down a black street with all the street lamps off. A black car is coming towards him with its lights off too but somehow manages to stop in time. How did the driver see the man?

4. One day Kerry celebrated her birthday. Two days later her younger twin brother, Terry, celebrated his birthday. Why?

5. Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones? This is logical rather than lateral, but it is a good puzzle which can be solved by lateral thinking techniques. It is supposedly used by a very well-known software company as an interview question for prospective employees.

6. A man went to a party and drank some of the punch. He then left early. Everyone else at the party who drank the punch subsequently died of poisoning. Why did the man not die?

7. A man died and went to Heaven. There were thousands of other people there. They were all naked and all looked as if they had died at the age of 21. He looked around to see if there was anyone he recognized. He saw a couple and he knew immediately that they were Adam and Eve. How did he know?

8. A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year. But they were not twins. How could this be so?

9. A man walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun and points it at the man. The man says 'Thank you' and walks out.

10. My favourite logical puzzle is:
Two men come to a river. There is a boat that can carry only one man at a time. They cross. Explain.

11. One cup is half full of tea, the other half full of coffee. You take a spoon from the tea cup and place it in the coffee cup. Then you take a spoon from the coffee cup and put it into the tea cup. Is there more tea in the coffee or coffee in the tea?

12. You are in a room where there are four switches. Each is attached to a light bulb in another, unseen room. Your task is to work out which switch operates which of the four bulbs. You can play with the switches as much as you like, but after doing so you can go only once into the room with the bulbs.

13. In a dark room there are two black hats and three white hats. Three men walk in, select a hat each (by touch) and walk out single file into a well-lit corridor. Each is unable see the hat they themselves are wearing (let's say the underside of each hat is gray in all cases) but can see the hat(s) of the persons in front (if any).
The third person to walk out (ie he sees 2 people ahead of him) speaks first: "I don't know what colour hat I am wearing". The second person in line then says: "I dunno either." Then the first person announces: "I know what colour hat I am wearing."
Question: What colour hat is the 1st person wearing?
PS This is not a lateral thinking type of problem but a straight, logic-only sort of puzzle.

14. What is greater than God, more evil than the Devil, the poor have it, the rich lack it, and if you eat it you will die?
It is claimed that 80% of preschoolers quizzed knew the answer but that only 17% of Stanford University students did.

15. "Brothers and sisters have I none, but that man's father is my father's son." What is the relationship of the speaker to "that man"?

16. There are two gates, one leads to Heaven and is guarded by an angel, the other to Hell and is guarded by a devil. Angels and devils look alike, but the angel always tells the truth while the devil always lies. How can you tell which gate is which by asking just one question of only one gate-keeper?

17. Three men went to a motel. The man behind the desk said the room is $30, so each man put up $10 and went to the room. A little while later the manager realized the room was only $25, so he sent the bellhop back to the three guys' room with $5. On the way to the room the bellhop couldn't figure out how to split the $5 between the three guys, so he just gave each one of them $1 and he kept the other $2. That left the three guys paying $9 each for the room.
Now 3 x 9 = 27 + the 2 that the bellhop kept = $29. Where's the other dollar?

18. An advanced fighter bomber is about to drop its bombs over the enemy. The pilot presses the button to release the bombs but nothing happens. Why is this so?

19. Which four-letter English word reads the same backwards, forwards and upside-down?

20. A sergeant with a major in mathematics asked his ten men to line up in five rows of four men each? How?

[sarv_shaktimaan]

First .. Short height so can reach half the floors button max.. Rainy days umbrella so reach top floor button

2nd.. Mom

3rd.. Its day

[sarv_shaktimaan]

5.. Round cover can't fall in the manhole.. Any other shape its possible

8.. different month .. One in jan one in december both on 5th at 5:55am

[sarv_shaktimaan]

4th.. Crossed international date line in a ship?

8th.. Thought about it.. I revise my answer.. Triplets or quadruplets or .. Go on.. Lookup what octomom is up to these days.

[sarv_shaktimaan]

10.. The men are on 2 different sides of the river.

[sarv_shaktimaan]

19.. Boob ? (Written in all caps)

[sarv_shaktimaan]

17.. I'm not explaining it.. Its like count your fingers in reverse order.. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 .. Plus 5 on the other hand I got 11 fingers.

[sarv_shaktimaan]

15.. This was my fav puzzle in high school. Its the man's son.

[kalidas]

Sarvi .. good. Some are right and few are not.

Where is everyone else? lagta hai kissi ka dimag nahin chal raha.

[sarv_shaktimaan]

12. Switch on one bulb for 5 minutes, then next one for 5 minutes, then 3rd and switch off first 2 .. Now go to the rooms. You know which one is lit, which one is not lit and totally cool, one is mildly hot (5 mins) and one is more hot (10 mins)

[sarv_shaktimaan]

Originally Posted by kalidas

Where is everyone else? lagta hai kissi ka dimag nahin chal raha.

Didn't you know? This site is called www.charcha-with-shakti.com .. Since last few months

[Napolean]

11. is mathematics. Just calculate.

Suppose there are 10 spoons of tea in 1st cup and 10 spoons of coffee in 2nd one.
1 spoon of tea goes into 2nd cup.

1st cup = 9 spoons of tea
2nd cup = 11 spoons ( 1/11 part tea + 10/11 part coffee)

now 1 spoon of 2nd cup goes into 1st cup.
1st cup = 9 spoons of tea + 1/11 spoons of tea + 10/11 spoons of coffee.
2nd cup = 10 spoons (100/11 spoon of coffee + 10/11 spoon of tea)

hmmm - both are equal. same amount of coffee in tea and same amount of tea in coffee.

[sgars]

1 Cant he use an umbrella or some danda even if it is not raining.
2. This is a very old one. i first heard it in 87 before probably many here were born.

there is already a thread on 17, which i pushed up.

8. I am tempted to say, one of the sons is a step son..

[sgars]

OK, i answered 18 in a minute under some 'spiritual influence' 14 years back.
The pilot is flying upside down.

There was another question with that (i got that within seconds. easy one if you follow some things). One woman is happy but is crying. The other women next to her are sad but are smiling. What is going on

[sarv_shaktimaan]

19 .. Noon (again in all caps)