<font color=deepskyblue>There's a lot of emphasis on lateral thinking nowadays - and that reminded me of an example that occurred in one of my high school classes. So I thought I would see if the IronWorks members could come up with the same solution my classmate did.

Here's what happened.

The teacher caught a student making a paper airplane in class. Instead of punishing him, the teacher issued a challenge - IF the student could make the plane fly past a line drawn on the floor, he wouldn't be punished at all. However, if the plane did NOT go past the line, the student would get 3 licks from the teachers paddle.

The teacher gave the student 3 tries. The airplane was a "stunt" plane instead of "jet", so it just flew in a circle on the first try. The second attempt was even worse...the plane actually landed behind the student.

Down to his last try, the student made ONE CHANGE to the airplane's design - and successfully got it past the line.

What change did the student make to ensure the plane would fly straight?</font>

He crumpled it into a ball.

Duh.

Simple. Either
Choice or Causality

<font color=deepskyblue>Good answer, <font color=yellow>andrewas</font>. That is exactly what he did. I have to admit that I would have gotten the whipping because I wouldn't have thought to do that. But it was that action that led me to start exploring the concept of "lateral thinking" and coming up with innovative solutions. I'm still not as proficient with it as I would like to be..my thinking tends to be very linear in nature...but it is something I'm working on.

Anyway, now it's your turn to give us a problem that requires some lateral thinking to solve.</font>

[ 05-09-2004, 03:37 PM: Message edited by: Cerek the Barbaric ]

Can anybody post new problem, or only he who finds the solution to the problem?

<font color=deepskyblue>In all fairness, the person that gets the answer right should get to post the next problem...but I think it's OK for somebody else to post one if they have one ready. Let's just say that no new problems can be posted until the current one is solved. Does that sound fair enough?</font>

Hmmm I wouldn't have thought to crumple it into a ball because the criterion was to make a paper AEROPLANE and a ball is not a plane. So I'm not sure if that was ingenious lateral thinking or just cheating [img]tongue.gif[/img] I can do the latter :D

Well, since the plane came behind him the second time, i thought he'd turn 90 degrees, and throw the plane in that direction. That way there would have been a chance the plane made it to the initial finishline.

<font color=deepskyblue>The challenge was NOT to create an AEROPLANE that would fly a specific distance. The student had already made the airplane. Since he did it during the time he was supposed to by studying, the teacher could have punished him for it, but decided to issue a challenge instead. All the teacher said was "You have to get that plane past this line". He didn't say that it had to still be in the shape of a plane. Breaking it down even further, the challenge was to get that piece of paper past the line the teacher drew. And even the teacher had to give the student credit for coming up with such an innovative solution...he thought for SURE he was going to win the challenge, but the student managed to think of a way to get the plane past the line.

It was a solution that even James T. Kirk would have been proud of. :D </font>

Simple logic is in the wording.
The teacher told the student that the plane that the student had made needed to fly past a line. The teacher never said anything about what condition the plane needed to be in order to pass the line or the challenge he had given the student just that he had three chances to get it past the line. The teacher never said the plane needed to aero-dynamicaly fly past the line. (Does a meteor not fly through space?) I too would have rolled the plane in a ball and flew it over the line on the first try. That was the first thing that came into my head when I read Cerek's Post! I would have never even used the first two chances. I swear to god or what ever god you all believe in that this is what my first thought was, roll it up into a ball and through the ball and let it fly over the line. Why do you think that in baseball when someone hits the ball over the fence it's called a "fly" ball!

I have one. You may ask questions to get more details, but they must be answerable with either an answer of yes, no, or irrelevant. Ready? Here we go.

A woman was writing a letter in her cabin when she died. What happened to her?

Logic, fuzzy or otherwise is at play here. I must leave.

One quick question though? Are teachers still allowed to paddle? Or, was this like 30 years ago when we all got paddled?

Um, she died? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

The idea is to figure out *how* she died.

I know, I was being what the French call 'Le Smartarse' [img]smile.gif[/img]

Anyways. Here are some questions for ya:
- any evidence of structural collapse or the cabin (ie: did the cabin collapse on her causing her death?)
- any indication of poisonous gases or hazardous substances?
- any signs of a struggle?
- any clues as to potential enemies or people interested in her death in the letter she was writing?
- are there any indications that she may have died of 'natural' causes? Ie heart attack, stroke, food poisoning etc?

Did she kill herself?

<font color=deepskyblue>Is there any sign of damage to the outside of the cabin?

If she didn't die of natural causes (heart attack or stroke) and hadn't left the gas stove on (flooding the cabin with noxious fumes), I'm guessing that something fell onto (or through) the cabin and landed on her.

My first guess would be a tree fell on the cabin.
My second guess would be the meteor mentioned by <font color=crimson>Crimson Blade</font>. ;) </font>

LOL, that's a silly example cos there's negligible gravity in space so it's completely irrelevant how a meteor "flies" through space - it doesn't even fly as flying means overcoming gravity. :D

But people are right: the challenge was to get the current plane across the line and it was not specified what condition it had to be in.

If were thinking *outside* the box then perhaps its possible she didn't actually die but perhaps the letter was a faked certificate of death. Its a long shot but it might just be right... P.s do certificates of death actually exsist? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Did the ship hit an iceberg?? ;)

Okay - I'm guessing she was on the Titanic after it hit the iceberg and was writing a goodbye letter before she died.

John leaves home and is immediately confronted by a man in a black mask who bars his path.

1) Where was John going
2) How doe the masked man make a living?

Regarding the paper aeroplane: as far as I can see, there were also no instruction as to where the plane had to fly from, ergo, it could have been thrown from directly behind the line, where it would have crossed over a few times.

We could argue for hours about whether a ball of paper is a squashed-up paper areoplane or "just" a ball of paper.

@Illumina: Is your statement sufficient to reason a solution, or is educated guesswork required? Do we need to ask questions?

I can't see that its related to a ship sinking...she would not have died while writing the letter, but rather some time later.

The woman who is writing the letter is not the one who died. the one who died is someone else.

While the phrasing of the sentence seems to imply that the woman writing the letter also died (otherwise, we wouldn't know whether the question "What happened to her?" refers to the woman who died or the woman writing the letter).

But, to clear up confusion:

"Is the woman who wrote the same as the woman who died?"

SHE WAS IN A CABIN ON A SHIP AND IT SANK!!!!!

Time to move on here!

OR She was in the cabin of a plane as it was crashing!

Forgive my recent absence... I started answering questions when I realized that Donut almost nailed it, but he was right enough to get The Correct Answer.

She was a skywriter, writing a letter in a cabin of a plane. It crashed.

Anyone?

John was going to first base.

The masked man is either an umpire or a catcher.

Here's another one:

You are in a three-story building. In the attic are three simple lights -- normal incandescent bulbs in simple fixtures on the ceiling. Because of poor design, the switches for these three lights are in the basement. Because of poorer design, you don't know which switch is for which light. At least the switches are normal -- regular on/off switches, nothing fancy.

Can you, in making just one trip between the basement and the attic, determine which light switch goes to which light for all three switches?

I think I know the answer... is it "Yes."?

Yes... but I know how it works, so someone else should answer this one.

A wild guess, so bear with me...there are only two light switches in the basement; one for all three lights in the attic and one for something else.

Good point, Gnarf. Okay, how can you determine which switch goes to which light while making only one trip up and downstairs?

I should also mention that you're alone, with no fancy technology. And you can't see the attic either, so you can't just flip on the lights, look up, and see what happened. And no leaving a webcam set up to monitor the results, no having a friend watch and tell you, no outside assistance at all. It's just you, the switches, the lights, and several flights of stairs.

How would you do it?

Not at all? Not even just a little? Kinda see it, in a way...-ish? No? (if I could see wether or not any lights were on, it'd just be to take the bulb out'a one'a em, try switches 'till you found the one that didn't do anything, then switch one of the other two and go up to see which light had been turned on... but... arghh)

That's the point. Down in the basement, you can't see what the switches are doing.

And I missed your comment, Stratos. Nice thought, but not so easy. Each switch goes to one (and only one) of the lights in the attic. Flip a switch, the light goes on. Flip it again, the light goes off. And you can't see or hear the difference (so no replacing the bulb with an electric socket and plugging in a radio turned to full volume, either)

Flip the first switch, leave it on for an hour then flip it off again. Flip the second switch, leave it on. leave the third switch alone.
Now go to the attic. One light is on, two are out of which one bulb is hot to the touch and the other isn't. Right?

How long does them lightbulbs last? If you stay in the basement, with one of the switches turned on, so long that you're sure the lightbulbs not working any longer, you can then turn another switch on and go up. You can then see what light is on, and do some switcharoo with them bulbs to see what light you turned on first. Would take forever tho [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Edit: Awh... screw you, Mel! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Edit the seccond: I'll argue that my way, tho you'll be eating rats to survive'n such, is way better than Mel's, as my doesn't involve burning yourself on that hot bulb.

[ 05-13-2004, 04:10 PM: Message edited by: Gnarf ]

No thanks, I'm already spoken for [img]tongue.gif[/img] ;)

Edit: Nope, because you could simply bring your hand NEAR the bulb if you were quick enough up the stairs, and then you'd feel the heat radiating off without burning yourself. [img]tongue.gif[/img] :D

[ 05-13-2004, 04:31 PM: Message edited by: Melusine ]

...
... I have my own little box, it seems, and I'm not thinking outside of it. (Actually, I have quite recently checked if "that was the plate I just turned off" by touching it. It was, and it kinda woke me up.)

On a side note, 9 out of 10 Gnarfs are not Gangrell.