Situation puzzle
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Situation puzzles are often referred to as lateral thinking puzzles or "yes/no" puzzles.
Situation puzzles are usually played in a group, with one person hosting the puzzle and the others asking questions which can only be answered with a "yes" or "no" answer. Depending upon the settings and level of difficulty, other answers, like "irrelevant" or hints or simple explanations of why the answer is yes or no, may be considered acceptable. The puzzle is solved when one of the players can recite the narrative the host had in mind, in particular explaining whatever aspect of the initial scenario was puzzling.
These puzzles are inexact and many puzzle statements have more than one possible fitting answer. The goal however is to find out the story as the host has it in mind. Critical thinking and reading, logical thinking, as well as lateral thinking may all be required to solve a situation puzzle. The term lateral thinking was coined by Edward De Bono to denote a creative problem-solving style that involves looking at the given situation from unexpected angles, and is typically necessary to the solution of situation puzzles. The term lateral thinking puzzle has been popularised for this type of puzzle by Paul Sloane who has written many books of such puzzles.
Players should be forewarned that if they have heard the puzzle previously (or after a few questions are asked and they realize they have figured out the answer prematurely), they should avoid spoiling the puzzle for the other participants by either privately questioning the host to confirm their suspected conclusion or simply listening and not actively participating. Hosts should also be careful to gauge the age and skill level of players in order to avoid having to provide hints. Some puzzles are simple while others can take lengthy explanations and, therefore, more time to discover all the detail and intricacy. Often beginning with a few simple puzzles and progressively hosting more and more complicated puzzles will allow players to develop confidence and increase their interest in continuing to work on additional puzzles. Also, realize that some puzzles may be more suitable for adult players due to the historical references or mature players depending upon the graphic (particularly with the morbid) nature of the content. These puzzles are popular among educators and can be used to encourage students to use more critical thinking and deductive reasoning. Working on these puzzles, particularly with a group of students or children, while doing mundane work, traveling or participating in an activity where there is plenty of idle time (such as standing in lines at an amusement park or during a layover at an airport) can help alleviate boredom.
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[edit] Examples
One of the most famous situation puzzles is told similar to this:
A man walks into a bar, and asks the bartender for a drink of water. The bartender pulls out a gun, points it at the man, and cocks it. The man says "Thank you" and leaves. What happened?
The question and answer segment might go something like this.
- Question: Could the bartender hear him? Answer: Yes
- Question: Was the bartender angry for some reason? A: No
- Question: Was the gun a water pistol? A: No
- Question: Did they know each other from before? A: No (or: "irrelevant" since either way it does not affect the outcome)
- Question: Was the man's "Thank you" sarcastic? A: No (or with a small hint: "No, he was genuinely grateful for some reason")
- Question: Did the man ask for water in an offensive way? A: No
- Question: Did the man ask for water in some strange way? A: Yes
Eventually the questions lead up to the conclusion: The man had the hiccups, and his reason for requesting a drink of water was not for thirst but to cure his hiccups. The bartender realized this and chose instead to cure the hiccups by frightening the man with the gun. Once the man realized that his hiccups were gone, he was grateful, no longer needed a drink of water, thanked the bartender and left.
Some typical puzzle statements are
- Cleopatra and Mark Antony are found dead, naked in a shattered glass house. How did this happen?
- A father and his son were in a car accident. The father was dead on impact, and the son was severely injured and rushed to the hospital. The surgeon refused to operate on the injured boy, saying "I can't operate on him, he's my son!" How is this possible?
- Hunters came upon a cabin in the woods, where inside they found two dead. At first glance, it was obvious how they died. How did they die?
- Tom is found dead in the living room, with a bar across his back. How did he die?
- Adults are holding children, waiting their turn. The children are handed to a man, who holds them while a woman shoots them. Their parents are pleased. Why?
- A man walks into a bar and orders a bowl of albatross soup. He takes one bite, then walks into the bathroom and kills himself. Why? (This puzzle would be considered difficult because of the complexity of the solution.)
These are considered classic situation puzzles since they are widely known. While some or even most of the information needed to solve them is given in the initial statement, players would often have to ask questions in order to reach a conclusion about the "situation".
[edit] Solutions
- Cleopatra and Mark Antony are goldfish in a carelessly knocked-over glass fishbowl.
- The surgeon's a female, the boy's mother.
- The two dead men are the pilot and copilot of a plane that has crashed. They are inside the plane's "cabin".
- Tom is a mouse, killed by a mousetrap.
- Shoots is used in a photographical sense. She is taking pictures, or "shooting" them.
- The man was previously in a survival situation and lost at sea. While incapacitated from his injuries, he was kept alive by the other survivors by eating what they told him was "albatross soup". The soup he ordered at the restaurant tasted completely different and it was at this moment that he concluded that the soup he had previously eaten while stranded was not made with flesh of an Albatross. The only other meat available during their survival situation, human flesh—corpse or otherwise, must have been used for the soup. Confronted with this revelation, he commits suicide. A variation is that his best friend may have been among those who were also injured and sacrificed (or murdered) to keep the others alive and the guilt is what drives him to commit suicide.
[edit] Terminology
- Yope is a word devised to answer a question with yes and no simultaneously. You can think of it as an answer saying Yes, but ... and No, but ... at the same time. This would be used when it would be misleading to give a simple "yes" or "no" answer to the player's question.
- N/a (or stating "irrelevant") is used when a question is not applicable to the current situation or a when a "yes" or "no" answer would not provide any usable information to solving the puzzle.
- Irrelevant, but assume yes is used when the situation is the same regardless of what the correct answer to the question is, but assuming one direction will make further questioning easier or the situation more likely. An example question that might have this answer from the puzzle above is: "Was the bartender male?"
[edit] External links
- Classic Lateral Thinking Puzzles
- Lateral Puzzles Forum
- Impossible Situations - Situations that sound impossible but logically correct
[edit] Further reading
- Edward De Bono, Lateral Thinking : Creativity Step by Step, Harper & Row, 1973, trade paperback, 300 pages, ISBN 0-06-090325-2
- Paul Sloane, Lateral Thinking Puzzlers, Sterling Publishing, 1991, paperback,
- Paul Sloane, The Leader's Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills: Powerful Problem-Solving Techniques to Ignite Your Team's Potential, Stylus Pub Llc, 2003, paperback, 186 pages, ISBN 0-7494-4002-3
