SPOILER ALERT: These are the answers to a series of lateral thinking puzzles. Click here to read the lateral thinking questions first. Try not to look at these answers until you’ve had a crack!
1. Eggs in a basket
There are six eggs in a basket. Six people each take one of the eggs. How can it be that there is still one egg left in the basket?
Answer: The last person to take an egg, also takes the basket.
2. The Man in the bar
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. What’s going on?
Answer: The barman could tell the man had hiccoughs as soon as he asked for the glass of water. He drew the gun in order to shock him – a shock being a well-known cure for hiccoughing. It worked, so the man no longer needed the water and left after thanking the barman for the cure.
3. Death in a field
A man is lying dead in a field. Next to him there is an unopened package. There is no other creature in the field. How did he die?
Answer: The man had jumped from a plane, but his parachute had failed to open. The parachute is the unopened package lying next to him.
4. Push the car
A man pushed his car. He stopped when he reached a hotel at which point he knew he was bankrupt. Why?
Answer: He was playing Monopoly.
5. Two daughters
A woman had two daughters who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same month of the same year. But they were not twins. How can this be?
Answer: They were two of triplets.
6. The choke
A man is in dark room having a great time. Suddenly, he stops breathing and can’t speak. In a matter of moments his breathing returns to normal. What happened?
Answer: The man was at the movie theatre enjoying a film. He chokes on an ice cube in his drink, but the ice quickly melts and his breathing returns to normal.
7. The coal, carrot and scarf
Five pieces of coal, a carrot and a scarf are lying on the lawn. Nobody put them on the lawn but there is a perfectly logical reason why they are there. What is it?
Answer: Children built a snowman and decorated him with coal for eyes and buttons, a carrot for a nose and a scarf around his neck. Then the snow melted.
8. Commotion
Several voices were heard coming from the other room. There was a lot of commotion however when the room was checked there was only one person sitting quietly inside. This person wasn’t crazy, so what’s going on?
Answer: The voices were coming from a TV.
9. The drive
A man is driving on a sunny day when suddenly it starts to rain extremely hard. A few minutes later the rain stops, instead a gusty wind picks up. Very quickly it is so windy that the car starts to shake due to the hurricane force winds. Just as quickly, the wind drops completely away and the man was able to drive safely home. What’s going on with the weather?
Answer: Nothing is going on with the weather, rather the man drove his car through an automatic car wash.
10. Life and death
Frank was born in 1933 and died in 1946 at the age of 75. How can this be?
Answer: Frank was born in room number 1933 at the hospital, and died in room number 1946 at the hospital.
11. Lightbulb moment
You are standing next to three light switches. All three switches are now in position off. You know these switches belong to three lights in another room, but you can’t see into the other room.
You can do whatever you want with the switches and when you are finished you will go into the other room and say which switch belongs to which bulb.
How will you do that?
Answer: Turn on the first switch and wait for at least five minutes. Turn off the first one and then turn on the second, leaving it on. Once you get into the other room, you’ll find the second bulb still shining, the first bulb is hot and the third one nothing.
12. Cake time
How can you divide a cake into eight pieces using just three cuts?
Answer: Cut the cake into four pieces using two cuts, then cut the cake horizontally in half with your third cut, making eight pieces.
How did you go on the lateral thinking puzzles?
Image by Suzy Hazelwood