Thursday, December 17, 2009

Brain Fitness Test

Here there are 10 brain teasers.
You get one point for each correct answer.
If you get 10 points you are a genius
5 points you are half a genius.
Zero points - you are no genius :)


1 - If you are in a dark room with a candle, a wood stove and a gas lamp.
You only have one match, so what do you light first?

2 - Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Sunday?

3 - You are caught by the Moroccan police without wearing socks and condemned to spend a night in prison.
You have three rooms to choose from to spend your night.
First is a room full of poisonous scorpions.
Second a room full of sadistic criminals.
And third a room full of lions that haven’t eaten in three years.
Which room should you choose?

4 - Mary’s father has five daughters and no sons.
He named the first daughter Nana, the second Nene the third Nini and the forth Nono.
What is the name of the fifth daughter?

5 - You are participating in a race.
If you overtake the second person in the race, what position are you in?

6 – A father and his teenager son are in a very bad car accident and rush to the hospital.
The paramedics take them to the emergency room.
The surgeon enters the room, looks at the teenage boy and says:
- I can not operate on this boy. He is my son.
Who is the surgeon?

7 – You have three boxes of nails and screws and all three are labeled incorrectly.
The box #1 is labeled “nails”
The box #2 is labeled “screws”
The box #3 is labeled “screws and nails”
Can you put the labels in the correct order by picking only one item from only one box?
How?

8 – Mary wants to buy a red balloon and a pink ribbon.
The total cost is $ 1.10. She asks the clerk how much the balloon costs and the clerk tells her that the balloon costs $ 1 more than the ribbon.
How much does the ribbon costs?

9 - Three people check into a hotel. They pay $30 to the manager for one room.
The manager later realizes that the room rate is $25 and gives $5 to the bellboy to return to the people.
On the way to the room the bellboy reasons that $5 would be difficult to share among three people so he pockets $2 and gives $1 to each person.
Now each person paid $10 and got back $1. So they paid $9 each, totaling $27.
The bellboy has $2, totaling $29. Where is the missing $1?

10 – A train going 100 Mph leaves Kalamazoo going to Chicago.
At the same time a plain flying 500 Mph leaves Chicago going towards the train.
When the plain meets the train it turns around back to Chicago and when it reaches Chicago it turns around towards the train.
The plain keeps flying between Chicago and the train until the train reaches Chicago.
Knowing the distance between Chicago and Kalamazoo is 1000 miles.
What was the distance the plane flew?


ANSWERS:

1 – The match.

2 - Yesterday, today and tomorrow.

3 – The lion’s room. - After three years they should be dead.

4 - Mary

5 – Second

6 – The mother of the boy

7- Yes. - You pick one item from box # 3 and whatever you pick it will be the correct item.
Let’s say it is a nail then the box #3 is nails. That means box #2 can not contain nails or screws so it has to be “nails & screws” which leaves box # 1 to be “screws”

8 – The ribbon costs 5 cents - $ 0.05 + 1.05 = 1.10

9 - Originally, they paid $30, they each received back $1, they now have only paid $27. Of this $27, $25 went to the manager for the room and $2 went to the bellboy.

10 – The time it takes the train to reach Chicago is 1000 : 100 = 10 hours which is the total time the plane is flying, therefore the distance the plain flies is 500 X 10 = 5000 miles.

15 comments:

Argent said...

I love this kind of thing but I'm only half a genius - I completely overlooked the basic biological fact that lions can't live without food for 3 years. Guess that Zookeeper job is out of the question now then. These kinds of things really highlight how our brains gloss over some key facts and highlight other irrelevant ons. The Mary question being a good case. I overlooked (didn't read properly) that Mary was the daughter and got caught up in patter-recognition a e i o u.
Thanks for the fun.

Lydia said...

Another half-genius reporting in!
That nails and screws one is driving me crazy. How would you know if there were not also screws in #3 when you pick up the nail? I'm assuming you wouldn't be allowed to plow through it with your hand, but instead could pick only one item. If that's the case, then it seems that #3 could also contain screws, in which case there would be both nails and screws.

I think I need some sleep!

Unknown said...

@ Lydia - since #3 is marked "screws & nails" and we know the label is wrong #3 can only have either "nails" or "screws" but not both.
That is a tricky part :)

Ted Bagley said...

Buddha. Half a genius??

Mariana Soffer said...

Genious and a half, but I do not belive in test, they are biassed towards different stuff

Quantum_Flux said...

What if all three boxes contained washers?

Stefanie said...

I surprised myself and got all but one - the silliest one - Mary!
Thanks for the fun.

Quantum_Flux said...

...assuming Mary is a girl.

Unknown said...

This is totally for "entertainment" purposes and have no scientific value.
I collect this kind of puzzles for my daughter and I have to admit I am not very good at solving them - My biggest problem is that I do not pay attention to details :)
@ Quantum - Good points!
I corrected the puzzles :)

Quantum_Flux said...

Well, pardon my attack on inductive reasoning, lol....good puzzles BoH.

mali-san said...

And if I answer correct 8 what kind of genius I am?

Ted Bagley said...

Merry Christmas, Buddha! :)

Argent said...

Indeed, I wish you and yours a very happy and preaceful Christmas and New Year.

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

excellent quiz - merry xmas

It's not xmas without a quiz!

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year to you and yours ... all the best for 2010.