Lateral Thinking Questions
From Adviceopedia
Do you want to use lateral thinking questions to stretch your brain? They can be fun and a little addictive as you try to find the best possible explanation!
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About Lateral Thinking Questions
About the Questions
Lateral questions have no obvious answer. They require you to think outside of the box in an attempt to discover solutions. They are a way to train your mind to not always dive into a problem thinking that the most direct answer is the best; sometimes those answers will not accomplish anything with trick questions like these. When solving these puzzles, you're confronted with a scene. You'll have to use the scraps of clues in the very brief description to determine what happened.
This type of question is what happens when storytelling and puzzles meet, dropping clues in the question that help you determine which side route to take in finding the solution. They're fun to consider on your own, but they're even more entertaining when you have a group of people trying to turn the problem over together. In many cases, you'll find that the questions tend to revolve around death and unpleasant scenarios.
In some cases, there will not be just one answer. You and your friends can have fun trying to come up with alternate solutions to lateral thinking questions, getting hours of mind exercises from just a handful of questions.
Sample Questions and Answers
A hairdresser said he would rather cut the hair of three Europeans rather than one American. Why would this be?
- He would earn three times as much.
A policeman witnessed a truck driver going the wrong way down a one-way street, but didn't attempt to stop him. Why not?
- The truck driver was walking.
A man and his wife drove through the streets at a rapid speed. The man stopped the car; he got out and when he got back to the car, his wife was dead and there was a stranger there. What happened?
- The woman gave birth to a baby in the car but did not survive. The husband had made it to the hospital and jumped out to get a wheelchair for her.
How could a woman give birth to two sons at the same time of the same day, same month, and same year, without those sons being twins? She has no access to a time machine.
- The sons are two of a set of triplets (or more).
A man crashed his car into a fast-flowing river, broke his arm, could not unbuckle his seatbelt, and became trapped in the car. The car fell all the way to the bottom of the river, yet two hours later when help arrived, he was still alive even though he was still in the river. How is this possible?
- The water was only deep enough to come up to his chest.
A man who marries twenty of the village women isn't charged with polygamy. How is this so?
- He's a priest, so he's conducting the wedding ceremonies—not marrying each of the women himself.
A man purchases rice in America for $1.00 per pound, then he resells it in Africa for $.05 per pound. Because of this, he becomes a millionaire. Why?
- The man starts out as a billionaire, but through philanthropy work, providing food to the less fortunate, loses a great deal of his fortune and becomes a millionaire.
A man who lives on the 12th floor of an apartment building takes the elevator down to the lobby every day and leaves the building. When he gets back, he gets back into the elevator and if someone else is in there with him or if it has been raining, he takes the elevator all the way back to the twelfth floor. If the elevator is empty and there has been no rain, he gets out on the tenth floor and takes the stairs the rest of the way. Why?
- The man is a dwarf. He can reach the button for the twelfth floor with his umbrella or get someone else to push the button for him. Alone, he can only reach the button for the tenth floor.
A woman has absolute proof that her sister killed her husband. The judge states that the case is the oddest he has ever seen, but that the woman obviously cannot be punished for her crime. Why?
- The sisters are conjoined twins.
Adults are standing in line, holding their children. They give their children to a man, one at a time, while a woman shoots them. If the child is crying, the man tries to calm him down before he is shot. What is happening?
- Children are having their pictures taken with Santa.
Final Thoughts
Lateral thinking questions give you and your friends a chance to increase your brainpower as you rely on clues to completely understand a situation when presented with a vague description. They all have answers, and in some cases, more than one answer fits the case. If you enjoy logic puzzles and wordplay, you'll enjoy this type of mental exercise.
You can also engage in some of the puzzle-related conversations at Lateral Puzzles and try to determine the answers before the others on the forum. For more puzzles to enjoy alone or with your friends, you can visit Mycoted.com.
