THe opposte of Abject Stupidity.
Lets have some brainteasers where even the cleverest of us (ahem!) will get some wrong. INTERESTING ones please, not difficult sums or complicated puzzles that are easy to solve if you can be bothered going through endless repetitions of mechanical steps (ie not "Logic Puzzle" magazine stuff).
Or better still, ones where the discussions about what is the right answer are more interesting than the answers themselves.
Not just maths - any questions where the obviously right answer ISN'T.
Please give each puzzle a title, so people can quote it when giving answers, or discussing it...
For starters
TRAIN and WASP
============
Train travelling South at 100mph. Wasp (outside the train) travelling North at 5mph.
Wasp hits windscreen. The train decelerates the wasp from 5mph North to 100mph South. The wasp remains stuck to the windscreen.
QUESTION : There is an instant when the wasp is travelling at zero mph. At that instant it is still touching the train. So the train is ALSO travelling at zero mph at that instant!
YES or NO? Why?
If you KNOW you know the answer, hold off for a bit. If you THINK you know, have a go.
Lets have some brainteasers where even the cleverest of us (ahem!) will get some wrong. INTERESTING ones please, not difficult sums or complicated puzzles that are easy to solve if you can be bothered going through endless repetitions of mechanical steps (ie not "Logic Puzzle" magazine stuff).
Or better still, ones where the discussions about what is the right answer are more interesting than the answers themselves.
Not just maths - any questions where the obviously right answer ISN'T.
Please give each puzzle a title, so people can quote it when giving answers, or discussing it...
For starters
TRAIN and WASP
============
Train travelling South at 100mph. Wasp (outside the train) travelling North at 5mph.
Wasp hits windscreen. The train decelerates the wasp from 5mph North to 100mph South. The wasp remains stuck to the windscreen.
QUESTION : There is an instant when the wasp is travelling at zero mph. At that instant it is still touching the train. So the train is ALSO travelling at zero mph at that instant!
YES or NO? Why?
If you KNOW you know the answer, hold off for a bit. If you THINK you know, have a go.