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        riddles >> what happened >> Lighthouse, Broken Pencil... Others?
        
(Message started by: lar on Mar 1^st, 2005, 10:08am)

Title: Lighthouse, Broken Pencil... Others?
Post by lar on Mar 1^st, 2005, 10:08am

Riddle 1:
"Before going to bed, a man shuts off all the lights. Waking up in the morning, the man picks up a newspaper and, upon reading the headline, becomes so distraught that he kills himself. Why?"

Riddle 2:
"A man lies dead at his desk with a gunshot wound to the head. His door is locked from the inside, the window behind him is closed, and a pencil lies broken on the floor. How did he die?"

I'm sure most of you have heard these riddles before (and I apoligize if I worded them poorly). When I was growing up, my family would ask riddles like these to us kids, allowing us to ask yes/no questions about the situation until we could solve the puzzle. I had great fun doing this.

Now, I am tutoring a 13 yr old in math, and I think asking these types of riddles (with the yes/no questions) is a good way to start the sessions. The thing is, I only know 4 or 5 of them, so they'll run out pretty quick. Does anyone here know of a good place to find these kinds of riddles? Or does anyone know any others to add? Is there a specific name for these riddles?

Any information would be great. Thanks, everyone.

Title: Re: Lighthouse, Broken Pencil... Others?
Post by THUDandBLUNDER on Mar 1^st, 2005, 11:10am

Quote:

Does anyone here know of a good place to find these kinds of riddles? Or does anyone know any others to add? Is there a specific name for these riddles?

Any information would be great.

They are called lateral thinking puzzles.

Here (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=riddles_whathappened) is a very good place to start. ::)

Title: Re: Lighthouse, Broken Pencil... Others?
Post by Sir Col on Mar 1^st, 2005, 4:01pm

You may wish to check out the range of books by Paul Sloane, et al, who is pretty much the king of lateral thinking puzzles.

The rec.puzzle archives have a selection of some of his puzzles:
http://rec-puzzles.org/lateral.html

Title: Re: Lighthouse, Broken Pencil... Others?
Post by lar on Mar 1^st, 2005, 8:32pm

Thanks for the help, guys. Both links were a great help.

It kind of seems like many lateral thinking puzzles all end up being the same thing, doesn't it?

Title: Re: Lighthouse, Broken Pencil... Others?
Post by Padzok on Mar 3^rd, 2005, 3:08pm

on 03/01/05 at 20:32:44, lar wrote:

It kind of seems like many lateral thinking puzzles all end up being the same thing, doesn't it?

Er..like, "ice", you mean? 8)

Title: Re: Lighthouse, Broken Pencil... Others?
Post by jenniegurl on Jun 26^th, 2005, 8:08am

on 03/01/05 at 10:08:46, lar wrote:

he was homer simson at the nuclear power plant and he shut off all the light switches so the whole city had no light for the night and when he woke up as he was eating his jelly donut he read the newspaper and realized he had been really stupid so he killed himself and died.

Title: Re: Lighthouse, Broken Pencil... Others?
Post by RIM on Oct 28^th, 2005, 11:15am

on 03/01/05 at 10:08:46, lar wrote:

Riddle 2:
"A man lies dead at his desk with a gunshot wound to the head. His door is locked from the inside, the window behind him is closed, and a pencil lies broken on the floor. How did he die?"

Is this a misdirection riddle? Like the answer is he died from the gunshot wound to the head and all the other stuff is just added in there to confuse you?