Richard Wiseman's Blog, page 56

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

Here is the puzzle.  As ever, please do NOT post your answers, but do say if you think you have solved the puzzle and how long it took. Solution on Monday.

Given a sack of sugar, an unbalanced scale, and two 5-pound weights, measure exactly 10 pounds of sugar.

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

In front or behind?

Several people have sent me this great picture – can you figure out which building is in front of the other?

Does it keep flipping? Any idea where it is?

Take a look at this……

…..

Did you mis-read the the first line? How about the line you just read?  Many thanks to @brownhillsdog for bring it to my attention!

Best illusion clip on YouTube?

Richard R recently brought my attention to this great clip.  I originally saw this many years ago, and it was my main motivation for putting material on YouTube….

The switch of perspective is genius.  What do you think?  Does this deserve cult status?

Answer to the Friday Puzzle!

Here is the puzzle.  As ever, please do NOT post your answers, but do say if you think you have solved the puzzle and how long it took. Solution on Monday.

You are all alone on a desert island and want to measure exactly 3 inches (I have no idea why, but that isn’t important right now). Unfortunately, you have only an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper. How can you use it to measure exactly 3 inches?

If you have not tried to solve the puzzle, have a go now.  For everyone else the answer is after the break.

“Dog-ear” the page by folding one corner across to the opposite side. The area below the dog-eared portion will measure 8.5 x 2.5. Reopen the paper and fold this 8.5 x 2.5 portion up into the page. The area that remains uncovered measures 8.5 x 6; it can be folded in half to produce a height of 3 inches.

Did you solve it?  Any other solutions?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

Here is the puzzle.  As ever, please do NOT post your answers, but do say if you think you have solved the puzzle and how long it took. Solution on Monday.

You are all alone on a desert island and want to measure exactly 3 inches (I have no idea why, but that isn’t important right now). Unfortunately, you have only an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper. How can you use it to measure exactly 3 inches?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

Evil popcorn…..

To help celebrate Halloween, here is a very scary piece of popcorn….

It looks like a random example of pareidolia, but was actually created by a talented Polish artist named Kate (thank to @BadAstronomer, @pappubahry and @catmittens for tracking down the source).  Like it?

How not to stack newspapers…..

@Baddiel brought my attention to this very interesting stack of newspapers…..

Can anyone identify who it is?

Answer to the Friday Puzzle….

On Friday I set this puzzle……

Two fathers and two sons were seated round a table.  There were four apples on the table.  Each of them took one apple and ate it entirely yet there was still one apple left on the table. How was this possible?

If you have not tried to solve it, have a go now.  For everyone else the answer is after the break.

There were only three persons at the table - a grandfather, his son and his grandson.

Did you solve it?  Any other answers?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.

It’s the Friday Puzzle!

Here is the puzzle.  As ever, please do NOT post your answers, but do say if you think you have solved the puzzle and how long it took. Solution on Monday.

Two fathers and two sons were seated round a table.  There were four apples on the table.  Each of them took one apple and ate it entirely yet there was still one apple left on the table. How was this possible?

I have produced an ebook containing 101 of the previous Friday Puzzles! It is called PUZZLED and is available for the Kindle (UK here and USA here) and on the iBookstore (UK here in the USA here). You can try 101 of the puzzles for free here.