I can kill people, or cause great pain. You eat me. I can mean you’re crazy. I hold things together. I help climbers stay safe. I can replace a swear. And I’m on a violin.
People with nut allergies can die from eating nuts. Being hit in the nuts hurts (I speak from experience. Painful, painful experience). You eat nuts (unless you’re allergic, in which case you should run away). If someone says you’re nuts, it doesn’t mean you’re a peanut or an almond. Nuts and bolts hold things together. A climber’s nut or chock wedges into a rock. Instead of swearing, you can say, “Aww nuts!”. And finally, the nut on a violin is a small piece of hard material that supports the strings.
Four cards are placed in front of you on the table, each with a number on one side and a color on the other. The visible cards show 3, 8, red and brown. Which cards should you turn over in order to test the truth of the statement that if a card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite face is red?
You’d need to turn over only the 8 and brown card. Only a card with an even number on one face and which is not red on the other face can invalidate the stated rule. If you turn over the 3 card and it’s not red, it doesn’t invalidate the rule, nor does turning over the red card and finding it has the label 3.
This test was devised by Peter Cathcart Wason and is known as the Wason selection task. Less than 10% of test subjects got it correct in two separate studies.
A father gathered his three sons and told them he would die soon and needed to decide which son would inherit his land. He gave them the following test.
“Go to the market and purchase something that is large enough to fill my bedroom, but small enough to fit in your pocket. Based on what you bring I will decide which of you is wisest.”
All three sons went to the market in search of something to satisfy their father’s demands. When they returned the father gathered them in his bedroom.
The first son put down pieces of cloth that he had bought and laid them end to end across the room, but it barely covered any of the floor.
The second son laid down hay but there was only enough to cover part of the floor.
The third son showed his father what he had purchased and the father announced, “You are truly the wisest and will inherit my land.”
They all fall in the middle. 15 February was the middle of February (1984 being a leap year). 2 July was the middle day of the year 1983. And 16 December was the middle of December.
Daughter-in-law. Her daughter’s father is her husband (she’s only been married once and is devoted, meaning she didn’t have an affair). This means John’s son is her husband, so John is her father-in-law, making her the daughter-in-law.
I’m found on a hand and also a tree, You’ll find me on Sunday, occasionally, Records, pictures, islands and brew, From August to Wolfgang and Sago for you.
A variation of this brain teaser includes laser printers (they were invented by Gary Starkweather) and bulletproof vests (invented by Casimir Zeglen using silk, though modern vests use Kevlar, so it’s halfway right).
