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Passing Second in a Race

If you are running in a race and pass the person in second place, what position are you in?

Second place. If you guessed first place, the person in first place is still there. But I’m sure you’re catching up.

Posted in Brain Teasers

 

44 Comments on "Passing Second in a Race"


Vj says
July 27, 2015 @ 02:28

Good


xavier says
August 18, 2015 @ 15:17

you will take the second place


Manny says
November 9, 2015 @ 20:52

It depends on which direction you’re running.


The Sphinx says
December 18, 2015 @ 20:08

@Manny

Ooh, yeah. If you are running in the opposite direction, you would be third place. This is tricky to some people, but if you pass the second place, YOU TAKE HIS PLACE.


xxxCATxxx says
November 20, 2016 @ 20:34

@Manny

My mom thought the same lol


@Rly@ says
November 25, 2016 @ 16:17

If you are running in the opposite direction, you are NOT in the race. Listen to the question CAREFULLY and stop trying to be smarter than you are.


Jose says
December 6, 2016 @ 01:51

There’s so many things wrong with this riddle.

Misinformation can take place because of wordplay and context usage.

For example, one can interpret that because the person who’s in second place, is in “2nd Place” as a state of ‘finishing’ the race, the person coming to ‘pass the persong in 2nd Place’ would actually be 3rd place.

The supposed answer that is generally mistaken but can also be correct, is becoming 1st place in the context of “passing 2nd place.” When you pass the person in second place, the call to question is his place of becoming second. You can become 1st if and only if the person in second place is second because of you passing him. Meaning, his state of 2nd place is because of you being the only person to pass him to become 1st.

Then the ‘official’ answer of becoming 2nd, due to little context of time placement. You become 2nd, when the person in place of 2nd is being stripped from his place when there’s another runner(someone placing 1st) ahead.

This is a really dumb riddle, but its just my opinion.


BigAce says
December 20, 2016 @ 11:48

For folk saying the answer is 2nd place. What happens if it is a Two man race? Why does one assume there is more than two participants? The only way to qualify there was more than two participants it would cause for the question to include the words WHO WAS, ex. If you were running in a race and pass the person WHO WAS in Second place (which determines they are now even lower than second place), what position are you in? If the words WHO WAS are not included the person is IN second place once you’ve passed him leaving you IN first place. ?????? With illustrations, if the Person in first place only passed one person, who did he pass?? Did he pass the guy IN 3rd place or the guy IN 2nd place?? The answer would be the person IN 2nd place. So by passing the Person IN 2nd place that left the guy doing the passing IN 1st place. You’re Welcome.


Dan says
December 21, 2016 @ 08:55

You couldn’t pass the person in second place if there were only two participants.


Rome says
January 23, 2017 @ 13:14

The question is like this….”if u are passing the 2nd…” – that means there is someone on the first place. And that means also there are 2 persons already. And the question started like this…”if u are in running in a race” –>that makes it 3 persons already. So the argument of having only 2 persons is totally WRONG!!! BigAce…U R absolutely wrong!?


Jawsqaure says
December 7, 2017 @ 07:53

Its second place


anthony horton says
December 15, 2017 @ 19:55

I’ve been doing a trick-question quiz today and assumed the answer was second. Now it seems that people assume otherwise. Even my daft sister thought the same as I.
There is no trick.


Cool emoji girl says
January 26, 2018 @ 11:58

I got the right answer to this question ~ it is second place


Mufaro says
September 29, 2018 @ 13:57

This teaser is messing with our brains, nice one


fallenangel197 says
October 2, 2018 @ 17:54

I was doing this and not thinking straight and answered 1st really quickly. Then I smacked myself in the face and said WOWWWWW and realized he is in 2nd lol ?


Wasim luiz says
November 15, 2018 @ 17:46

See it is very simple ,see if u overcome the person in the second place clearly there should be atleast 3 participants .when u overcome the 2nd person u r urself reaching to 2nd position because u overtake the 2nd ,many of us said 1 ,no man if u supposed to be in position 1 u have overcome the runner in the 1st position,ty .hope its helpful to u looking for.


Catherine says
January 12, 2019 @ 09:17

This totoally makes sense when you actually stop to think about. I said first at first, but now I understand why it’s second. The answer lies in the first part of the riddle. Let me explain:

The first part says: “If you are running in a race and pass the person in second place…” The phrase here would suggest that ‘‘you’’ are currently in 3rd place and by passing the person in 2nd place “you” therefore take over 2nd place. “You” can’t be in 2nd place “and pass the person in second place…” which would mean you having to pass themselves which makes no sense. With this statement, you can’t be in 1st place when you pass the person in 2nd place because you couldn’t be in 2nd place to begin with. In order for you to be in 1st place by passing the person in 2nd, the person in 1st would have to be second which is impossible if you are the one in 2nd place.

I think why the answer got me to begin with was because in my mind, I was thinking “and you pass the second person”. If the riddle read like this: “If you are running in a race and pass the second person (notice how the word “place” was taken out from second place person) then the answer of you being in first would make sense.


Caldirun says
March 13, 2019 @ 09:35

I have passed the person in second place and still remained in sixth place, how?


Chloe says
June 21, 2019 @ 17:31

You would be in 2nd place because you have not passed the player in 1st.


Rod says
September 9, 2019 @ 20:56

This is incorrect because of the wording if you passed (passed tense) the person in second place (present tense) you are in First place. Now if the question was you passed the person who was in Second place then you would be in second place


Sudhanshu says
September 15, 2019 @ 03:24

Answer will be 1st


Sam Killawee says
November 26, 2019 @ 19:27

duhhh ofc its 2nd


To Rod says
December 17, 2019 @ 15:49

It never said passed.


olivia cruz says
January 7, 2020 @ 20:22

if you are running a race and you pass the 2nd person that would make you in 2nd place not 1st place.


Steve says
March 14, 2020 @ 11:17

2nd potion


Zrinka says
March 19, 2020 @ 10:35

You’d be in 2nd place because you were behind the runner in the second place then you passed them which makes them 3rd now and you 2nd. Kapish?


Butch Davis says
May 17, 2020 @ 13:50

You are in second place


bob says
June 16, 2020 @ 18:55

yah second place duh


Lydia says
October 7, 2020 @ 18:53

2nd place peep’s and don’t get me wrong if you ran passed the 2nd person the you were 3 on the race but since you run passed the person that was 2nd that make’s you 2nd not 1.


Nathania says
October 14, 2020 @ 05:36

I actually DID NOT understand this riddle
Can someone be kind and explain this to me?
PLEASE????


Selena gomez says
October 15, 2020 @ 01:25

Umm…..

Even i did’nt understand it.


Jordyn says
November 3, 2020 @ 08:54

HELP IT DID ME ANWSER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1


Franklin says
January 9, 2021 @ 18:45

@Dan I know right, this is by far the stupidest answer yet.


Jane says
March 5, 2021 @ 23:44

Ok – good to know that I’m not the only one who googled this ! 😜


Nathan says
August 12, 2021 @ 21:38

The “obvious” answer to this question is that when a participant in a race passes the person in second place he or she will displace that individual and take over the second position ,however,this is so only in the absence certain variables which are unique as well as very common in track races. First, in track races it is not at all unusual for participants to be separated by fractions of a second or a fraction of an inch;Second, in track a tie (where two or more runners share the same place) is permissible;and lastly, we must consider the difference in the stride of each runner. This question also has one significant flaw in that it doesn’t tell us the proximity of the runner in 1st place to the runner in second place. These additional track related variables give us three other plausible outcomes which can occur when the second placed runner is passed by another runner: 1)as has been pointed out elsewhere as well as above,the runner who passes him will move to second place regulating him to third place;2)or the runner who passed the second place runner will move into a tie with the 1st place runner in which case the second place runner will remain in second place;3)or finally,the combination of the speed and stride of the runner who passes the second place runner will be enough to compel him into 1st place. The last possibility would assume that all three runners were -though in different positions (1st,2nd and 3rd) were initially separated by only fractions of an inch- a distance which is quite common in track races. In summary, in consideration of the above mentioned variables which are quite common occurrences in track races, the individual who passes the second place runner could end up in second,tied for first place,or in 1st place.


Quiet says
November 13, 2021 @ 22:32

It as to 2 place but so many people say u will 1 place which is wrong


Will says
January 12, 2022 @ 08:38

The person “passing” could be on a bike going in the opposite direction, so he might be in no place because he’s not even in the race.


Mike says
May 20, 2022 @ 18:45

Its 2nd place because if its only 2 people in the race then if u pass the person in 2nd place then that wouldn’t be possible. U would be in 2nd and he wouldn’t. He would be in first. However u may feel, the correct answer is 2nd place because if u pass him u would now be in 2nd because obviously if he is in second then someone must be in front of him. So u can’t pass 2nd and be in first..u would be in 2nd but if u pass the person in first then u would be in first place..hope yall got all that. This is 100 percent accurate!


XxKingJTuckxX says
August 4, 2022 @ 14:53

Since it isn’t specified what place you are in or whether you are “overtaking” or “overlapping”, you could be in first or second.


MickeyMousse says
August 26, 2022 @ 02:34

Nathan, your ability to BS and make nutty statements is impressive. You’d make an outstanding salesman or lawyer.


Arsenalytgg coolboial3rt says
December 5, 2022 @ 15:54

so is this a riddle or a question????????????????


Nathan says
February 11, 2023 @ 11:39

I agree with people above, the wording of this riddle is ignorant. If you pass the person IN 2nd place, then you are saying they are IN second place at the present moment, so therefore you ARE IN FIRST. Past present future, there are no indications of such, therefore you have to Presume that the person IS IN SECOND at this very moment, and you’re winning


Ryan says
February 20, 2023 @ 02:40

If you pass the person in 2nd place, you take 2nd place. It’s a reading comprehension riddle, there isn’t any misinformation. It’s common sense. If you pass up anybody in any place, you take the place they were in. The context of the riddle let’s you know that, because in order for you take 2nd there has to be someone ahead of them for them to be in 2nd place to begin with lol.


TheIdiocyOfTheInternet says
February 21, 2023 @ 00:41

This entire thread epitomizes the inability of people to read and understand.

This thread should have been OVER by the second post dated August 18, 2015.

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xavier says
August 18, 2015 @ 15:17

you will take the second place
******************

Done. No further discussion needed, and particularly not all the idiocy that followed. Such as… “What if the race only has two people?” You have to be in 3rd place to pass the person in 2nd and you can’t be 3rd place in a race of only two people.


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