Here are the answers to the lateral thinking puzzles page.
- He threw the ball straight up in the air, and it fell back down.
- "Switch horses!"
- He dropped the egg three feet above the floor. The egg fell two feet without breaking.
- The man was crossing a railway bridge. He ran ten feet forward to finish crossing the bridge, and then lept off.
- The man was buying house numbers.
- Freeze one or both jugs, cut the plastic jug(s) off of the ice, and place the contents of the jugs in the barrel.
- Turn two of the switches on for five minutes; then turn one of the switches off and head upstairs. Feel the two bulbs that are switched off; the one that is warm is the one that was just switched off.
- You can't dig half a hole.
- Pick a coin from the bag labelled "nickels and dimes." If it is a nickel, that bag must contain nickels only, the bag labelled "dimes" must contain both nickels and dimes, and the "nickels" bag must contain dimes. If the coin is a dime, the "nickels" bag must contain nickels and dimes, and the "dimes" bag must contain nickels.
- The boy's grandmother was a famous person, and the boy was able to sell the letter. This actually happened with one of the grandsons of Queen Victoria, who sold the letter for £5, a lot of money at the time.
If you liked these puzzles, see lateral thinking puzzles #2 and lateral thinking puzzles #3.