History Main / StockLateralThinkingPuzzle

* The original form of the question was "A pound of lead or a pound of feathers?" The question is designed to play on the listener's inherent association of lead being heavier than feather. '''Standard Solution''': [[spoiler:They both weigh the same since they're both a pound.]]
** The most common variant instead asks: "A pound of ''gold'' or a pound of feathers?" This version plays on the listener's inherent association of gold being heavier than feather, and also screws with people who already know the answer to the original version of the question. '''Solution''': [[spoiler: The feathers are heavier, since precious metals like gold are measured in Troy weight, not avoirdupois pounds (one Troy pound being about 370 grams, and one avoirdupois pound being around 450 grams). The answer is reversed if you word the question in terms of ounces, with the Troy ounce of gold being heavier.]]
** Alternatively, [[spoiler: the phrasing could imply a quantity ''worth a British pound''. How many feathers can you buy for a pound?]]

** Another variation is "which is lighter, a pound of white feathers or a pound of black feathers"? [[spoiler: The white feathers are lighter in ''color''.]]
** A joke answer goes, "The feathers are heavier, because of the weight of [[InferredHolocaust what you did to those poor birds]]."

* ''Film/InsideMan'' has the bank robber ask the question of which weighs more, "all the trains that pass through Grand Central Station in a year - or the trees cut down to print all U.S. currency in circulation?" The NYPD think it's the former once they figure out the U.S. currency part, but Frazier is smart enough to recall Dalton saying it was a trick question and the answer is always [[spoiler: they both weigh the same]], before deducing both answers. [[spoiler: Neither quantity exists: U.S. currency is made of cotton; Grand Central Station is the name of the post office and the informal name of Grand Central ''Terminal''. Humorously, after answering that the police then start debating among themselves whether the question is wrong anyway, as no trains ''pass through'' Grand Central because all of its tracks terminate there, unless you include the tracks of the subway stations.]]

* A man is condemned to be executed. He's given a choice between a [[KillItWithFire a room full of fire,]] a room [[BoomHeadshot full of expert assassins with guns,]] and [[FedToTheBeast a room full of lions who haven't eaten in three years.]] He picks the third and survives. How? [[spoiler: the lions had all starved to death after three years with no food.]]

Solution: [[spoiler: One, buses only have 1 driver regardless of the number of passengers. One variant is asking how many stops the bus made. Other variants include asking the age or sex of the driver. The answer is whatever your age or sex is as 'you' are driving the bus.]]

* '''How many legs does a dog have if you call its tail a leg? [[spoiler: Still four, as [[ExactWords calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.]]]]'''

* How many legs does a dog have if you call its tail a leg? [[spoiler: Still four, as [[ExactWords calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.]]]]

* One of a series of puzzles in ''VideoGame/{{Runescape}}''.

* Similarly: '''If it takes 10 men 20 days to build a wall, how long will it take 20 men to build the wall''' Answer: [[spoiler: No time at all, the wall is already built. (Note that this only works if you specifically say "THE" wall as opposed to just "A" wall. This puzzle therefore doesn't translate into languages without articles.)]]

* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': Thankfully, the questions are for what is essentially a [[FighterMageThief Jedi placement exam]], so there are no "wrong" answers - but the lateral ones imply you're a character who prefers thinking your way out of problems, as opposed to finessing or forcing.
** Let's not forget about the riddle that you can ask the prisoner in the mysterious box to get yourself free. [[note]]Technically, you were trapped in a prison and had a riddle competition to decide who escapes. You ask the question, and the other fails. He mistakes it for a straight math problem and panics.[[/note]]

* Similarly: '''If it takes 10 men 20 days to build a wall, how long will it take 20 men to build the wall''' Answer: [[spoiler: No time at all, the wall is already built. (Note that this only works if you specifically say "THE" wall as opposed to just "A" wall.)]]

* ''Film/InsideMan'' has the bank robber ask the question of which weighs more, "all the trains that pass through Grand Central Station in a year - or the trees cut down to print all U.S. currency in circulation?" The NYPD think it's the former once they figure out the U.S. currency part, but Frazier is smart enough to recall Dalton saying it was a trick question and the answer is always [[spoiler: they both weigh the same]], before deducing both answers. [[spoiler: Neither quantity exists: U.S. currency is made of cotton; Grand Central Station is the name of the post office and the informal name of Grand Central ''Terminal'', and no trains pass through Grand Central because all of its tracks terminate there, unless you include the tracks of the subway stations.]]

* The {{Music/Queen}} song "[[Music/ANightAtTheOpera '39]]" presents one of these: A traveller sets out in the year of '39, travels for one year, and [[MindScrew returns in the year of '39, to find that the woman greeting him, who he at first thought was his girlfriend, is in fact his girlfriend's daughter, born and raised since he left]]. Solution: [[spoiler:He's a space traveller, whose voyage lasted one year of ship time, but 100 years of Earth time. The video on the DVD version of the album makes this clear.]]

* A bat and ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs 1 dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? [[spoiler: .05 for the ball, 1.05 for the bat.]] For what ever reason most people answer "10 cents" even though that is clearly wrong.

* ''Series/LimmysShow'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH0hikcwjIA a sketch]] where Limmy, in the guise of an edutainment programme narrator, asks the audience whether a kilogramme of steel is heavier than a kilogramme of feathers. [[spoiler:Limmy's the only one gets the question wrong, and he seems to have a breakdown as everyone around him tries to explain "They're both a kilogramme."]]

* The most common form of the question is "A pound of gold or a pound of feathers"? The question is designed to play on the listener's inherent association of gold being heavier than feather. '''Standard Solution''': [[spoiler:They both weigh the same since they're both a pound.]] However, not all examples are that easy to decipher. One standard solution subversion: [[spoiler: The feathers are heavier, since precious metals like gold are measured in Troy weight, not avoirdupois pounds (one Troy pound being about 370 grams, and one avoirdupois pound being around 450 grams). The situation is inverted with ounces, with the Troy ounce of gold being heavier.]]
** Alternatively, [[spoiler: the phrasing could imply a quantity ''worth a british pound''. How many feathers can you buy for a pound?]]

** The other usual form is "A pound of lead or a pound of feathers." [[spoiler:For this one, the pounds are indeed the same unit, since lead is not a precious metal, and the single correct answer is they both weigh the same. The sucker answer is that the lead weighs more. The gold version above was invented to also trick people who knew the lead and feathers one, making "They are the same" the sucker answer.]]

* When Jerry rhetorically asks Danny this question in ''Webcomic/{{Nukees}}'', Danny points out, [[http://nukees.com/d/20120423.html after some caveats]][[note]]though he misses the "troy pound" quibble[[/note]], that a pound of lead would displace less air, and therefore weigh more.

These puzzles often may depend on semantics, cognitive theories, and cultural codes and cues such as when (or when not to) take spoken words literally. As a result, such puzzles are not effectively translated into other languages. Nor are they universally considered fair measures of IQ or intelligence in general.

These puzzles often may depend on semantics, cognitive theories, and cultural codes and cues such as when (or when not to) take spoken words literally. As a result, such puzzles are not effectively translated into other languages.

** This does not work in languages that don't have separate terms for methods of interment.

Solution: [[spoiler: Zero: the speaker is going to St. Ives, but everyone else is going the other way - and the question only asks how many kits, cats, sacks, and wives are doing so (though if the speaker is a wife, then the answer is 'one'). For those interested, there is 1 man, 7 wives, 49 sacks, 343 Cats and 2401 kits, making a total of 2801 going ''away'' from St. Ives (2800, not counting the man). Some versions add "Each of the kits have 7 mitts" which would be an extra 16807 mitts for a total of 19608. Depending on the wording, this can be something of a cheat, as it's never specified what direction the others were going, if any.]]

* A bat and ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs 1 dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost [[spoiler: .05 for the ball, 1.05 for the bat]] For what ever reason most people answer "10 cents" even though that is clearly wrong.

** This question (without the bear - just asking where you started) used to be a part of interviews at ''UsefulNotes/SpaceX''. Most engineers could figure out the [[spoiler:North Pole]] answer easily, but there are actually infinitely many answers. [[spoiler: You could start somewhere near the South pole such that going south would lead you to the latitude where going a mile east takes you around the South pole, then you go north back to where you started. Since you could also get around the pole twice if you started closer to it (or three times, etc.), there are infinitely many solutions.]]

* ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': Thankfully, the questions are for what is essentially a [[FighterMageThief Jedi placement exam]], so there are no "wrong" answers - but the lateral ones imply you're a character who prefers thinking your way out of problems, as opposed to finessing or forcing.