Brain Teasers
Can I Get A Lift?
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
A man approaches a woman who is about to fly a jet out of Washington D.C. He asks if she could give him a lift somewhere. She says she'd be happy to. He asks if she'd like to know where he's going first, to make sure he won't make her go too far out of her way. She says no, no matter where he's going it won't change her flight time significantly.
Why not?
Ignore the extra time it takes to drop the man off and then take off again.
Why not?
Ignore the extra time it takes to drop the man off and then take off again.
Hint
Think of the Earth as a sphere...Answer
She is making a nonstop flight to the exact opposite side of the world. It doesn't matter which way she flies out, since it's (about) the same distance around a sphere (the earth) in any direction.Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
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