Braingle: 'Late for work' Brain Teaser

Late for work

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.

Puzzle ID:	#227
Fun:	(2.36)
Difficulty:	(1.98)
Category:	Situation
Submitted By:	trojan5x
Corrected By:	metallicman

A man lives one block from where he works. He needs to be at work by 9:30 AM. He sets his alarm for 9 AM, and gets to work at 9:30 AM. When he gets there, his boss fires him for being late. The boss and the man both had accurate clocks. What happened?

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Comments

trainer Dec 07, 2001	Ifthe man go to work on 9.30 am he wouldn't reach there in just a second.
(user deleted) Jan 04, 2002	Is it really accurate to say he got to work at 9:30 AM if it was actually 10:30 AM at the time zone in which he works?
Atropus Feb 09, 2005	No it was 9:30 in the timezone where he lives and 10:30 in the timezone where he works... I know several people who work in avideo arcade called TimeZone so this is a big laugh for me... yes I AM easily amused.
darthforman May 26, 2005
nkatha23 Nov 09, 2005	oh the things we do....
sweetime Nov 14, 2005	i thought he got there on the wrong day nice work!
stephiesd Nov 29, 2005	WOW!! How random is that?? cool teaser.
scm14 Dec 04, 2005	I was thinking daylight savings. Nice one!
trickyone Jan 06, 2006	I guessed he was in a different time zone
trickyone Jan 06, 2006	Cool teaser
luckythirteen Feb 04, 2006	it's a great teaser, but i think that the boss was kinda mean to fire him just cause he lived in another time zone. o well
blackmarket69 Feb 23, 2006	WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
fezface Feb 24, 2006	i agree with lucky13---that was mean of the boss, even though it didn't really happen, cuz its just a teaser.....duh!
keveffect1 Mar 15, 2006	The answer also could have been that the man set his alarm at 9AM after 9AM of that day so he slept for just over 24hrs and he was exaxctly one day late
warmonkey318 Mar 29, 2006	I like it..
Mellew Mar 30, 2006	i guessed that either he set his alarm 4 wrong day or daylite savings
ffoppia Apr 03, 2006	i thought about time zone, but my idea of a watch is unfortunately my cell phone which automatically adjusts itself
righteouschick2 Apr 12, 2006	I thought daylite saving which could be it too oh well good one!
king_leonard Apr 16, 2006	lol i didnt get it... but great teaser!!
spazzyjazzy93 Apr 23, 2006	whoa thats so cool!!!!!!!!!!!!! i said that he was a day late too
keveffect1 Apr 27, 2006	Hey King Leonard I have a question! How can you say it was a great teaser if you did not even understand it? That does not make sense!
spazzyjazzy93 May 06, 2006	i'm guessing he meant didn't get it as in didn't get it right
keveffect1 May 11, 2006	oh ya duh, sorry I'm a little slow sometimes!
elshawno May 19, 2006	ya... but isn't the day line thingy out in the middle of the pacific?!
keveffect1 May 24, 2006	OK there are 24 hour lines across the globe. On the mainland of USA there are three lines and four time zones which include Pacific, Mountain, Central, and Eastern time. Listen to the TV when they announce the time. Ex. 8 pm/ 7 central. There are a few in the pacific though too.
RRAMMOHAN May 27, 2006	Cool!
basketball101 Jul 05, 2006	i got it but wouldn't he be an hour behind instead of 30min. and the boss was kinda mean coool teaser though
teasermaster Oct 13, 2006	Easy teaser, fun though!!!
starrychelx Feb 13, 2007	I came up with two answers. First I thought he lived in a different time zone, but I discredited that one because I figured it would take a lot more than half an hour to get to work! Then I thought he was a full day late. At least I was originally right!
bgil7604 Feb 26, 2007	No one could have known that. There's barely any places which are like that because cities are placed So they can't do that. (so many that's )
LeafFan4life Mar 04, 2007	ok then it could b nfl time
DorbeckL Apr 23, 2007	I guessed it right off the bat, because i live in central time zone and work in eastern time zone. If you would like to be confuzzed look at the time split in the state of Indiana, it's split all year round. I leave home at 2:30 to get to work at 40 it takes me 25-30 minutes to get to work.
al111 Nov 04, 2007	STUPID
al111 Nov 04, 2007	only joking it was awsome
RomanG417 Jul 28, 2009	Why does it say he gets to work at 9:30? If he got to work at 9:30 then he would be on time because people tend to use the time in the place they are. You should have said he left his house at 9:27 and got to work 2 minutes later.