Chimney Problem
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.
An industrial archaeologist was examining an abandoned factory in a remote place with no one in sight or within earshot. He climbed to the top of an old 100-foot chimney by means of a rusty old ladder attached to the outside of the chimney. When he got to the top, the ladder fell away, leaving him stranded. How did he get down?
HintHis descent was extremely slow.
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Answer
The man on the tall chimney had a penknife in his pocket. With this he pried loose a brick from the top layer. He used the brick as a hammer. In this way, he gradually demolished the chimney by knocking out all of the bricks and lowered himself to the ground.
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Comments
jimbo   
May 17, 2003
| I'll bet the owners were happy. Good one! |
beanie89  
Aug 27, 2003
| He could have just jumped off. It didn't say he had to get down alive. |
pennylane
Apr 11, 2005
| I thought the chimney was under the ground (since the man was an archeologist) with just the top of it jutting out.  |
musicmaker21113
Jan 10, 2006
| I thought the same thing as Penny |
Atropus 
Feb 12, 2006
| -_- I doubt a modern archeologist would destroy something like that.
If he climbed up the outside of the chimney, there's nothing to stop him from climbing down the inside of the chimney by bracing himself against the inside walls of it.
I used to climb like that all the time when I was a kid.
Then he could use his knife and his torch (yes they carry these things) to unlock the furnace door from the inside when they got to the bottom. |
TehIgnored
Mar 03, 2006
| I'm sorry....that's the worst i've ever seen.....just climb down the inside.... |
Vigo95
Mar 26, 2006
| i thought he slid down the chimney !
if it's good enough for santa shoudn't it be good enough for him ? |
bballer21 
Apr 09, 2006
| i said he chimneyed down (a way to rock climb where u push against two walls w/ ur legs and back) |
calmsavior
May 11, 2006
| i thought of this for, like, 5 minutes until i got it |
spoiled_rotten
Jun 22, 2006
| how are yu supposed to know that the guy has a penknife in his pocket. you could have given somewhat of a clue.  |
Stormcrafter
Nov 07, 2006
| Ingenious!  |
snoopunicorn
Mar 12, 2007
| AMEN spoiled__rotten |
bookworm_24_7
Jan 06, 2008
| that was stupid. brain teasers should tell you what the person has cuz then it wouldnt be one of those impossible things that only you can get. plus it would be a little difficult trying to figure out what to use if they give you a variety of things in his pocket.LAME! |
beyonce123
Jun 02, 2010
| I thought he got down the same way bballer 21 did. |
nayru
Apr 12, 2013
| I thought the answer was "carefully"! |
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