Brain Teasers
Minute or Minute
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
You are reading a book and you come across the word minute. You know instantly that the word is minute (small) and not minute (60 seconds). You did not conclude this based on the words before or after it, its placement in the sentence, or the title of the book. What the book is about is irrelevant. The book is written in English, and the answer is NOT that the print was small.
So, how did you know the word was minute (small) and not minute (60 seconds)?
So, how did you know the word was minute (small) and not minute (60 seconds)?
Answer
The word was hyphenated (half at the end of one line and the rest at the beginning of the next line). When this happens, the word is separated between the syllables. The two words separate at different points, as minute (small) would appear as mi-nute and minute (60 seconds) would appear as min-ute.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
ahh that was super hard for me!!! i didnt even know they separated differently! this one is cool though
This is a great puzzle. I wish I would have come up with it myself! Good job!
good one - not so easy but enjoyed the challenge
Isn't it possible that it was you that had written the book, so you knew from prior knowledge of actually writing the book?
I never knew they seperated by syllable. Now that you mention it though...
Very nice puzzle, well done.
Very nice puzzle, well done.
Eh? I didn't get that... Good teaser, though!
Hm... is it minute or minute...?
Hm... is it minute or minute...?
Is it possible it was spelt phonetically?
Brilliant teaser, well done.
i loved it! very tricky, but interesting. i had no idea but it was fun to think about and it made me think about books too..i used to wonder about the hyphenating stuff, but i don't notice it as much anymore. thanks! great job =)
haha green apples
haha green apples
allot of ppl dnt kno that coool this was hard but a gr8 challeng
Wow! Really?
Very clever. Thanks for this one.
Um....maybe this is dumb but I was pretty sure that the guy was reading a dictionary. So the two 'minute's would be easily differentiable cuz they're pronunciation would be written out. Lol, I was so sure about this!
sorry *their not *they're.
Yeah, see this teaser is lying because I would NOT know that
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