Braingle: 'Lines' Brain Teaser

Lines

Puzzle ID:	#9010
Fun:	(3.04)
Difficulty:	(1.72)
Category:	Other
Submitted By:	doggyxp
Corrected By:	twixy

Birbal was jester, counselor, and fool to the great Moghul emperor, Akbar. The villagers loved to talk of Birbal's wisdom and cleverness, and the emperor loved to try to outsmart him. One day Akbar (emperor) drew a line across the floor. "Birbal," he ordered, "you must make this line shorter, but you cannot erase any bit of it."
Everyone present thought the emperor had finally outsmarted Birbal. It was clearly an impossible task. Yet within moments the emperor and everyone else present had to agree that Birbal had made the line shorter without erasing any of it. How could this be?

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Comments

speedyg1000 Dec 14, 2002	if you think in geometric terms, a line is never ending, so by adding a dot at either end he could make it a line segment. the only problem is that there would have to be an arrow at each end to symbolize a line, and he couldn't erase those. very good! i liked it ;)
MrIxolite Dec 22, 2002	I am banging my head against the monitor as I write!! Doh!
speedyg1000 Dec 23, 2002	wow...didnt know it was possible to type and bang your head against the monitor at the same time
IronMaiden980 Jan 16, 2003	I remember this question from karate class when I was in first grade.
doggyxp Jan 23, 2003	why karate?
doggyxp Apr 20, 2003	Speedy, you are right. But this isn't a math teaser, now is it ;-)
cool_star Jul 21, 2003	I can't belive it was that simple! I thought he did something really hard to figure out! Maybe this should be a trick question.
doggyxp Jan 22, 2004	Maybe. I couldn't think of just the right category, so I am sorry if you feel that it is in the wrong one.
kistin14 Jul 04, 2006	The other "Birbal" teasers are much better. They at least start the same! And he didn't do what the Emperor asked. He said to make the line shorter. True, it was shorter than the other line, but it itself did not change length. The answer is wrong.
monkeygrl99 Jul 18, 2006	No! That is not true kistin14! Anyway I thought that this was EZ.
senther7 Dec 30, 2006	I personaly think this is a DISCRACE to the Birbal series i dont like this one
teasermaster Jan 02, 2007	What? Just because there is a line longer than the first doesn't make the first line any shorter?
peanut Jan 11, 2007	Actually teasermaster (and others who commented similarly), it does... You see the word adjective 'shorter' is a relative term and the emperor never specified what the line should be shorter than. We assumed (myself included) he meant shorter than its original self - which is impossible without erasing some of it... But it could just as well have meant shorter than something else -like the 2nd line Birbal drew!!
senther7 Jan 16, 2007	Peanut, Thanks for telleing me what teh answer was. I thoguht something else. (advanced wordplay) but i still hate this teaser netherless... (talk about mixed messages)
4demo Jan 18, 2007	As already said, the answer is not really true. The original line is not in fact any shorter. Birbal simply made it LOOK shorter by drawing a longer line. However, that does not actually change the length of the first line.
lukeschett Apr 17, 2007	I prefer the other Birbal teasers better but this was still ok.
hadel2u May 24, 2007	there is another answer. you cross the line with another one to make it a T, then you write the letters SHOR on the left side, and ER on the right side. it is now SHORTER!!!
Grandpapete May 14, 2008	Yes, and I can jump higher then a house. (the house can't jump)
brain23 May 14, 2008	I didn't realize the line was being drawn--I thought the line was an actual thing, and he could've just bent it to make it shorter if you measure it.
bradon182001 May 14, 2008	I will admit I didn't get this one, never would have gotten it. Glad now I didn't really try. Good job, thanks for posting.
canfan95 May 14, 2008	technically, the line was the same length, and it didn't get any shorter, so the emporer's task was impossible.
Valic4 May 14, 2008	Why not just reflect it with a concave mirror?
FatHead May 14, 2008	Cute!
Samantha718 May 14, 2008	If we're just going by making the line appear shorter, why couldn't he just have everyone walk away from it? The line would look shorter from a distance.
agal1977 May 14, 2008	I thought he would just stand on one end of it to make it appear shorter . . .
gghali May 14, 2008	I'm glad I didn't waste my time on this one -- I figured that the given answer would be something inane like that.
UNCLEVIN May 14, 2008	how about looking at it from closer to the ground. it would appear shorter
beethovenswig May 14, 2008	Fun teaser....nice
SweetPotato May 14, 2008	I agree with those who maintain that, technically, the line is not really shorter. Also using the logic of the author, one could say he covered up part of the line, thus making it shorter without erasing any of it.
avonma May 14, 2008	I liked it. I got it. It was good. I don't understand all the fuss. I didn't know we had strict rules on this site...
roumani May 14, 2008	I actually had to register to explain this to some people (even though it was explained at least once before). Shorter is a relative term. He simply made it shorter relative to anything else. Everyone assumes that he had to make then line shorter than it's original self (i.e. shortened).
kasiecom May 14, 2008	Cold he not simply make the existing line longer and thereby making the emperors orginal lie shorter.
luckypuppy May 14, 2008	I agree with Roumani... shorter, not shortened! Well said
zaya May 14, 2008	This teaser sucked The answer is wrong, and some of it makes no sense (why would you say "the emperor had FINALLY outsmarted Birbal" when Birbal is a jester/fool and therefore should always be outsmarted). Who edits these things?
phyllisa May 14, 2008	My solution was to move furniture over it and hide it (or move the walls closer) to make it shorter.
jayjay May 14, 2008	I agree with those that do not like the answer.... the emperor clearly said "you must make this line shorter" he did not say "you must make this line appear shorter" So, by adding a longer line, he did not make the first line shorter. The length of the line is not relative to the length of any surrounding lines. I'm 5'10", putting me next to a 6'5" guy does not make me shorter, as my height is not determined due to the height of whomever is next to me
jcann May 14, 2008	I think this teaser has more to do with language than math. Inother words "Make the line shorter" is sort of a play on words. We would usually think of it as litterally shortining the line itself. But with the other slant on the meaning, suing the word "shorter" as a comparative adjective, the answer in quite logical. I liked this teaser. Many riddles are based on different meanings of words, and creative thinking is to look at seemingly obvious things in a different way.
jcann May 14, 2008	Sorry about all the typo's. I am watching American Idol at the same time and clicked on the "Add" button without proofreading!
Madelulabelle May 14, 2008	Jayjay: putting you next to a taller guy would not change your hight, but you would be shorter than the other person...and in that sense you are shorter.(also: the shorter of the two). It's that difference between shorter and shortened that several people mentioned before. Nice teaser! I really liked it...even if I couldn't get it.
Madelulabelle May 14, 2008	height
auntiesis May 15, 2008	I actually got this one pretty quickly, as putting a longer line next to the first line would make the first line shorter by comparison. Therefore he made the line shorter. Very good teaser.
smartymarty May 15, 2008	I agree with Avanma and Icann. I liked it! I got it!! It was gooood!!!
smartymarty May 15, 2008	I'm sorry for the typos too. Watching "Jeopardy."
crocodile Nov 27, 2009	A predecessor of the "Birbal The Wise" teasers?
Radd_stuff May 14, 2011	Birbal the wise?? love it
bestgirl May 14, 2011	Son of a gun--I got it! Didn't believe I had but I had!
Jeppydog May 18, 2011	I GOT IT! Great puzzle.