Brain Teasers
Navel Oranges
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
Cut-my-own-throat Dabney was trying to convince Bob to buy his interests in an orange orchard concern. He told Bob, "My partners and I cornered the market on one of the two existing genetic lines of navel oranges, but I need to cash out to start another venture in airplanes. All I'm asking for is ten million dollars, and that's cutting my own throat!"
"It still sounds a little strange to me," Bob replied.
"Well, here, try this," the slick salesman said, handing an orange to Bob. "This is one of our oranges. You can see that it's nice and big and really juicy. And, if I cut it open," he continued, cutting the orange in half, "you can see that there are no seeds. My partners and I bought the rights to this variety of naval oranges from a multinational conglomerate."
Bob took one of the orange halves and took a bite. It tasted very good and did have no seeds. As he stood there chewing, he got a thoughtful look on his face. As soon as he swallowed his bite, he exclaimed, "You're a liar and a crook! Get out of my face and never come around here again!"
What made Bob so sure that Cut-my-own-throat Dabney was a crook?
"It still sounds a little strange to me," Bob replied.
"Well, here, try this," the slick salesman said, handing an orange to Bob. "This is one of our oranges. You can see that it's nice and big and really juicy. And, if I cut it open," he continued, cutting the orange in half, "you can see that there are no seeds. My partners and I bought the rights to this variety of naval oranges from a multinational conglomerate."
Bob took one of the orange halves and took a bite. It tasted very good and did have no seeds. As he stood there chewing, he got a thoughtful look on his face. As soon as he swallowed his bite, he exclaimed, "You're a liar and a crook! Get out of my face and never come around here again!"
What made Bob so sure that Cut-my-own-throat Dabney was a crook?
Answer
As Bob chewed, he was thinking about the fact that, since navel oranges don't have seeds, no new trees could be grown. Then he remembered back to his college botany course and how the professor told them that all navel oranges in the world come from one original tree. In the 19th century an orange tree was found in Brazil that produced fruit with no seeds. Buds were taken from that tree and grafted onto others, and the same process was used to spread the seedless oranges throughout the world. Remembering this, Bob knew that there is only one variety of navel orange, so Dabney couldn't have cornered the market on a different variety.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
I thought it was beacuse you can't cut an orange into slices with a knife!
I knew it had something to do with " no seeds" but never would have gotten the entire answer in 1 million years?? I learned something from the answer, however!! Thanks..
That's "navel" orange (as in "bellybutton" not "naval" as in "seagoing." It got it's name because the blossom end looks like a... well, you get the picture
hehe great teaser phrebh
CMOT ay?
i'm surprised he wasn't selling the oranges to rincewand, or wimes?
CMOT ay?
i'm surprised he wasn't selling the oranges to rincewand, or wimes?
wow really juicy teaser
I'm surprised he wasn't selling it to Fred or Checkers or both
Clever and great teaser, keep them coming
I liked it! good teaser! I never would've gotten in in 1million years, but I still liked it
nice teaser... wouldn't have got it in a million years...
"All new varieties of Navel Oranges can trace their roots back to the Washington Navel."
http://www.pearsonranch.com/askourfarmer.html
So apparently there are different varieties of Navel oranges - there are early season and late season varieties for a start.
http://www.pearsonranch.com/askourfarmer.html
So apparently there are different varieties of Navel oranges - there are early season and late season varieties for a start.
I'm not sure what the heck you're talking about, but the site backs up my teaser. I never said anything about there not being different varieties, just that they all come from the same source and they don't have seeds.
Actually, you said in your answer "Bob knew that there is only one variety of navel orange". I was already thinking along the lines of what Jimbo found, which is that grafting is a common way of MAKING new varieties by combining two different stocks.
In botany, different varieties are still referred to by the same genetic name with a third part to the Latin name added and labeled as a varietal difference. Since I mentioned in the body that the oranges were genetically different, that fact that I said there were no varieties in the answer implies the difference between what sellers would call varieties and what botanists call varieties. I could submit a change to clarify, but I don't think it's needed.
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