Brain Teasers
Beach Murder
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
'I was walking along the beach,' said Sid Shady, 'Watching my kite soar over the ocean when I came upon this body washed up on shore. I immediately phoned the police.' Shadow noted the nearby tracks of a seagull that lead out toward the ocean. 'The gull must have run across the sand in a take-off within the last 20 minutes or else the receding high tide would have washed its print away,' said Shadow. When Shadow inquired about the whereabouts of the kite, Shady said that in his excitement he must have let it go. 'It's probably over the ocean somewhere.' 'It's perfectly calm now,' noted Shadow. 'Yes, the wind suddenly died moments before you arrived,' replied Shady. 'I don't know what you're mixed up in,' said Shadow, 'but your story has a gaping hole.' What is it?
Answer
The seagull's footprints proved that the wind blew from the ocean and not from the land. A seagull, like an aeroplane, will always take off into the wind. Consequently, Shadow knew that Shady was lying about flying his kite over the ocean and quite likely the rest of the story.Hide Answer Show Answer
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