Brain Teasers
The Perfect 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
Edward carefully plotted the murder of his enemy. One winter's day he strangled her in the bedroom, then faked a burglary. He ransacked the house, scattered possessions and broke through the patio doors. He set the burglar alarm downstairs before driving to the local golf course to establish his alibi. Two hours later, when Edward was in the middle of his golf game with three colleagues, the burglar alarm went off and the police were alerted. They found the house apparently broken into and the woman strangled. No animals or electrical devices were found which could have set the alarm off, so it looked as though an intruder had set off the alarm before killing the poor woman. Edward was never arrested or charged. The police inspector long suspected Edward, but there was one question which he could not fathom: How did the suspect get the burglar alarm to go off so conveniently? Can you work it out?
Answer
Edward placed a tray on the edge of the kitchen table. He put some pans on one side of the tray and ice cubes on the other side. When the ice eventually melted, the weight of the pans caused the tray to fall off the table. The pans bounced on the floor and the alarm was activated. To the police, the tray, pans and water looked to be part of the general disturbance in the kitchen.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
Not sure what happened - but as it turns out, Edward was plotting the murder of his wife! (although she may have been his enemy too!)
If the alarm went off a few hours later and police alerted then, time of death could be established a lot more accurately, and they would know she had died earlier. eg She would be a lot colder etc
Things like that always involve ice.
I'm having a hard time picturing this. Either he'd need enough ice to ensure that some of the water runs off after it melts and upsets the balance, or he's counting on water moving from one side of the tray to the other.
Puzzles like that seem to have a million answers that wouln't be the answer posted but would still work. I challenge people to come up with other (better) solutions.
Cathalmccabe - Of course you're right. However, it says there was one question the detective couldn't figure out - how the alarm went off when it did. Perhaps without proving this he couldn't obtain a warrant - even if he did figure out the rest of it.
Chamber44 - I think that is the point of situation puzzles. There could be many different answers that all could fit the details given. The trick (and the teaser part) is to ask the right questions to come to the "correct" given answer. Really good situation puzzles always seem like you needed more info to get at the given answer than you were originally given, but again, that is why they are ideally solved in a question/answer format as stated at the top of each teaser puzzle. As for challenging people to come up with other solutions - I'd love to hear them. And if they are better - it will be all the more fun the next time I want to share this teaser.
That man was really creative!!
this looks quite good. i'm not sure if this is a little bug in it or not: the woman was dead 2 hours before the alarm went off. the coroner would know the time when she died and then, the alarm going off 2 hours later would be wierd. so, then, they could be more inspection of how the alarm went off, wouldn't it?
Jun 03, 2005
Uhhh Yeah...
I was thinking the house may have been on a golf course and he hit a golf ball through a window or something
Obviously, the police inspector wasn't Columbo.. Good teaser!
What if he hung a pan from a thick rope, set fire to the rope, and gotten out of there. Eventually, the rope would completely burn, and fire truchs whould be there because of the smoke, so the police couldn't investivate right away. Or he could have just set fire to the house.
WHY DIDN'T HE JUST kill her, ransack the house, and get out of there. Why did he set off the burglar alarm in the first place?
thats a smart dude!!!
I kind of liked this one but i didn't like the answer. There are hundreds of possible answers to a teasers.
i just relized something, how did he avoid setting off the alarm while he was setting up his whole scem and killing the lady and what not.
Edward is a very smart man!
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