Brain Teasers
Snowy Bridge
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
The bridge was covered with a fresh blanket of snow. Only one set of footprints led to the woman's body lying in the middle of the bridge. Mike, a detective, knew from the one set of footprints that this was suicide, yet he couldn't find the weapon used. Mike discovered powder burns on the dead woman's chest and a small chip out of the railing where the snow had been brushed away. The dead woman's footprints were all around this area. The only other clue was that 10 metres down, and directly below the chip of paint on the railing, was a hole in the ice. How did the woman manage to kill herself instantly, yet still dispose of the weapon?
Answer
Mike reasoned that the woman had a rope to which she secured a weight to one end and the gun to the other. She then dropped the weight over the bridge. When the woman shot herself, she automatically released the gun. As the weight fell, it pulled the gun which hit the railing, causing the small chip mark. The movement of the rope and gun explain why the snow was brushed away from the railing. The hole in the ice was caused by the falling weight.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
well wouldn't he also notice the hole where the woman shot herself?
This was the whole plot of a Sherlock Holmes short story, "Murder on the Bridge" or something... Nice work by
Arthur Conan Doyle.
Arthur Conan Doyle.
I read this on MindTrap.
I got the idea from Sherlock Holmes.
Sounds like a lot of work for such a quick death.
Why try to cover up a suicide?
This is a grat short story by Conan Doyle. Thanks, glennyboy.
Yet another one from Glennyboy lifted from the game Mindtrap.
Hard!
That was really easy. I really like the concept, but you gave too much info. If you had just stopped after the burn marks, then it would have been a good teaser. Better luck next time.
The only reason I knew the answer was because of that one CSI episode with the Sherlock Holmes fanatic club.
Some girl fastened a weight to a string connected to the gun so it looked like he had fixed to make his 'suicide' a mystery when he shot himself, even though it was really a quite scandelous murd-....
Nevermind. Good teaser.
Some girl fastened a weight to a string connected to the gun so it looked like he had fixed to make his 'suicide' a mystery when he shot himself, even though it was really a quite scandelous murd-....
Nevermind. Good teaser.
This one is straight out of Sherlock Holmes and Mindtrap. Glennyboy needs to learn to not plegiarize.
it couldve also been someone else shot her, then brushed snow away when they held the railinf, and chucked the gun and jumped over the bridge :O probably not lol im not smart XD
it couldve also been someone else shot her, then brushed snow away when they held the railinf, and chucked the gun and jumped over the bridge :O probably not lol im not smart XD
Yeah, the lady was already dead. The murderer carried her body (thus one set of prints) and then jumped off the bridge (thus the hole in the ice). And the chip on the railing....was already there.
She was going to jump off the bridge, but a piece of it broke away and she fell back on the bridge, killing her when she hit her head on the surface of the bridge. the hole came from the broken piece falling into the iced-over lake.
"The Problem of Thor Bridge" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes is called in to try to clear a woman of murder. It looks very bad. She had been with the victim on the bridge, the victim was shot, and the gun is in her room. But it turns out the victim had actually set it up, planting a duplicate gun, luring the other to the bridge, and later shooting herself with a gun tied to a weight so it disappears into the water. There's a whole story about why the victim (if we can use that word) does this, involving jealousy etc. as I recall. She's trying to get the woman she hates hanged, at the cost of her own life. It's a very dark concept, more so than most of the Sherlock Holmes stories. (A lot of the stories aren't murders or even crimes.)
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