Three men make the following statements regarding a murder that they are suspected of. Two of the men are lying, and one of them is telling the truth. Only one of the men committed the crime. Which of the three is most likely to be innocent?
A. I didn’t do it.
B. C did it.
C. A did it.
As ever, please do not post your answer, but do say if you think you have solved it and how long it took. Answer Monday.
Many thanks to everyone who came along to hear me speak at the Wellcome Trust yesterday – it was a fun evening. If you are in or around the Brighton area, I will be performing with Robin Ince, Simon Singh, Sarah Angliss etc at the Komedia tonight.
Yesterday produced quite a discussion – lots of great ideas and debate – feel free to continue to add your comments.
Here is today’s offering……first of all, choose either ‘forwards’ or ‘backwards’…now count how many letter ‘f”s there in the sentence in bold below. If you chose ‘forwards’ read it in the normal direction, if you chose ‘backwards’ start at the final word and work your way to the front of the sentence. Here we go….
Franklin Featherstone is sometimes referred to as the Father of Refrigerated Freight, because of his efforts in publicising the benefits of this form of transport.
Answer after the break.
I have been travelling lots recently, and keep coming across Bibles in my hotel room. I assume that they are there to help some people in times of need. The idea of offering help is obviously sound, but I do worry that perhaps there is a more effective and inclusive way of doing it…..so, what book would you like to see in every hotel room in the world? How do you react to the Bible in hotel rooms? Would you keep the Bible or replace it with something else?
In Italy promoting Quirkology at the moment, but thought you might enjoy this…..
You are in trapped in a room that has two doors. One is an exit and the other has hungry lion behind it. There two people in the room with you. The first is a nice man who always tells the truth and the other is a second hand car salesman who always lies. Both of these people know what is behind each door, but you do not know who is the nice guy and who would sell you a junk car.
You may ask one of the men just one question.
What should you ask in order to escape the room and avoid the hungry lion?
As ever, please do not post your answers, but feel free to say if you solved it and how long it took. Answer on Monday.
Yesterday was amazing. WordPress kindly featured us on their homepage again, so a large amount of traffic on the site. Following on from the coffee bean image, Martinus kindly submitted this great image from AwkwardFamilyPhotos. It is wonderful because it shows how we are attracted to people’s eyes and so can sometimes miss the obvious….
Did you manage to spot the hidden person?
This is simply wonderful. Take a look at the illustration below and see if you can spot the face. Once you have seen it you won’t believe that you once didn’t see it…
Don’t say where it is, but feel free to say if you spotted it and long long it took. This probably says something about you, but I have no idea what.
Update: If you are stuck, there is a clue after the break….
I was recently emailed this, with the comment ‘ I got this pic from my niece. The original pic was taken with a camera phone. ‘
Any ideas?
The last couple of puzzles have been a tad tricky, so here is something a bit more straightforward….
A man enjoys smoking cigarettes, but doesn’t have enough money to buy them. However, he realises that if he collects cigarette butts, he can make a cigarette from every 5 butts. So, the man goes around and finds 25 butts. How many cigarettes can he enjoy as a result?
As ever, please do not write your answer, but do feel free to say if you think you have solved it and how long it took. Answer on Monday.
So, yesterday. According to my mate, most people should have selected blue. The slight problem is that they didn’t. Perhaps the Glasgow Science Center logo confused matters, perhaps it doesn’t work on the web or maybe it doesn’t work at all. Who knows. Anyway, thanks for joining in.
Yesterday I came across this great photo, taken around 1910. I had never seen it before, but it is a lovely example of how our perceptual system automatically groups objects. The question is…..are the two guys on the right of the image really good friends or is their friendship all in your mind?
Any thoughts? Which way did you first see the photo?
Yesterday’s Battle of the Clever Stuff is close, so please keep voting.
Also, for those of you in and around Glasgow, I will be presenting my ‘Investigating the impossible’ talk (about the paranormal) today at the Glasgow Science Center. Details here.
Today’s offering is somewhat odd. Someone showed me a little psychological thing the other day, and I would like to see if it works on lots of people. All you have to do is….
Count as quickly as you can from 1 to 16.
OK, now look after the break….
Last week I staged another battle of the clever stuff, and put the trippy thing against the strobe illusion. The strobe illusion won hands down, so it stays on. This week it is up against a great spider illusion (thanks to Ian Broadhead – the illusion is that the image is simply flicking from positive to negative with just a tiny movement of the spider, but it gives the impressive of dramatic zooming). Have a look at them both….
…. to experience the strobe illusion click here….
and the spider illusion is after the break (note, it contains flashing images and a big scary spider)… (more…)
On a table, arrange ten coins like so….
Now, can you move just two coins to form two lines, each containing six coins.
As ever, please do not post your solutions, but feel free to say if you think you have solved it and how long it took. Have a good weekend, answer on Monday.
This comes via the talented magical duo @barryandstuart…..take a look at this…..
So, say whether you are male or female and whether you saw a shoulder or bottom in the center of the picture….
Last week I staged another battle of the clever stuff, and put the weird purple moving thing against the strobe illusion. The strobe illusion won hands down, so it stays on. This week it is up against a wonderful trippy thing (thanks @brianhalliday). Have a look at them both….
…. to experience the strobe illusion click here….
and here is the wonderful trippy thing….
Which is better? Vote now and explain your choice…..
