As with the other pages, this page has a plain background colour and no wallpaper graphics. This is to allow the clues and solutions on the same page, without them being immediately "in your face"...
For each Lateral Thinking Exercise:
- The "Situation" is shown in black text on the grey background.
- The "Clues" are hidden as grey text on the grey background. To view the Clues, click your left mouse button at the start of the word "Clues" and drag down to the start of the word "Solution". This will highlight the Clues on the screen.
- The "Solution" is also hidden as grey text on the grey background. To view the Solution, click your left mouse button at the start of the word "Solution" and drag down to the start of the next puzzle. This will highlight the Solution on the screen.
- Each section of "Clues" and "Solution" ends with three dots: "..."
Note that some of the puzzles are so easy that the clue is simply "What are you assuming?". In other words, step back, examine your assumptions, and see if that helps!
As before, the tabs below will send you directly to any specific puzzle in this second set.
[ 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 ]
Clues: There is nothing unusual about the ship. There are twenty crew-members aboard...Solution: There are more than ten sailors like Jim on his ship and he wishes he had less...
42. A woman lies dead in her bed. She has no bruises, markings, or signs of a scuffle. Next to the woman are a pair of scissors. How was she killed?
Clues: The bed is an unusual bed. The scissors were not used on her in any way...Solution: She's lying on a water bed. The killer punctured the water bed with the scissors and then drowned the woman...
43. A man sees a bear. He walks one mile due South, one mile due East, and then one mile due North (returning to his starting place). What colour was the bear?
Clues: Think about geographical anomalies...Solution: White. The only place you could walk one mile due South, one mile due East and one mile due North and ends up exactly where you started is at the North Pole...
44. It is a dark and stormy night. A man comes home to find his cat curled up in front of a cozy fire, dead. How did the cat die?
Clues: The cat has not been touched by anyone, nor has it been burned. There is a collar around its neck...Solution: The cat had been outside in the storm and had been thoroughly soaked. He had come inside to warm himself by the fire. The cat was wearing a leather collar, and as the collar dried, it shrank, strangling the cat...
45. A woman is lying dead on the road. There is broken glass, ice and a crushed lemon nearby. What happened?
Clues: The "lemon" is not an ordinary lemon. Nothing has hit her...Solution: Her car (the lemon) skidded on the ice and hit a tree. As a result the car was crushed and she was projected through the windscreen...
46. In the middle of the ocean is a yacht. Several dead bodies are floating in the water nearby. What has happened?
Clues: The people willingly and eagerly entered the water. They have drowned...Solution: Some people were on an ocean voyage in a yacht. One afternoon they all decide to go swimming, so they dove off the side into the water. Unfortunately, they forgot to place a ladder on the side of the boat. Since there's no way for them to climb back aboard, they drown...
47. A man is lying dead in a room. The floor has many valuable treasures scattered over it, and a chandelier is on the ceiling. There is a large, shattered window nearby. How did the man die?
Clues: The man is wearing some unusual clothing. He entered the room through the window...Solution: The room is the ballroom of an ocean liner which sank some time ago. The man ran out of air while diving in the wreck...
48. A woman arrived home after shopping with her bag of groceries, got the mail, and walked into the house. On her way to the kitchen, she walked through the living room and looked at her husband, who had blown his brains out. She then continued into the kitchen, put away the groceries, and cooked her dinner. Explain.
Clues: Her husband has been dead for a LONG time...Solution: Her husband had killed himself a few years ago, and it is the urn on the mantelpiece containing his ashes that the wife looks at...
49. A body is discovered in a park in Chicago in the middle of summer. It has a fractured skull and many other broken bones, but the cause of death was hypothermia. Why?
Clues: The man has been dead for less than a day. When he entered the park he was already dead...Solution: A refugee from eastern Europe desperately wants to get to the US. Not having enough money for the airfare, he stowed away in the landing gear compartment of an airliner. He died of hypothermia mid-flight, and fell out when the landing gear opened as the plane made its final approach...
50. A woman gives undeniable evidence in court that her husband was murdered by her sister. However, the judge determines that her sister cannot be punished. Why?
Clues: She is VERY close to her sister. This would be a very interesting court case...Solution: The sisters are Siamese twins...
51. A man is driving his car to work. He turns on the radio and listens for a few minutes, before returning home, and killing his wife. Why?
Clues: He hears his wife on the radio. However, nothing she says annoys him to the point of killing her...Solution: The radio program is one where the DJ calls a listener and asks them a question for a prize. They announce the name of the listener they are calling - it is the man's wife, yet another man (her lover) answers the phone before she takes the phone...
52. The music stopped and Charlie was immediately crushed to death. Explain.
Clues: Charlie is NOT human. It is a Sunday...Solution: Charlie was an insect sitting on a pew in a church service. When the music stopped everyone sat down, and Charlie was squashed...
53. A woman sees her husband leaving a certain establishment and immediately insists on dissolving their partnership. What is going on?
Clues: The establishment deals in a particular branch of medicine. She remains happily married to him for many years to come...Solution: Her husband is a knife-thrower in a circus act, and she is the "target" in the act. She sees him leaving an optometry clinic, and decides that if he's having trouble with his eyes she doesn't want him throwing knives at her...
54. A man is sitting in bed. He makes a phonecall, says nothing, and then goes to sleep. What was the point of the call?
Clues: He does not know the person he calls. He wakes the other person up...Solution: He is in a hotel, and is unable to sleep because the man in the adjacent room is snoring. He calls the room next door, where the snorer wakes up and answers the phone. The first man hangs up without saying anything and goes to sleep before the snorer can get back to sleep and start snoring again...
55. A man dies of thirst in his own home. How is this so?
Clues: His home is NOT a house (but it is a home). No-one had turned the water off, and he was capable of turning the taps on in his home...Solution: His home is a houseboat and he has run out of water while on an extended cruise...
56. Three men are dead. On the footpath are pieces of ice and some broken glass. How did they die?
Clues: There is also a refrigerator on the footpath. Two of the dead men are on the footpath, and the other is in the apartment building beside the footpath...Solution: A strong man comes home to the penthouse apartment he shares with his beautiful young wife, taking the elevator up from the ground floor. He sees signs of lovemaking in the bedroom, and assumes that his wife is having an affair and that her beau has just escaped down the stairs. The husband looks out of a large floor-to-ceiling window and sees a good-looking man leave the main entrance of the building. The husband then pushes the refrigerator out through the window onto the young man below. The husband dies of a heart attack from overexertion; the young man below dies when the refrigerator falls on him; and the wife's boyfriend, who was hiding inside the refrigerator, naturally dies from the fall...
57. A man is running along a corridor with a piece of paper in his hand. The lights flicker, at which point the man drops to his knees and cries out, "Oh no!" What has gone wrong?
Clues: The corridor is in a prison. The flickering of the light is due to a power surge...Solution: The man is delivering a pardon in a death row prison, and the flicker of the lights indicates that the person to be pardoned has just been electrocuted...
58. When going around a corner on Roberts Street, motorcycle riders travel at the same speed on both sunny and rainy days. However, if it's cloudy but not raining, they usually go faster. Why?
Clues: Traction is the key factor. The business on the corner contributes to the behaviour described...Solution: There is a car wash on the corner. On rainy days, the rain reduces traction. On sunny days, water from the car wash has the same effect. However, if rain is threatening the car wash gets little business, and so the the road doesn't get wet, allowing for a faster speed...
59. A woman throws an object out of the window and dies. How does she die?
Clues: She dies of a broken neck. The nature of the object is VERY important...Solution: The object she throws is a boomerang. It flies out, loops around, and comes back and hits her in the head, killing her. Boomerangs do not often return so close to the point from which they were thrown, but it is possible...
60. An avid birdwatcher sees an unexpected bird. Soon he's dead. How does he die?
Clues: He is not birdwatching at the time. The bird does not directly kill him - in fact, the bird itself died in the process...Solution: He is a passenger in an airplane, and he sees the bird getting sucked into one of the engines while at high altitude...
61. An ordinary Australian citizen, with no passport, visits over thirty foreign countries in one day. He is welcomed in each country, and leaves each one of his own accord. How is this possible?
Clues: He does not leave the country in any usual sense. His job involves courier work...Solution: He is a mail courier who delivers packages to the different foreign embassies in Canberra. The land of an embassy belongs to the country of the embassy, not to Australia...
62. Two children find a strange dead man on the floor in the living room. They stare at him in shock and cry bitterly. How did he die?
Clues: The children did not know the man, but they knew who he was. There is a fireplace in the living room...Solution: The dead man was Santa Claus. He slipped while coming down the chimney and broke his neck...
63. A man tries the new cologne his wife gave him for his birthday. He goes out to get some food, and is killed. Why?
Clues: His job is to collect a certain kind of food. The new cologne changes his scent quite noticeably...Solution: The man is a beekeeper, and the bees attack him en-masse because they don't recognise his fragrance. This has actually been known to happen...
64. A man in uniform stands on the beach of a tropical island. He takes out a cigarette, lights it, and begins smoking. He then opens a letter and begins reading it. The cigarette burns down between his fingers, but he doesn't throw it away. He then cries. Why?
Clues: He cries because of the letter's contents. He does not feel the cigarette burning his fingers...Solution: He is an attendant at a leper colony. The letter informs him that he has contracted the disease, and he cries as a result. Because he has contracted leprosy, he cannot feel the burning sensation the cigarette is causing...
65. A married couple goes to a movie. During the movie the husband strangles the wife. He is then able to get her body home without attracting attention. How?
Clues: There are many other people at the same theatre seeing the same movie. The husband is not accosted at any time...Solution: The movie is at a drive-in theatre...
66. A man ran into a fire, and lived. Another man stayed where there was no fire, and died. Why was this so?
Clues: The man who ran into the fire was burned. The man who did not was not burned at all - he died of asphyxiation (though not due to the smoke)...Solution: The two men were working in a small room protected by a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher system, when a fire broke out in an adjoining room. One of the men ran through the fire and escaped with only minor burns. The other one stayed in the room until the fire extinguishers started, and died due to a lack of oxygen...
67. A writer with an audience of millions insisted that he was never to be interrupted while writing. After the day when he actually was interrupted, he never wrote again. Why?
Clues: He wrote using an unusual medium. He died as a result of the interruption...Solution: He was a skywriter whose plane crashed into another plane...
68. Tracy died in North Queensland, while Craig died at sea. Everyone was much happier with Craig's death. Why?
Clues: Tracy and Craig are not living creatures...Solution: Tracy and Craig were cyclones...
69. A poor man is travelling from Switzerland to his home in France by train. If he had been in a non-smoking car he would have died. Why?
Clues: The train is not damaged in any way. His death would have been a suicide. He has only recently become poor...Solution: The man used to be blind. He has just had an expensive eye operation to restore his sight, and his eyes are bandaged. He has been told not to remove the bandage for 3 days, but unable to resist he takes a peek. The train (which has no internal lighting) goes through a tunnel just as he peeks through the bandage, and he almost kills himself thinking the operation was a failure. Fortunately, the glow of the lit cigarettes people are smoking convinces him that he can see...
70. A man leaves a motel room in the middle of the night, goes to his car, and honks the horn repeatedly. He then walks back to his room. Explain.
Clues: His wife is asleep in their motel room. He has forgotten where their room is. At no point does she wake up...Solution: The man goes outside to get something from his car, but as the parking lot is set apart from the building, he forgets which room he was in. His wife is deaf, so he honks the car horn loudly, waking up everyone else in the motel. The other residents all get up and turn on their room lights, at which point the man then returns to the one dark room...
71. A line of adults are holding children in a queue. The children are handed over to a man one at a time, who holds them while a woman shoots them. If the child is crying, the man tries to cheer them up before they are shot. Why?
Clues: The children are not shot in any usual sense. In fact, most of them (and the adults with them) want them to be shot...Solution: The children are getting their photographs taken with Santa...
72. A man marries twenty women in his town, but isn't charged with polygamy. Why?
Clues: He is not a Mormon. He does not have a wife...Solution: He's a priest - he is marrying them to other people, not to himself...
73. A man working hard at doing his job when his suit tears. Fifteen minutes later, he's dead. How does he die?
Clues: His suit is a VERY specialised suit. He wears the suit only on his most dangerous assignments...Solution: The man is an astronaut on a space walk...
74. A man lies dead. Nearby are a pile of bricks, and a beetle on top of a book. How did he die?
Clues: The "beetle" is not really a beetle. He has been crushed to death...Solution: The man was an amateur mechanic, and the book is a Volkswagen service manual. The "beetle" is a Volkswagen car, and the pile of bricks were being used to hold the car up. Unfortunately, the car rolled off the bricks and crushed him...
75. A man is found dead in the arctic with a pack on his back. How did he die?
Clues: The pack actually killed him - it's not an ordinary pack...Solution: It's a wolf pack - they've killed (and eaten) most of the man...
76. A horse jumps over a tower and lands on a man, who disappears. Explain.
Clues: The tower and the horse are about the same size. The man is about half as tall as the tower...Solution: It's a chess game. The move is "knight takes pawn"...
77. Three large people are crowding together under one small umbrella, yet nobody gets wet. How is this possible?
Clues: What are you assuming?Solution: It isn't raining...
78. A woman comes home and sees Spaghetti on the wall. She then kills her husband. Why?
Clues: Spaghetti is not a style of pasta...Solution: Spaghetti was the name of her dog. Her husband had it stuffed and mounted, and she retaliated...
79. A man is born in 1972 and dies in 1952 at the age of 25. Explain.
Clues: What are you assuming?Solution: He was born in room number 1972 of a hospital, and dies in room number 1952...
80. A man jumps off a high building. On the way down his expression changes. Why?
Clues: He was calmly resolved when he jumped off the building. Something he heard changed everything...Solution: His expression changed from calm resolve to despair. There had been a nuclear war and the man thought that he was the last person left alive in the world. He jumped off to kill himself and was quite okay until half way down the building, when he hears a telephone ringing...
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