Brain teaser
Puzzle requiring thought to solve
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Through Puzzle, Archimedes and Mathematical puzzle
One of the earliest known brain teaser enthusiasts was the Greek mathematician Archimedes. He devised mathematical problems for his contemporaries to solve.
Example
A brain teaser may be a mathematical puzzle:
- Q: If three men can dig three holes in three hours, how many holes can one man dig in one hour?
- A: One third of a hole. (In one hour three men have dug one hole; with a third of that work being done only a third of a hole will be dug.)
It may require some attentive lateral thinking:
- Q: Mary's father has five daughters: the oldest is Nana, followed by Nene, Nini and Nono. What is the name of the fifth daughter?
- A: Mary. (Not, as the pattern might suggest, Nunu.)
It may be a riddle:
- Q: I have a bed but cannot sleep, and have a bank but no money, what am I?
- A: A river.
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Intuition
The difficulty of many brain teasers relies on a certain degree of fallacy in human intuitiveness. This is most common in brain teasers relating to conditional probability, because the causal human mind tends to consider absolute probability instead. As a result, controversial discussions emerge from such problems. One of the famous brain teasers is the Monty Hall problem. Another (simpler) example of such a brain teaser is the Boy or Girl paradox.