2545: Got A Problem

[jen_aside]

How can you put ten horses into nine pens without putting more than one in any pen? (No, none of the horses are pregnant!)
I could post some lateral thinking problems, but I'm not really as fond of them, because most of them just seem to be a specific [often excessively farfetched] scenario made vague with the intent that someone guess what it is.

Comments

[redkite7]

first one: make a "pen" around the last horse with all the other pens? =D

second one: gah, we did that one on the bus trip down to new orleans when I went last year... except the man sat down with another man, then ordered soup, etc.

-raeliyah, lurker

[jen_aside]

Hey, I remember you XD

Horse answer: Well, that would be all ten horses in one pen, which is definitely more than one =(

[ex_tailsy]

Yeah, you've pretty much identified the problem that Lone and I have with the lateral thinking puzzles book you so graciously loaned us. I could come up with a few more explanations for some of the scenarios, but there's just one very specific one they have in mind. =.\

[jen_aside]

The, what is it?, "Wally" sections are the only real redeeming portions of the book. They're all zingers =B

[digoraccoon]

For the horses-- Put the pens in a circle so they touch each other. Put 10th horse in the center! Viola! :D

For the Soup-- I dunno... don't kill the albatross?

[jen_aside]

Horses: That's interesting, but it's then technically ten pens =o

[digoraccoon]

Hmmm, guess it could be 10. Trying to think of some other ideas... maybe changethe shapes of the pens.

Cheesy answer: The world is a pen! ...no.

[redkite7]

Yeah, that's what I was trying to say, but Digo did it better =D
Like so: cheesy graphic ftw

-raeburd, lurker

[jen_aside]

GROANERS:

TENHORSES
The man has just returned to civilization after his ship wrecked on a deserted island, during which time his wife drowned. To keep the remaining passengers alive, the captain served them what he said was albatross soup, but when the man tasted the restaurant's albatross soup, he knew the captain had lied and fed them his wife's body.

[digoraccoon]

Okay I'm not terribally heart-broken about the horses puzzle, silly as it is, it does work. Its the Albatross one that gets me. How that leap of logic was made I wouldn't know. :3

[redkite7]

When we played it, it was more of a question/answer game, where you started off with that first sentence (and someone who knew the story, obviously) and the other people were supposed to ask yes/no questions to tease out the rest of the story, ie "Was the man suicidal?" "Was he allergic to the soup?" "Was it bad soup?" etc, until you got all the pieces.

-Raeburd

[jen_aside]

Hence the GUH. X/