Games - Situation puzzle

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	Games - Situation puzzle

Situation puzzles are also known as lateral thinking puzzle or simply yes/no puzzles.

Situation puzzles are usually played in a group, with one person hosting the puzzle and the others asking questions which can be answered with yes or no only. (In some settings other answers (like irrelevant) can be accepted.) The puzzle is solved when one of the questioners can recite the narrative the host had in mind, in particular explaining whatever aspect of the initial scenario was puzzling.

These puzzles are inexact and many puzzle statements have more than one possible fitting answer. The goal however is to find out the story as the host has it in mind. Critical reading, logical thinking, as well as lateral thinking may all be required to solve a situation puzzle. The term lateral thinking was coined by Edward De Bono to denote a creative problem-solving style that involves looking at the given situation from unexpected angles, and is typically necessary to the solution of situation puzzles. The term lateral thinking puzzle has been popularised for this type of puzzle by Paul Sloane who has written many books of such puzzles.

Examples

One of the most famous situation puzzles is told similar to this:

A man walks into a bar, and asks the bartender for a drink of water. The bartender pulls out a gun, points it at the man, and cocks it. The man says "Thank you" and leaves. What happened?

The question and answer segment might go something like this. #Question: Did the bartender hear him OK? Answer: Yes #Question: Was the bartender angry for some reason? A: No #Question: Did they know each other from before? A: No, or irrelevant #Question: Was the man's "Thank you" sarcastic? A: No, or No, he was genuinely grateful for some reason #Question: Did the man ask for water in an offensive way? A: No #Question: Did the man ask for water in some strange way? A: Yes

Eventually the questions lead up to the conclusion: The man had the hiccups, and asked for water. The bartender heard the hiccups, guessed the man's need, and chose instead to cure the hiccups by frightening the man with the gun. Once the man got over his fear, he realized his hiccups were gone, was grateful, and didn't need a drink of water anymore.

Some typical puzzle statements are #A father and his son were in a car accident. The father was dead on impact, and the son was severely injured and rushed to the hospital. The surgeon refused to operate on the injured boy, saying "I can't operate on him, he's my son!" How is this possible? #Hunters came upon a cabin in the woods, where inside they found two dead. At first glance, it was obvious how they died. How did they die? #Tom is found dead in the living room, with a bar across his back. How did he die? #Adults are holding children, waiting their turn. The children are handed to a man, who holds them while a woman shoots them. Their parents are pleased. Why? #A man walks into a bar and orders a bowl of albatross soup. He takes one bite, then walks into the bathroom and kills himself. Why?

These are considered classic situation puzzles; all of the information needed to solve them is given in the initial statement.

Solutions

#The surgeon's a female, the boy's mother. #The two dead men are the pilot and copilot of a plane, which they are inside the cabin of. They died when the plane crashed. #Tom is a mouse, killed by a mousetrap. #Shoots is used in a photographical sense. She is taking pictures, or "shooting" them. #The man was previously in a survival situation, lost at sea. He was given something called "albatross soup" by some other people. The dish he ordered at the restaurant tasted completely different, and he knew the meats were not the same. The only other meat available during the survival situation was human flesh—corpse or otherwise. Confronted with the facts, he commits suicide.

Terminology

Yope is a word devised to answer a question with yes and no simultaneously. You can think of it as an answer saying Yes, but ... and No, but ... at the same time.
N/a is used when a question is not applicable to the current situation.

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