Thursday, December 14, 2006

Lateral thinking : Who will be killed Smith or James

There are a set of puzzles called lateral thinking puzzles.Some find it very annoying and some find it very interesting.What separate them from normal puzzle is the option it gives you to think.Answers can be very complicated to very naive and can be many depending on the culture of the solver.Almost all lateral puzzles are stories which is incomplete and need you to fill up the story with your imagination and creativity.Some times thinking outside the box is essential in various modern fields of work.So here i present a simple lateral thinking puzzle.Post your solution as comments

Problem


A Big government building has 100 floors.Mr Smith and James work there. Both are hefty people conscious about being over weight.They live near to each other and almost always take the same car to go to office.When Smith and James go together they go directly to their office in 26th and 28th floors respectively using the lift.If Smith goes alone he always takes the stairway.If James goes alone he always goes in lift till 10th floor and take the stairs.One day 2 steps of the 13th floor staircase fell off in the night. James and Smith are always the very first people to enter the building.Usually everybody avoid stairs other than these two people.Whom do u think will be killed if they were planning to come separately the next day?


Hint

Some of the words can be for creating confusion.So ignore some and then re think.

5 comments:

Your_Host said...

Neither one will be killed. They will see the fallen steps on their way up and avoid the gap.

Unknown said...

James would be killed.

Smith would see the fallen stairs at the bottom of the staircase when he started to go up the stairs.

James would not see the fallen steps because he is not starting at the bottom of the staircase.

Unknown said...

If we assume that both r not sensible enough to see the broken steps immediately in front of their eyes and blindly step ahead, then James might fall down(can't assure he will get killed!) as he begins his journey after 11th floor as unlike in case of his buddy Smith. So the person who might fall first chronologically if they arrive alone to office(not considering the fact that each might not know the other's arrival ), then James will have a fall.

Vibha Garg said...

i am not able to relate the hint n d puzzle above..............so wud u plz mention it more precisely

MM said...

I don't know if anybody will be killed, but if the question can be rephrased as "who will be the first one to see the broken stairs", the answer depends on whoever is the first one to come to work, because we know that Smith and James haven't arrived together.