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Lateral Thinking Puzzles
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Barry Grant
Barry Grant
Old Shoe

Sep-10-2006 18:25

Due to the success of the lateral puzzles in the "A riddle" thread, it seems appropriate to start a lateral thinking puzzle thread.

A rule of thumb to follow would be to allow those who do not know the answer to figure it out for themselves. If you happen to know the answer, please keep it to yourself and let the others have the fun.

Please feel free to start one at any point. It is not necessary to wait for one to finish before starting another one.

Have fun!

Replies

Bill Oakes
Bill Oakes

Sep-16-2006 04:18

does this have anything to do with physics? (No)
you say this happened to you. could this happen in any country? (Yes)
is the van towing the truck from the front of the truck? the back? (Could be either)
is the van actually towing the truck? (Yes) is it an optical illusion? (No)
does it have something to do with what broke down in the van? (Yes)
the terrain? time of day? season? (Irrelevant to all)
would this be considered a very unusual event or something that could happen often enough to not surprise someone? (Not uncommon, but unorthodox solution)
was the flat bed of the truck empty when it went out? came back? Yes to both)
does it matter how many people were actually involved in this? (No)
was the van actually broken down? was it a ruse to get the truck out there so a stunt could be performed?
did this happen to the breakdown company in the past? relevant? (No)
is there something unique about a breakdown company that I would need to know? (No) or is it just a vehicle repair shop? (No)

Barry Grant
Barry Grant
Old Shoe

Sep-16-2006 05:00

if it had something to do with what broke down in the van, was it something under the hood like a part of the engine? beneath the van? inside the van? above the van? side? front? rear?
was it a piece of the van that broke or something it was carrying?
if it's not just a vehicle repair shop, are it's other services vehicle related? relevant?
and the van was pulling the truck? pushing it?
was the van towing the truck with the truck's own towing cable? with some other device? relevant?
could the truck tow the van in the same way?

Bill Oakes
Bill Oakes

Sep-16-2006 05:15

if it had something to do with what broke down in the van, was it something under the hood like a part of the engine? (Technically, but i don't want to sound like a mechanic, so i will say no) beneath the van? (Kinda)inside the van? (Yesish) above the van? (No) side? (No) front? rear? (Yes to last 2)
was it a piece of the van that broke or something it was carrying? (Van)
if it's not just a vehicle repair shop, are it's other services vehicle related? (just the breakdown repair and rescue) relevant? (Yope)
and the van was pulling the truck? (Yes) pushing it? (No)
was the van towing the truck with the truck's own towing cable? (Yes) with some other device? (No) relevant? (No)
could the truck tow the van in the same way? (Possibly, but irrelevant)

Bill Oakes
Bill Oakes

Sep-17-2006 05:22

*looks up and down the gumshoe lounge which is empty*

It seems I have scared everyone away with this one. I have a clue which I would give but it would give it away too easily methinks.

All I will say is this. A broken down van towes a perfectly working recovery vehicle back to the garage where the van is to be repaired. One thing I will say is this: The van would not be able to be carried by the recovery vehicle, but it *could* be towed.

*Slinks back into shadows, looking for takers*



Barry Grant
Barry Grant
Old Shoe

Sep-17-2006 05:57

Mr. Oakes,

I'm sorry I haven't been around lately. I just joined an Agency and that's been keeping my attention. I'm also a new subscriber and I'm finding more message board all over the place. I've been doing a lot of reading!

Oh! And by the way, why am I the only one guessing here? I could use some help. Maybe from some other Brits who might have an insight into this...

OK, to get back to this...
to review (and please confirm):
the van is towing the truck.
the truck would not be able to carry the van.
the fact that the van is towing the truck has something to do with what broke down in the van.
the repair shop is not just a repair shop but it does something else and that something else is not particularly relevant.
the parts that broke on the van are the front and rear and sort of the bottom and/or interior.

Assuming all of that is correct,
was the van much larger than the truck?
was the broken part the wheel base?
did the floor of the interior fall out?
did the truck have a mishap on the way there that required it to be towed?
did the truck have to be towed?
was something jury-rigged to accomplish this feat? like the engine of the truck powered the van so the van could pull the truck? (I know that sounds far-fetched but I'm really at a loss on this.)
is this something a non-technical person could have set up, meaning the van towing the truck? does one have to be mechanically savvy?
would this make the front page of the local paper or be buried some where in the "other stories around the county" section?
you missed these in a previous post so I want to be sure:
was the van actually broken down? was it a ruse to get the truck out there so a stunt could be performed?
has Man ever landed on the moon? (just going for at least 1 "Yes".)

Bill Oakes
Bill Oakes

Sep-17-2006 06:24

OK, to get back to this...
to review (and please confirm):
the van is towing the truck.
the truck would not be able to carry the van.
the fact that the van is towing the truck has something to do with what broke down in the van.
the repair shop is not just a repair shop but it does something else and that something else is not particularly relevant.
the parts that broke on the van are the front and rear and sort of the bottom and/or interior. (Yes)

Assuming all of that is correct,
was the van much larger than the truck? (No, think smell van and large semi truck)
was the broken part the wheel base? (no)
did the floor of the interior fall out? (no)
did the truck have a mishap on the way there that required it to be towed? (No the truck works perfectly)
did the truck have to be towed? (In a way yes)
was something jury-rigged to accomplish this feat? like the engine of the truck powered the van so the van could pull the truck? (I know that sounds far-fetched but I'm really at a loss on this.) (No)
is this something a non-technical person could have set up, meaning the van towing the truck? (Not really) does one have to be mechanically savvy? (Not really, I came up with the solution and I am not very mechanically savvy)
would this make the front page of the local paper or be buried some where in the "other stories around the county" section? (Not unless they like to talk about breakdowns)
you missed these in a previous post so I want to be sure:
was the van actually broken down? (Yes, as in, it was unable to safely make it home) was it a ruse to get the truck out there so a stunt could be performed? (Not at all)
has Man ever landed on the moon? (just going for at least 1 "Yes".) (Unlikely and irrelevant, but I would like to go to the moon. Just to have a look around.)

I think this is too hard if you are not actually a mechanic so I will say this:

The van would not have been able to drive safely if it wasn't towing the truck.



Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Sep-17-2006 06:34

I was going to say maybe the van's brakes are shot. So the van pulls the lorry that way the lorry driver can use his brakes. The lorry can't tow a van without brakes otherwise the van'll just end up the ar... I mean the 'backend' of the lorry.

That's as good as my mechanical expertise gets... anything more technical and I call the RACV.



Barry Grant
Barry Grant
Old Shoe

Sep-17-2006 07:00

was the van stuck in "drive" and couldn't stop so it had to tow the truck to slow it down?

I'm not a mechanic ,nor do I play one on TV ,so this is going to be especially difficult for me.

Bill Oakes
Bill Oakes

Sep-17-2006 07:17

SS got it!

This happened to me once on the motorway from London to Leeds. Wehn braking hard to slow for traffic the back brakes overheated, blowing off the brake pipes, and emptying the brake fluid out onto the road. When the recovery truck arrived, it wasn't rated to carry our van (it was an ice cream van after all, and weighed slightly over 3 tons) I decided because it wasnt able to slow down that I could tow the recovery truck back, and signal to the driver when I needed to slow down, so he could use his brakes and slow the convoy in one. The blokes at the repair garage were confused when a ten year old van towed a brand new recovery vehicle into their yard!

Clara Dark
Clara Dark
Nomad

Sep-17-2006 09:10

phew, I'm glad you guys are done with this one, all that car talk was making me dizzy :)

here's a little one: a carrot, a pipe, and two sticks are lying in a field - why?

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