# Lateral Thinking Puzzles - third time is best! **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [July 18, 2023, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214 "2023-07-18T13:39:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 141
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2801 "2024-10-19T23:08:12Z")
did she stick a magnet to some currency that the teacher didn’t expect the magnet to stick to? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2802 "2024-10-19T23:12:24Z")
In particular, did she stick it to an old Canadian nickel? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2803 "2024-10-19T23:18:16Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > did she stick a magnet to some currency that the teacher didn’t expect the magnet to stick to Yep, that’s it! They were supposed to attempt to stick it to a variety of things around the house, jotting down their True-or-False findings as they went — and, the next day, they each put their respective checklists on their respective desks, and raised their hands or kept them down as each question got asked to the class as they reviewed their respective answers. My daughter’s hand was the only one that went up for “coin,” prompting the teacher to deliver a sing-songy _apparently SOMEONE didn’t actually DO the assignment,_ assuming that my kid had, uh, _likewise_ simply assumed which objects would and wouldn’t stick instead of in fact running the tests — which, of course, prompted her to produce the coin that in fact _had_ obligingly stuck to the magnet the night before, and, well, still _does,_ is all. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2804 "2024-10-19T23:24:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > In particular, did she stick it to an old Canadian nickel As it happens, the coin was Brazilian. (I’m guessing the effect would’ve been even more impressive if she’d been able to get her hands on a US-minted steel penny from way back when, but you work with what you’ve got.) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2805 "2024-10-19T23:28:11Z")
Huh, now I’m wondering what Brazilian coin that was, and what it’s made of. Canada made coins out of nickel long after most countries, because Canada produces most of the world’s nickel, and nickel, like iron, happens to be ferromagnetic. I wouldn’t have thought that any other country would have any recent coins made from iron or nickel. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2806 "2024-10-19T23:28:27Z")
Dammit. I was going to guess she found a magnetic monopole. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2807 "2024-10-19T23:33:33Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Canada produces most of the world’s nickel, Huh, that fact I had in my head is either inaccurate or outdated, because Indonesia is now far ahead of Canada. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2808 "2024-10-19T23:41:24Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Huh, now I’m wondering what Brazilian coin that was, and what it’s made of. Per [this,](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centavo) it must have been steel; it’s just that I had (and still have) a jar full of coins, and one of those coins happened to respond to a magnet — and it happened to be a Brazilian coin, and it happened to display a stated value in centavos, and I made sure to happen to hand it to the kid as she diligently plugged away at her homework assignment. ---
**Author:** ![Ana\_Byrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ana\_Byrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ana_Byrd)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2809 "2024-10-25T14:23:53Z")
Has anyone here heard of a game called Chants of Sennaar? It’s a puzzle adventure game where you decipher fictional languages using context clues. I played it and wanted more. The game doesn’t have difficulty settings and isn’t designed to have much replay value, but I had an idea. **What did I do to practically double the number of puzzles in Chants of Sennaar?** ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2810 "2024-10-25T19:06:29Z")
Were different languages involved ? ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2811 "2024-10-25T21:02:09Z")
Chop each clue in half or is that too simple! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2024, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2812 "2024-10-25T21:11:28Z")
> [@Ana\_Byrd](#): > > I had an idea. **What did I do to practically double the number of puzzles in Chants of Sennaar?** Drink heavily? ---
**Author:** ![Ana\_Byrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ana\_Byrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ana_Byrd)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2813 "2024-10-26T02:18:54Z")
> [@pjd](#): > > Were different languages involved ? **Yes** > [@iamatractorboy](#): > > Chop each clue in half or is that too simple! **No** > [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Drink heavily? That would certainly increase the difficulty, but **No**. ---
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2814 "2024-10-26T05:34:55Z")
Are you multi lingual? Has setting the game to a different language made the puzzles sufficiently different? ---
**Author:** ![Ana\_Byrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ana\_Byrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ana_Byrd)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2815 "2024-10-26T14:41:50Z")
**Yes, that was it.** I changed the language settings to a language I’m not fluent in and want to learn. So on top of figuring out the made up languages, I also had to figure out the real language I don’t know very well. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2816 "2024-10-26T21:16:45Z")
When I was a wee lad, my slightly older brother authoritatively told me with great confidence that if you ‘run in place’ you won’t get tired. I put this little tidbit away and never really tested it. Only later when I was older did I realize how he might logically come to this conclusion. **How would he make the connection somehow that if you ran in place you wouldn’t get tired?** ---
**Author:** ![Ana\_Byrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ana\_Byrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ana_Byrd)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2817 "2024-10-27T03:12:45Z")
Had he been told that the farther away you run, the tireder you get, and just worked backwards from that? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2818 "2024-10-27T04:00:47Z")
…or that Work Equals Force Times Distance? ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2819 "2024-10-27T12:17:27Z")
no adding more characters as required. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2024, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214/2820 "2024-10-27T12:19:00Z")
yes. Too easy. He had been told that the definition of work involve moving something a distance, So he logically assumed that if you don’t travel a distance, you are not doing work. So not doing work, means you won’t get tired. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214.md?page=140) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lateral-thinking-puzzles-third-time-is-best/987214.md?page=142)