Brain Teasers
Clever Jenny III
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
Jenny's friend Tom needed to move his mother's sewing machine up to her third floor apartment. He had attached a winch to his mother's window and was preparing to hoist the sewing machine up by using a long chain wrapped around the full-sized machine in its heavy wooden cabinet. Jenny looked at the setup and said, "Tom, that chain doesn't look strong enough for the sewing machine; it may break and your Mom's machine will be ruined." Tom said, "No, it's OK, Jenny. This chain is made up of 1000 links; each link was tested and each one can hold 12 pounds. I could hoist a piano with this chain!"
"Tom, please listen to me; please get a stronger chain! You know, a chain is..."
She didn't get any further. Tom, being a bit headstrong, had already started hoisting. As Jenny predicted, the chain broke and the sewing machine fell and was badly damaged. What did Jenny know that she didn't get a chance to tell Tom?
"Tom, please listen to me; please get a stronger chain! You know, a chain is..."
She didn't get any further. Tom, being a bit headstrong, had already started hoisting. As Jenny predicted, the chain broke and the sewing machine fell and was badly damaged. What did Jenny know that she didn't get a chance to tell Tom?
Hint
What do we know about chains?Answer
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Each link could hold 12 pounds, but that means the whole chain could only hold 12 pounds. Tom had needed a much stronger chain.Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
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