Brain Teasers
Army Helmets
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
A fairly poor country was in the middle of a war. Being on the lower-end of the economic scale, they didn't have enough money for fancy armor or weapons. They typically went into battle armed with nothing more than regular clothes, cloth helmets, and an assortment of older-model firearms.
A few months into the war, the ruler of the country decided that an investment in new Army helmets would probably be a wise choice (considering the large number of head injuries caused by the thin cloth ones). After spending nearly all the money the country could scrape together on new steel helmets, they were shocked to see the number of head injuries go up.
How could it be possible that steel helmets, assuming the helmets fit perfectly, caused more injuries than cloth?
A few months into the war, the ruler of the country decided that an investment in new Army helmets would probably be a wise choice (considering the large number of head injuries caused by the thin cloth ones). After spending nearly all the money the country could scrape together on new steel helmets, they were shocked to see the number of head injuries go up.
How could it be possible that steel helmets, assuming the helmets fit perfectly, caused more injuries than cloth?
Answer
When people in the Army would be shot in the head (with a cloth helmet) they wouldn't get head injuries, they would die. Cloth may protect somewhat, but not enough to stop most bullets. Death isn't considered a head injury. However, with steel helmets, the bullet could be slowed down enough to not kill, but just injure. If a hit in the head wasn't fatal, it would be considered a head injury. So, instead of most shots to the head being fatal, they became head injuries.Hide Answer Show Answer
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