Brain Teasers
Table Chips
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
Cunning Chris decided to go to his local pub one night in the rain as he was bored at home. As he entered the pub he greeted some old acquaintances, like Jazz Jake and Swift-Hand Steve.
He purchased a drink and sat with his old friends and had an idea how to lighten up the evening.
"I have a challenge for you Swift-Hand Steve" said Cunning Chris.
"Well bring it on then Cunning Chris" goaded Steve, forgetting how cunning Cunning Chris was.
Chris then grabbed a handful of poker chips from behind the bar, scattered them across the table and placed two paper cups by opposite edges.
"Right, here we have fifty white chips and fifty black chips. My challenge is that I can place all the black chips in my cup before you can place all the white chips in your cup. The rules are, you must have one hand on the cup at all times, you can only touch one chip at a time, you can only use your hands and you can't use any object to help you gather the chips."
"Easy" replied Swift-Hand Steve. A smile had spread across his face, he knew he had the quickest hands in town.
"Ok then, Go"
Swift-Hand Steve was true to his name and he quickly had over ten chips in his cup before Cunning Chris even had two. But moments later, it was Cunning Chris who wore the giant grin. What had he done to secure his victory?
He purchased a drink and sat with his old friends and had an idea how to lighten up the evening.
"I have a challenge for you Swift-Hand Steve" said Cunning Chris.
"Well bring it on then Cunning Chris" goaded Steve, forgetting how cunning Cunning Chris was.
Chris then grabbed a handful of poker chips from behind the bar, scattered them across the table and placed two paper cups by opposite edges.
"Right, here we have fifty white chips and fifty black chips. My challenge is that I can place all the black chips in my cup before you can place all the white chips in your cup. The rules are, you must have one hand on the cup at all times, you can only touch one chip at a time, you can only use your hands and you can't use any object to help you gather the chips."
"Easy" replied Swift-Hand Steve. A smile had spread across his face, he knew he had the quickest hands in town.
"Ok then, Go"
Swift-Hand Steve was true to his name and he quickly had over ten chips in his cup before Cunning Chris even had two. But moments later, it was Cunning Chris who wore the giant grin. What had he done to secure his victory?
Hint
Look at the rules againAnswer
Soon after the game had commenced, while Swift-Hand Steve was so engrossed in grabbing his chips, Cunning Chris slowly slid his cup over one of the white chips, concealing it. After he had done so, he casually collected the rest of his chips. Even though it appeared that Steve had finished before him and looked triumphant, after Chris had finished, he moved his cup, revealing the concealed chip and watched Steve's face fall.Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
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