Since there is a current trend to really go off-topic, how about trying some of my favourite lateral-thinking puzzles :

1)
I have in my hand exactly 2 legal currency English coins.

They both add up to 1.5 pounds, but one of them is not a 1 pound coin.

What are the two coins ?


2)
What is the result of the following equation:

(x - a) * (x - b) * (x - c) * ... * (x - z) = ?


3)
Name the country with the lowest birth rate


4)
I'm standing next to two people.
They were born of the same mother on the same year, the same month, the same day, the same hour.
However, they are not twins.

How can that be ?

5)
Why are 2008 dollars worth more than 1988 dollars ?

the other one IS a 1 pound coin and 50 cents ?
(im tired already, leave me alone :P)(im tired already, leave me alone :P)in fact i didnt even bother reading this one :o percentage wise or absolute numbers? :P (im tired already, leave me alone :P)no they are not :P
(i actually just wanted to comment on this last bit but i thought that was lame)

I'm from canada, I'm not terribly sure our coinage is the same as yours, but i'd guess one of them is a .5 pound coin (the one thats not a pound coin) and the other one, is a pound coin. 
since (x-x) will show up, and x-x=0 the equasion equals "0"

is antartica it's own country?  if not the i'm snookered!

the mothers were twins?  maybe you could then say the mothers are the same, but the resulting children are clearly not twins. 

there are 20 more of them

I said name the country, not the birth rate ...

But I can see you're tired, so I'll leave you alone :P

@pookieisme
Answer 1 is correct

Answer 2 is correct

Answer 3 is not correct
(Antarctica is in fact a continent shared by many countries)

Answer 4 is not correct
When I say of the same mother I do mean the same person.


Answer 5 is correct

3) Germany?

4) One of the eggs was implanted in the woman who gave birth to 2 kids, one her own, the other not?

Ah this is an interesting thread to read.  Boris, more questions please.  It's interesting to see how people answer these.

I think people are going to quick themselves for not getting Question 3.
Once you know the answer it is clear it must be.


The answer to Question 4 requires a true lateral-thinking mind. I confess I didn't get it when I first heard it.


I'm going to bed now (1:15 am here in England).
I will post the two answers once I get to work tomorrow.

Unless, of course, some cleverclogs beats me to it :-)

4) 2 from a set of triplets.

Aha ! Correct.

Do people want to keep trying to work out the answer to 3, or shall I just put you all out of your misery ?

Lunch time has arrived.

The answer to question 3 is "Vatican City" (and yes, it is a country, look it up).

^^^ Agree.

Although TBH the equation (x-a)(x-b) somehow implies that (x-x) != 0

Well, in Mathematics it is traditional to give the same value to the same symbols in the same equation.

So I'd say (x - x) does equal 0 ...


--Boris PedanticusMaximus

Here's a new puzzle.

Take the optimal action in the scenario below.

Driving on a terribly stormy night, you come across an openly exposed bus stop in the middle of nowhere.  At the bus stop there are 3 people.  You are driving in a roadster that seats only 1 other person besides the driver.  At the stop there is:

1.  an old lady looking like she could die of exposure.
2.  a friend who had saved your life in the past.
3.  a total hottie, could be the love of you life.

uhm ,..
you'd stop ... talk to the friend
then talk to the girl to see if she has any bit of potential

if so, drive the grandma to the nearest elderly home/hospital/cemetery.. w/e.  - drive back then pick up the girl and take her home and tell her to cook dinner - which is a test to see if she has even more potential

if not, drive the grandma to the nearest elderly home/hospital/cemetery.. w/e.  - call your desperate friend and say there is a hot girl at the bus stop waiting for him.

drive back and pick up the friend, chat some more while you take him to wherever he needs to be and exchange contact info for later

and in case she had potential..
then if you get home and a romantic dinner for two is ready, then you know more sure if she is the love of your live.. if your house is empty, then she isn't and its time to break a window and call the police .. else its time to wine,dine and do something fine




or.. is this just me ?
:P

(or.. in other words; you didn't mention any specific rules when choosing the optimal scenario, hehe)

i like coz's answer to this one, im going with it!

that is the optimal solution!

Nice, coz, very smooth and you get extra points for putting the hottie to work at the stove.

Unfortunately, your answer broke the previously unspecified laws of the scenario universe, which are:

* There is no going back, once you pull away with a passenger, everyone's fate is sealed.  If you leave the old woman, she will likely die.  If you leave your friend or the babe, you will never see either again.
* There is no putting people on the outside of the car or in the trunk, etc, the car truly fits only 1 more.

4)
I'm standing next to two people.
They were born of the same mother on the same year, the same month, the same day, the same hour.
However, they are not twins.

How can that be ?

I dont know if this has been answered yet, but ...

Are you triplets?

Take the optimal action in the scenario below.

Driving on a terribly stormy night, you come across an openly exposed bus stop in the middle of nowhere.  At the bus stop there are 3 people.  You are driving in a roadster that seats only 1 other person besides the driver.  At the stop there is:

1.  an old lady looking like she could die of exposure.
2.  a friend who had saved your life in the past.
3.  a total hottie, could be the love of you life.
===========================================================
Get the friend to drive your roadster and the old lady home and stay behind with the hottie

What if you were solving for a,b,c? would it still come out to 0? No i do not know. im just asking

winner!

Yes this has been answered, and yes they are tripplets.


You wouldn't be solving for a, b, c...in this situation it doens't make sence to even attempt to solve for a,b,c.  no matter what the values for a,b,c are it will not change the fact that the answer is 0...unless a or b or c were 1/0 in which case case it would be impossible to calculate the answer as you cannot divide by zero. 

********

What can you put in a barrel that you can see, that will make the barrel lighter?

I wanted to add to the fun too, I've got another but lets have one at a time. 

A bunch of multi-colored, variety-shaped helium filled party balloons?

you could put fire into the barreland it would eventually brun into a lighter...

:)

Oh my gosh, luvan, we posted 1 second apart, that must be a thottbot forum record!

either that or one of us is stalking the other one...

i wont say who is stalking who but that Luvan guy is crazy.......................

Are you the one who has been smashing my mailbox?

absolutely not. the only thing i do hanging out of a car window is grapefruit bowling!

directions:
1) get car capable of safely reaching 60 MPH (i am from the USA i dont deal in Kilometers... stupid foreigners....)
/pray's the abundance of foreign people on this sight dont lynch me....

2) collect 3 friends...
3) pick up bag of biggest grapefruits you can find at store.
4) 2 friends in back sit and squeeze grapefruits till they are extra soft and juicy!
5) find long stretch of straigh flat road, free of cops is a good idea...
6) have driver get car up to exactly 60 MPH
7) hang out passenger side window throw grapefruit out in front of car like a baseball..
8) watch as grapefruit rolls about 10 feet then abruptly jumps straight into the air and explodes, showering car in juice and peel...(note to self: duck back into car to avoid taking grapefruit leavings in the face.)
9) repeat until out of grapefruits...
10) wash car when done as grapefruit juice left to dry can/WILL strip paint off a car.

this for some reason only works at 60 MPH, any faster and it explodes when it hits the ground. any slower and it just rolls off the side of the road, unelss you smash it with teh tire, which just sint as fun...

<spelling fixed i think>

I couldnt find any grapefruits fast enough...

Coconuts dont work as well.  Atleast it made a funny noise rebounding off my skull.

i would imagine oranges would be your next best option to grapefruits...

but nothing burns more than grapefruit juice in some poor unsuspecting newbie throwers eyes....

:)

Hmmm, i hate these kinds of questions. I actually did some research for it, disgarding the fact that they are English coins, 1 pound is about 50 pesos filipino money. So, a 40 Peso bill and a 20 peso bill;D I know that was not the questions' answer.
Hmmm...o-0 I won't bother with this one.
You know, i would say China because they have the lowest birth rate!
There's a chance that 2 'eggs' are released inside the (V: You know what it is) and 2 different sperm(s) go inside the 2 different type of 'eggs' (forgot the exact word) Infact, in Britan i saw a triplet, except 2 were twins, and 1 was just another baby from the same mother. Which means, 2 eggs=1egg+1sperm=1egg+2sperm
Ewww, im talking sick. Even though it's true.
I'm not sooo sure about this currency :p
Just did these to stall some time...

How did you find the 60pmh speed, trial and error, or was this wisdom passed to you from a grapefruit tossing master?

(Where's Pookie's 2nd puzzle?)

You put a hole into a barrel which will make it lighter.

1) How far can you run into the forrest?


2) What word in the English language uses all five vowels plus Y in alphabetical order and uses each one only once?


3) I have an empty piggy bank that is 8"x8"x8".  Roughly how many pennies can I put in my empty piggy bank?

honestly it was an accident at first.
we picked up a buddy and were headed to some school function and he had a grapefruit that we all made fun of him for...

while driving to whereever it was (i dont remember it was so long ago) the guy int eh passenger seat grabbed the grapefruit and tossed it out the window..

and we all were stunned at how cool it was..

so of course we went straight to the store and bought grapefruits and proceded to spend the next few hours testing speeds, and tossing grapefruits...

found out about the paint thing when we didnt wash the car and the paint started peeling a few days later

1) How far can you run into the forrest?
Until your a) out of breath, b) run into a tree, C) run out of the forest...

2) What word in the English language uses all five vowels plus Y in alphabetical order and uses each one only once?

facetiously


3) I have an empty piggy bank that is 8"x8"x8".  Roughly how many pennies can I put in my empty piggy bank?

682.666

1) How far can you run into the forrest?
Until you're halfway in, then you're running out of the forest

yeah yeah half way yeah if i can't make up a word then i don't konw good thing someone already answered it
since most people don't know the volume of a penny i'll go with one of these...
depends on how many you have.
none it's only meant to have piggies in it.
depends on the size of the hole on the top of the bank.


As to my puzzle, the normal answer is a hole but both fire and helium baloons work aswell, cudos all!  next puzzle on it's own post so i don't look so verbose.

Ok, here's the scenario:

You are at the bottom of a set of stairs, there are three switches there for three lights at the top of the stairs.  From where  your standing, you can't see any of the lights or tell if they are on.  You can only make one trip up the stairs.  The light bulbs are all waist high and you cannot use any other apparatus to check the lights.  All of the bulbs and switches work and each switch is set to one and only one switch.  How can you tell wich switch works with which light? 

1) Half way then you are running out of the forrest

2) Facetiously

3) 1 penny, after that the piggy bank is no longer empty so you are not adding pennies to an 'empty' piggy bank.

Dang, nice on on the pennies and piggy bank.

Here's another one:

You are adrift on a raft with several people.  Only you and one other person, Cpt. Crooked, are physically able to swim to the nearby island for help.  The raft has voted that someone should make the swim.  However, to swim to the isle through shark infested waters and strong currents would most definitely be a fatal journey.

Cpt. Crooked declared that he has two coins, one dated 1979, the other 2007.  He declares the rules as; whoever picks the 1979 coin will make the swim.  It is decided that you will pick first.  You luckily notice however, that both coins are dated 1979.  Cpt. Crooked must have swiched out the 2007 coin with a second 1979 coin.

The hat is extended to you with two 1979 coins.

How do you most simply avoid the swim and outsmart Cpt. Crooked without exposing the Cpt. as a liar?

That stumped me.  I cheated and looked it up.  It is possible.

I'm guessing take the penny then tell people to check which is left in the hat instead of having them look at yours.  Or "accidentally" drop the penny you picked up into the water so they can't see it.

Tell the captain he has to pick the damn penny instead of you.
Or say "I do NOT want the penny that I am about to pick"

Or throw the damn cheater in the water, let the sharks eat him while you swim to the island.

Just have someone stand next to the lights and tell you which ones turned off or on as you flick the switch.

Said you could not use an apparatus, but it did not say anything about asking someone else. 

winner, Eventime!  (for the expected answer at least, but madrushian's methods might be equally effective)

-Turn one light on, go up, unscrew one of the bulbs, pull out the wiring so that it short-circuits, go down, turn one of the other switches on, hear the fizzing sound, and then you know.

I then looked up the answer (Google FTW). What if they were LED bulbs?

Here are some easier ones:

6) What kind of cheese is made backwards ?

7) What do you sit on, sleep on and wash your teeth with ?

8) Yesterday I dropped a £5 note into a cup full of coffee, but when I retrieved it, the note was completely dry. How could that be ?

6) Edam

7) A chair, a bed, and a toothbrush

8) You poured or drank the coffe out of the cup, and did not retrieve the note until later, when it had dried

6) Correct

7) Correct

8) I didn't make it clear, sorry. I retrieved the note immediately after it fell into the cup full of coffee.

8) the note was in a ziplock bag
8) the coffee cup was shaped like a doughnut and the note went through the hole in the middle and never touched the coffee
8) the coffe was in bean form, never ground or brewed and was itself dry
8) a pinpoint high speed fan was pointing at the cup of coffee from directly above, parting the liquid like the great see and blowing off any droplets that may have touched the note.
8) the room was 275 degrees F


I'm pretty sure I got it with at least one of these...