Puzzle me this
October 12, 2014 2:20 PM   Subscribe

I'm organising a competition in which groups of people have to work together to solve a series of puzzles. I'm looking for puzzles along the lines of that hoary old favourite about the Farmer trying to cross the river with a Fox, a Chicken and Bag of Grain or the one involving the Two Guards, one of whom only tells lies and the other who only tells the truth.

Ideally the puzzles would have logic solutions - like the above - or perhaps they could involve some Macgyver-like knowledge of science. Whimsical riddles or dry soduku-like maths puzzles are not going to work so well.

What are other great examples? Is there a good book you could recommend?
posted by Brian Lux to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (16 answers total) 25 users marked this as a favorite
 
Great Lateral Thinking Puzzles and all the associated books in the "Customers also bought..." section.
posted by stray at 2:22 PM on October 12, 2014 [2 favorites]


So should these be paper&pencil puzzles, or 'parlor game' types? There are more active group challenges such as team building exercises that require group planning and involve all members, not just those that are strong or good at math/logic. Or you could go the team race/scavenger hunt direction.
posted by TDIpod at 2:30 PM on October 12, 2014


I always loved Matrix Puzzles where you have to find the end state of all variables based on incomplete info and inferences.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 2:44 PM on October 12, 2014 [2 favorites]


Raymond Smullyan is an author with some terrific logic puzzles along these lines. I recommend What is the Name of This Book? and The Lady Or the Tiger? in particular. He's got a great series of puzzles about knights(who always tell the truth) and knaves(who always lie) which are really fun and range from very easy to quite difficult.
posted by cider at 3:19 PM on October 12, 2014 [8 favorites]


http://www.braingle.com/brainteasers/363/the-right-switch.html
Is that the sort of thing you are looking for?
posted by 92_elements at 3:20 PM on October 12, 2014


Some of these might be overly technical, but Joel Spolsky had a blog with some of these: http://www.techinterview.org/
posted by yaymukund at 3:36 PM on October 12, 2014 [1 favorite]


chicken and a half riddle
posted by Sassyfras at 5:10 PM on October 12, 2014


The Flashlight Puzzle
posted by baf at 5:36 PM on October 12, 2014 [3 favorites]


We did one recently at work that was fun. It was a lengthy procedure involving a made-up process of reading the instructions on each of a stack of forms (slightly different for each, but all similar), getting the right color stickers, sticking stickers correctly, stapling forms (correctly, each was slightly different), having a QA person sign off, and delivering to the right place.

We had two teams try to optimize the process, either by distributing the work in parallel, or by specializing in one task and handing off between participants. Then we had a debrief and let the teams make new plans if they wanted, and tried it again.

You might have to be a management/process improvement nerd to enjoy that like I did, though, ha.
posted by ctmf at 5:45 PM on October 12, 2014 [1 favorite]


Crossing the river is pretty classic. Instructions are given at the bottom left.
posted by Decani at 5:51 PM on October 12, 2014


Response by poster: So should these be paper&pencil puzzles, or 'parlor game' types? There are more active group challenges such as team building exercises that require group planning and involve all members, not just those that are strong or good at math/logic. Or you could go the team race/scavenger hunt direction.

There are some great suggestions here.

The sort I'm looking for would ideally be easily transposed into a parlor game situation for a group to solve. eg The Farmer-Fox-Chicken-Grain could be tackled just on paper but I'd like to turn it into a physical challenge with stuffed animals and a river and a boat. So puzzles that could be almost made real would be good but I don't mind including rules of physics bending rules or some suspension of disbelief.

The puzzles could also be physical - like a large form bar trick. eg Escaping a locked room by sliding a piece of paper under the door, poking a paper clip through the lock make the key (still in the lock on the other side of the door) drop on to the piece of paper and then pulling the paper back with the key on it.
posted by Brian Lux at 1:19 AM on October 13, 2014


Response by poster: I always loved Matrix Puzzles where you have to find the end state of all variables based on incomplete info and inferences.

Matrix puzzles involve a bit too much raw logic for my purposes. They're like sodoku but wearing a party hat.

I'm not looking for anything that needs a pad and pen to solve it or a gifted mind.
posted by Brian Lux at 1:23 AM on October 13, 2014


Oh I get it. You're looking more for Icebreaker Group Activities, like Pass the Orange and People Bingo.
posted by kinetic at 4:46 AM on October 13, 2014


Response by poster: Oh I get it. You're looking more for Icebreaker Group Activities, like Pass the Orange and People Bingo.

Nope, those sound like they're for a bunch of girl guides. I'm looking for puzzles rather than get-to-know-each-other activities.
posted by Brian Lux at 12:21 PM on October 13, 2014


An LSAT study guide might have some good "logical thinking" puzzles in it that don't require the full-on paper and pencil matrix (though many will.)
posted by ctmf at 1:14 PM on October 13, 2014


Most of these puzzles (scroll to the comments for answers) are based around common objects. "Cork, Bottle, Coin" and "Glass Half Full" should be particularly easy to produce in your competition setting.
posted by Iridic at 2:26 PM on October 13, 2014


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