Looking for the Bizarro airplane

July 12, 2006 10:49 AM

What's the opposite of an airplane?

My friend (for reasons that shan't be discussed at this point) recently took the MENSA entry IQ test. One of the questions he shared with me is the following:

What is the opposite of an airplane?

A. A bird
B. A butterfly
C. A blimp
D. A helicopter

We both came up with different answers (which I will share later, but I'd like to see your unbiased answers and rationales).

Also, the question was posed with drawings of each object, not words, so it's probably not answers like "D, helicopter because it's the only word that doesn't start with a 'b.'"

Thanks!

posted by TG_Plackenfatz to grab bag (70 comments total)

Well, I would think blimp because it doesn't have wings. The bird, butterfly, and helicopter all have wings or rotors that create downward thrust and get them into the air.
posted by blackkar at 10:54 AM on July 12, 2006

when i first read the question i would have said: submarine

prolly blimp?
posted by rosswald at 10:54 AM on July 12, 2006

I would say a blimp because it's the only one that doesn't use a wing of some sort
posted by thrako at 10:54 AM on July 12, 2006

C, because it flies without wings.
posted by solid-one-love at 10:55 AM on July 12, 2006

blimp, everything else is heavier than air
posted by malp at 10:56 AM on July 12, 2006

I'd say butterfly because it's unpowered and is the opposite of a rigidly winged airplane.

However I have to concede that this question (not your post, mind you) is stupid because the solution is extremely subjective and circumstantial. I mean come on, the only real "opposite" would be a piece of concrete buried underground.
posted by chef_boyardee at 10:56 AM on July 12, 2006

Also the blimp does have rotors and moving parts for forward motion, which is why I ruled it out.
posted by chef_boyardee at 10:58 AM on July 12, 2006

Well, birds and butterflies are both non-mechanical, so that can't be the distinguishing feature. All four are capable of flight. Helicopters and blimps can both go straight up and down.

I'm gonna go with the blimp. My argument is that blimps do not necessarily have wings. Birds and butterflies do, as do helicopters (the blades are 'rotary wings').
posted by jedicus at 10:58 AM on July 12, 2006

What an incredibly stupid question. How about...a butterfly because it's the only one that doesn't make any noise.
posted by Espy Gillespie at 10:58 AM on July 12, 2006

Oh, that test is *screwed* *up*. That's the one *I* caught, about 10 years ago, and missed the necessary score by about 2 points, because that test's methodology is so broken it's not even worth discussing.

NONE of those things are "opposite" to an airplane.
posted by baylink at 10:58 AM on July 12, 2006

The blimp, because it's the only one not using the Bernoulli effect for lift/doesn't have wings. That seems to be the only property which all these flying objects share except the blimp.

Makes me wonder about the aerodynamics of a butterfly wing, but what the hay.
posted by roue at 10:58 AM on July 12, 2006

er .. preview next time. I'll remember that ..
posted by roue at 10:59 AM on July 12, 2006

A blimp is lighter then air, and everything else is heavier. But how does that make it 'opposite'?

And why would you say a helicopter has "wings". Normally the blades are called "blades" or "rotors", although they do generate force via wind.

But basically it's a dumb question; Airplanes don't have 'opposites' because it's not a binary concept.

How about an airplane made out of antimatter?
posted by delmoi at 11:01 AM on July 12, 2006

I'd say buttefly. In the middle of an airplane, it has wings that stick out. In the middle of a butterfly, it has a gap between the wings. That's the opposite.

(And, a little OT, but I'm with the others who imply that there is no one right answer to this. I've found a lot of MENSA-y questions to be like that.)
posted by fogster at 11:01 AM on July 12, 2006

The blimp, because it's the only one not using the Bernoulli effect for lift/doesn't have wings. That seems to be the only property which all these flying objects share except the blimp.

None of those use the bernoulli effect to fly, not even the airplane and especially not the bird and butterfly, which push air by flapping their wings.
posted by delmoi at 11:02 AM on July 12, 2006

Also helicopters and blimps can have short stubby wings that help stabilize it during flight.
posted by delmoi at 11:04 AM on July 12, 2006

i'm saying helicopter, because its basic motion is "up", versus the airplane's "forward"?
posted by paul_smatatoes at 11:04 AM on July 12, 2006

Bad question, but airplanes achieve their lift with wings and so do all possible answers except blimp (a helicopter's wings are the blades on its rotor).

It's actually a clue that the choices include two ornithopter that "pump" their wings (bird and butterfly) and another that rotates its wings (helicopter); since only one answer will be judged "right", you know the distinction isn't /how/ the wings are used, but the use of wings at all. Similarly, it's a clue that two possible answers are animals and two are machines; again, that tells you that's not the the distinction you're looking for.

Replace "opposite" with "least like" and I'd call it a better question.
posted by orthogonality at 11:06 AM on July 12, 2006

Also helicopters and blimps can have short stubby wings that help stabilize it during flight.

It's true, they can, but they don't necessarily have to. Also, note that the actual test included pictures of the alleged opposites. I think that the features present on the pictures would be important.
posted by jedicus at 11:07 AM on July 12, 2006

A blimp.

The other three are heavier than air and use mechanical means to overcome gravity. A blimp is lighter than air and does not stay aloft via any mechanical process.

The roters on a helicopter are nothing but wings.
posted by bondcliff at 11:08 AM on July 12, 2006

A helicoptor, because it's the only one that can operate underwater.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:10 AM on July 12, 2006

(Of course, this test shows cultural bias, as it assumes intelligent people also know how blimps and airplanes and helicopters and birds and butterflies achieve lift. I imagine most of us would fail the Amazonian or Papuan tribe's equivalent test if it relied on a detailed knowledge of, for instance, which tree frogs are poisonous or how to find tubers in the dry season.)
posted by orthogonality at 11:11 AM on July 12, 2006

If the question was posed with pictures instead of words, maybe it can't be answered without the pictures. Maybe the question wasn't "What is the opposite of an airplane," but "Which of the following pictures is the opposite of this picture?" For example, maybe they were all facing the same direction except one, or maybe they were all white on black but one was black on white, etc. Although they still wouldn't really be true opposites, so it still seems like a bad question.
posted by leapingsheep at 11:14 AM on July 12, 2006

A helicoptor, because it's the only one that can operate underwater.

Well, now, assuming you're being serious, I'd add that a blimp can operate underwater, too, depending on what it's filled with. Instead of filling it with helium (lighter than air), it could be filled with a high specific gravity oil (slighly lighter than water). The oil would balance out the weight of the gondola, giving the blimp neutral buoyancy.

But that's really far out in left field for a (I assume) timed IQ test.
posted by jedicus at 11:16 AM on July 12, 2006

Damn, y'all! I posted, answered the phone, and look at all this!

I'm with most of you, this question is dumb, as are many IQ-type questions. But still, if I am asked something, I must answer it, or lie awake for weeks on end.

I guessed blimp, because of the reasoning posted by Delmoi at 11:01 PST. My friend went with helicopter because of paul_smatatoes's rationale. I argued against helicopter because both a blimp and it go up, kinda.

But please go on.

On preview: I believe all of the pix were oriented the same way.
posted by TG_Plackenfatz at 11:17 AM on July 12, 2006

Oh, and malp had the same reasoning I did. Somehow I skimmed over that.
posted by TG_Plackenfatz at 11:19 AM on July 12, 2006

I'd say butterfly. In the middle of an airplane, it has wings that stick out. In the middle of a butterfly, it has a gap between the wings. That's the opposite.

If the question was posed with pictures instead of words, maybe it can't be answered without the pictures. Maybe the question wasn't "What is the opposite of an airplane," but "Which of the following pictures is the opposite of this picture?"

From what I've seen of other MENSA questions, I think these two may be on to something, and the fact that the shapes resemble "real flying things" is a bit of misdirection.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 11:20 AM on July 12, 2006

As long as we're exercising our reach muscles, certain birds can operate extremely well underwater too, y'know. Cormorants, f'rinstance.
posted by Gator at 11:21 AM on July 12, 2006

Rather than testing our knowledge of airplanes and butterflies, this question shows the test writers have no idea what the definition of "opposite" is.
posted by tula at 11:24 AM on July 12, 2006

PinkStainlessTail writes "From what I've seen of other MENSA questions, I think these two may be on to something, and the fact that the shapes resemble 'real flying things' is a bit of misdirection."

Yeah, this is almost certainly a spatial reasoning question; we need to see the pictures. There's no such thing as "the opposite of an airplane" (except, maybe, "the set of all things that are not airplanes").
posted by mr_roboto at 11:25 AM on July 12, 2006

The opposite of an airplane is clearly a subterranean digging vehicle like in the end of the Incredibles or one of the covers of The Digging Leviathan or in any of a number of comic books.

No MENSA member is going to tell me different.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 11:28 AM on July 12, 2006

I'm pretty sure it wasn't a spatial reasoning question. Though I didn't see it, my friend is pretty IQ-test savvy and didn't view it as such. Then again, he did answer helicopter (which to me is clearly wrong.)
posted by TG_Plackenfatz at 11:30 AM on July 12, 2006

The opposite, like it would cancel it out if they met?

Anti-aircraft missile.
posted by skallas at 11:30 AM on July 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

Are you sure the question wasnt "Which one of these is least like an airplane?"
posted by skallas at 11:34 AM on July 12, 2006

I'd say helicopter because it generates lift through rotational motion and can itself can remain stationary with respect to some fixed point. A plane can only achieve lift as a consequence of its own forward motion through the air.
posted by hwestiii at 11:38 AM on July 12, 2006

I agree with TPS and mr_roboto. It seems like the question was set up very particularly - "What is the opposite" is a strange terminology if the question is actually "Which one of these things is not like the others?". Similarly, using pictures instead of words is strange. These two facts suggest that you and your friend are interpreting this question incorrectly.
posted by muddgirl at 11:38 AM on July 12, 2006

Obviously the answer is bird, since the concepts of "opposite" and "enemy" have been conflated, and airplane intake vents kill lots of birds.

That actually sounded kind of funny before I wrote it out. Regardless: what a dumb, dumb question.
posted by kittyprecious at 11:39 AM on July 12, 2006

I would have said submarine too.

What is an airplane? It is a big vehicle for carrying many people high above the ground. The opposite of that would be something small which doesn't carry people meaning either a bird or a butterfly. The butterfly is typically smaller so I'd have to say a butterfly. Typical Mensa questions are about logical analysis and not about scientific analysis so I'd tend to believe people making engineering comparisons would be barking up the wrong tree.
posted by JJ86 at 11:42 AM on July 12, 2006

I would say that a bird is the opposite of an airplane.

Have you ever seen a puffin fly underwater, its freaking awesome.

Airplanes fly in the sky, and puffins fly underwater. To be opposites you have to have some things in common, right? (same reason an antimatter airplane could be the opposite of an airplane, but an antimater sandwich isn't the opposite of an airplane)


Seriously, an arguement could be made for any of them... This would be an awesome interview question (could you imagine asking this question to some pretentious computer nerd? Talk about a shot from the grassy knoll... they'll never see that one coming).
posted by hatsix at 11:46 AM on July 12, 2006

(ohhh, and sticking with JJ86's reasoning, puffins don't carry passengers either!)
posted by hatsix at 11:47 AM on July 12, 2006

@muddgirl: I took the exact test they're talking about, for a Mensa exam, back in 94.

The phrasing I remember for the test instructions was: "Select the picture from the group of 4 most nearly opposite in meaning to the 5th picture" (which was separate).

*My* major problem with the test -- aside from the fact that some things have no, as was pointed out, binary meaning -- was that the artwork was *so* miserable that in several cases (4 or 5 out of 50 IIRC) you couldn't tell what the drawing were drawings *of*.
posted by baylink at 11:48 AM on July 12, 2006

Are you sure it was Mensa and not Art Schools International?
posted by kittyprecious at 11:56 AM on July 12, 2006

I doubt the correct answer is the opposite in terms of how it works or its function, because that's the way we all consider the question initially. Each of the answers can be defended pretty well that way, and it doesn't seem like they would purposely make such an arbitrary sounding question. It probably just sounds arbitrary to make you think hard about which answer fits best.

If that's true, then I agree with fogster's answer, butterfly.
posted by freddymungo at 11:58 AM on July 12, 2006

I'd go with Blimp because of the lighter than air aspect.

jedicus writes "Well, now, assuming you're being serious, I'd add that a blimp can operate underwater, too, depending on what it's filled with. Instead of filling it with helium (lighter than air), it could be filled with a high specific gravity oil (slighly lighter than water). The oil would balance out the weight of the gondola, giving the blimp neutral buoyancy."

This is how the Bathyscaphe Trieste made it to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
posted by Mitheral at 12:02 PM on July 12, 2006

I would go with bird. An airplane flys by having a propulsion system generate lift with it's stationary wings. And bird flys by flapping it's wings to create lift. Seems pretty opposite to me. Although I supposed the same could apply to butterfly...
posted by geeky at 12:03 PM on July 12, 2006

hatsix writes "This would be an awesome interview question (could you imagine asking this question to some pretentious computer nerd? Talk about a shot from the grassy knoll... they'll never see that one coming)."


Yeah, duuuude! Screw those pretentious computer nerds who answer questions like these! Righteous, maaaan!
posted by orthogonality at 12:03 PM on July 12, 2006

A butterfly, because it's seat cusions are made of concrete and should never, ever be used in the event of a water landing.
posted by bondcliff at 12:08 PM on July 12, 2006

An anti-airplane.
posted by ontic at 12:20 PM on July 12, 2006

This question sucks. I initially thought "submarine" upon hearing the question, and "blimp" upon reading the choices, due to its lack of wings. I think the "lighter than air" aspect is probably a better angle to take, however, due to semantic quibbles about wings on helicopters.

& lulz hatsix j00 g0t pwn3d!!~!!11eleventyone!
posted by youarenothere at 12:22 PM on July 12, 2006

Mensa (and other IQ tests) often contain mistakes and downright stupid answers. They also tend towards formulaic puzzles that don't require original thought.

Look at number 53 on this so-called "World's Hardest Analogies" test:
Motor is to Helicopter as Airflow is to __________?
The answer they want is Autogiro.
But the airflow doesn't power an autogiro any more than the roadflow powers a soapbox racer. Power is supplied by a conventional motor and propeller that pull the autogiro forward through the air. The rotor then provides lift, like conventional airplane wings. Even if you dropped an autogiro off the Empire State building, the power would be supplied by whatever lifted it up there in the first place. Their physics is wrong. There's no free launch.

In your example, they've included bird and butterfly to eliminate any possible answer shared by both, but if you think there's a God-given right answer, you've got another think coming.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 12:26 PM on July 12, 2006

Of the choices offered, the blimp.

For an opposite - a rock, or a glacier. Submarines are winged machines that carry passengers, and are driven by engines and propellors.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:28 PM on July 12, 2006

Here's another hilarious error from the "World's Hardest" test:
11. Guitar : Cello :: Segovia : __________?
Lessee now. Similar category, but much, much bigger. Pavarotti?
The logic should be Guitar : Segovia :: Cello : ________?
Now you can give the answer they wanted.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 12:44 PM on July 12, 2006

you guys saying blimp are almost right: clearly the opposite of an Airplane is a Zepplin.
posted by bonehead at 12:55 PM on July 12, 2006

The fact that these are drawn does not preclude this answer.
It would not surprise me if bonehead's answer is the one they want.
But what if it's a Dirigible?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 1:02 PM on July 12, 2006

I like bonehead's answer, but one could also say butterfly because the basic shape of all he other three are predominately aerodynamic, a butterfly flies but not so aerodynamic. The basic shape is more different than the others.

But who knows.
posted by edgeways at 1:10 PM on July 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

Personally, I like the

E) The Set of all things that are not-airplane

response.
posted by vacapinta at 1:13 PM on July 12, 2006

Well, if the question is, "most nearly opposite in meaning", then it's not "blimp", since a blimp is a motor-driven dirigible, or Luftschiff in German, which most nearly means airship in English (that's pretty close to airplane).
posted by muddgirl at 1:19 PM on July 12, 2006

Bonehead, why is the Jefferson Airplane the opposite of Led Zeppelin?

The answer is helicopter. Your friend is right.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 1:26 PM on July 12, 2006

nvecynar is a good answer too.

Johnny, if you can't answer that yourself, you're far beyond by ability to help you.
posted by bonehead at 1:36 PM on July 12, 2006

No. "Knife" es mas macho que "pineapple".
posted by Nelson at 1:37 PM on July 12, 2006

The answer is: Why did I want to be a MENSA member in the first place?"
posted by goethean at 2:16 PM on July 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

Was the picture of the airplane a plane powered by jet engines, or by propellers?
posted by 23skidoo at 3:08 PM on July 12, 2006

A bird.
All airplanes are designed for flight.
All butterflies are designed for flight.
All blimps are designed for flight.
Some birds just waddle.

or because

Airplanes have pressurized interiors
Butterflies develop when... "Near pupation, the wings are forced outside the epidermis under pressure from the hemolymph..."
Blimps keep their shape with internal overpressure.
Whereas birds are quite squishy.
posted by muddylemon at 5:51 PM on July 12, 2006

This is clearly a very stupid question: informed and creative arguments can be made for any of the choices, because in certain senses each are different, and each are unlike an airplane. But in the end, none is an actual opposite-- they aren't the reverse, they don't cancel out, they aren't located on different ends of a binary opposition, they aren't direct counterparts.

I used to think MENSA was kind of silly. Now I think just the opposite: they're really silly.
posted by bookish at 7:55 PM on July 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

Hey, don't blame Mensa for this; they don't create the tests, they buy them from other people.
posted by baylink at 8:56 PM on July 12, 2006

A bird.
All airplanes are designed for flight.
All butterflies are designed for flight.
All blimps are designed for flight.
Some birds just waddle.

Muddylemon makes a very good point here. Not all birds fly.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 9:41 PM on July 12, 2006

weapons-grade pandemonium, the logic works well either way with the cello:guitar question. If you fill in the blank with Yo-Yo Ma or Mstislav Rostropovich, they both work (Pavarotti is a singer, after all!).
posted by lhauser at 10:18 PM on July 12, 2006

No. Poor logic. The relationship between the guitar and the cello is not similar to the relationship between Segovia and Rostropovich. The instruments look similar, but the latter is much bigger. It's more like the relationship between Segovia and Brando .

Rather the relationship between the guitar and Segovia is similar to the relationship between the cello and Rostropovich.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:20 PM on July 12, 2006

I would say a butterfly becauase it's typical flight pattern is not a straight line.
posted by indigo4963 at 8:21 AM on July 13, 2006

And, honestly, bookish, this is *precisely* the kind of thead most Mensans would probably be all over.

I shudder to think how many closet Mensans we *have* here on MeFi...
posted by baylink at 11:28 AM on July 13, 2006