Week 2

Question 1 – Practical assignment

During week 2 of GRA1, we are working with idea development. The Learning Activity this week has 3 parts. In this post, I cover the first part: creatively solve 4 given riddles.

1- A man is replacing a wheel on his car, when he accidentally drops the four nuts used to hold the wheel on the car. They fall into a deep drain, irretrievably lost. A passing girl offers him a solution that enables him to drive home. What is it?

I have to admit this first puzzle was the hardest for me to solve. I could not see an immediate solution to it, so I began to brainstorm and wrote down all I could think of:

• The girl lends him a car or wheel – but she is a girl, not a woman and it’s unlikely that she would have a car
• She gets him a lift – then he wouldn’t be driving
• She gives him the nuts from another car – again, unlikely she happens to have some spare nuts on her pocket
• He borrows her bike to go and get help/new nuts – then he wouldn’t be driving
• She gives him the idea to use a thread and a magnet to get the nuts out of the drain – but the riddle states the nuts are “irretrievably lost”

None of these solutions felt right or good enough, and suddenly it hit me: she suggests him to take one nut from each wheel and fasten the fourth wheel with them. This way, he can drive home and find new nuts later. 

2- Two Russians walk down a street in Moscow. One Russian is the father of the other Russian’s son. How are they related?

These people are not necessarily related, but they both have a son together (either biological or adopted).

3- What occurs once in June, once in July and twice in August?

The letter “U”.

4- Six drinking glasses stand in a row, with the first three full of water and the next three empty. By handling and moving only one glass at a time, how can you arrange the six glasses so that no full glass stands next to another full glass, and no empty glass stands next to another empty glass? What is the minimum number of moves to solve this puzzle?

The minimum number of moves is one: pour the water from glass number 2 into glass number 5.