I asked this to 8 of the "smart" nerds at my school. Only one of them got it right.

4 out of 5 of my freinds got it right though.

You are in a large airplane hanger. There is a panel in front of you with 5 buttons. There is a powerful bomb hanging directly overhead which is connected to the panel and is set to instantly go off if triggered. The blast wave is instantaneous; there will be no time to even flinch if you set it off. There is no cover to protect you from the bomb, and you are unable to diffuse it.

4 of the buttons will trigger the bomb. One of them will do nothing. 2 buttons are red, one is blue, one is yellow, and one is white.

What do you do?

For those of you too whom the answer was obvious, don't post it just yet. Wait a while to see what others post.

Alternative scenario.

Same place, same panel, same deadly bomb.

This time there is a man armed with a sword. You must push one of the buttons, or he will kill you. If you push the neutral button, he will let you go. You cannot outrun him, hide from him, beat him in a fight, or hope to survive his attack.

However, there is a small room nearby with a genie who can do anything. You are allowed to go and see the genie, who will grant you one wish, before you must return and push a button.

Again, you cannot escape or hide from the armed man. The genie will grant you any wish at all, with a few exceptions.

- No wish can be made that will harm the armed man in anyway. The genie cannot protect you from the guard and his sword. He cannot teleport you away or hide you from the man. He also cannot do anything to affect the bomb, or help you in anyway to know which button to push.

What do you wish for, and then what do you do.

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Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle
The #1 selling weight loss e-book online.

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Well, a couple things you didn't mention are: teleporting the bomb out of the room to a "safe area"and nor did you didn't say anything about wishing to not be effected by explosions. So, I'd go with one of those.

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Well, by 'not affecting the bomb' i meant moving it.. but i guess you could interpret it differently.

The second option is what i had in mind.. kill the guard

The first one was the original one.... i changed it a bit to make a new one..

See if you can get the first one.

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Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle
The #1 selling weight loss e-book online.

You could just wish for the rest of the world to be transported into the room, which suddenly, like the tardis is bigger on the inside than the outside. Then you'd never have to leave the room and confront the swordsman!

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Incidentally this signature is available in the foyer.

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Common sense test.  

I asked this to 8 of the "smart" nerds at my school. Only one of them got it right.  

4 out of 5 of my freinds got it right though.

 

You are in a large airplane hanger. There is a panel in front of you with 5 buttons. There is a powerful bomb hanging directly overhead which is connected to the panel and is set to instantly go off if triggered. The blast wave is instantaneous; there will be no time to even flinch if you set it off. There is no cover to protect you from the bomb, and you are unable to diffuse it.  

4 of the buttons will trigger the bomb. One of them will do nothing. 2 buttons are red, one is blue, one is yellow, and one is white.

What do you do?

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The awnser to that question took me all of 3 secounds...

it is extremly simple. -- nobody here will struggle with the awnser.  

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Alternative scenario.  

Same place, same panel, same deadly bomb.

This time there is a man armed with a sword. You must push one of the buttons, or he will kill you. If you push the neutral button, he will let you go. You cannot outrun him, hide from him, beat him in a fight, or hope to survive his attack.

However, there is a small room nearby with a genie who can do anything. You are allowed to go and see the genie, who will grant you one wish, before you must return and push a button.

Again, you cannot escape or hide from the armed man. The genie will grant you any wish at all, with a few exceptions.

- No wish can be made that will harm the armed man in anyway. The genie cannot protect you from the guard and his sword. He cannot teleport you away or hide you from the man. He also cannot do anything to affect the bomb, or help you in anyway to know which button to push.

 
What do you wish for, and then what do you do.

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this one took me longer to work out....simply because you added a "genie"  into the equasion, and to me it seems like an imperfect puzzle because there are numerous possible solutions.

QED: -

"Give me a spade"...then dig a tunnel
"give me the strength to protect myself"....then Kick the swordman's arse.
"make me immortal" ...then explode the bomb
"tell me if a) heaven exists and b) if it does will i end up there?"....if the awnser is yes to both questions then who gives a fuck?

etc etc.....

these puzzles are easy and rather unentertaining.


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The truth is what money can be made from a lie.