I had dinner with family a few nights ago, and during dessert, my cousin asked us a couple brainteasers. The following is the one he asked while I was having Hot Molten Chocolate Cake. I modified it slightly so as to represent the females and also to prevent any PETA peepz from popping a blood vessel. 😉
A woman steps out of her house and walks south. After walking 1 mile, she stops when she sees a bear, turns left, and continues walking. After walking another mile, she stops when she sees another bear, turns left again, and continues walking. After walking a mile for the third time, she arrives back at her house, where she originally started.
You got all that? Good. Here’s the question: What color are the bears?
You have to provide a reasonable explanation for the color you decide upon. Some possible points of confusion and questions you may have:
- If you’d prefer that the woman walked 1 km between each stop instead of 1 mile, go ahead.
- No bears were harmed during this brainteaser.
- No, the bears didn’t run after the woman and eat her, or tear her limbs off, or otherwise traumatize her. Let’s just say the woman saw the bears, but the bears didn’t see her. The woman thanks you for your concern though.
- No, the bears aren’t from some other planet dropped off on this earth by aliens. The bears are from this planet. Geez. (Or do you spell it “Jeez”? Hmm.)
- No, no one went and spray-painted or dyed the bears’ fur. PETA, remember? The woman saw the bears as they are in their natural environment.
- Yes, the cake was delicious.
I’ll post the answer I came up with in a week, in the comments. At that time, I’ll also post the second brainteaser we were told.
Just as an extra note…because I heard this brainteaser from my cousin, who heard it from someone else, I don’t know if there is an official “right” answer or not. All I know is that my cousin and I agreed on the color and had the same explanation. But we could be completely wrong. lol.
Happy thinking! And have a great weekend everyone! 🙂
Tags: brainteaser
December 5, 2008 at 10:24 pm |
Ummm does it have to do with location? Like traveling South … ? Maybe I’m overthinking the question lol. I’m gonna say brown. Simply because I think most bears are brown.
December 5, 2008 at 11:28 pm |
omg.. evil LOL
that cake looks good -_-
ohh one night we went to a restaurant…
well my moms fiance..
and then me
and like 7 other people id never met
and they started giving me brain teaser after brain teaser
and it was sooo fun!
i love social dinners LOL
December 6, 2008 at 1:16 am |
white! cuz they’re POLAR BEARS! and she lives in an igloo.
…
December 6, 2008 at 3:24 am |
The bears are white because they are polar bears. If you walk from the North Pole according to the directions given, you’ll be back to where you started at the end!
December 6, 2008 at 8:53 am |
This could be totally wrong, but I say the bears are black, and they’re not bears as in animals, but as directions- “bear left… bear right” signs.
That’s what I first thought and I’m sticking to it.
December 6, 2008 at 4:05 pm |
okay um the first time I agreed with Janine, that the bears are brown because she’s traveling south and brown bears normally come from the south or at least what i believe. But as I listened to Jenipher and Anna and t i started they may be right, north and the south poles are in the same areas and walking from the north to the south would seem like you’re back to where you started. (Confused anyone? I know I am too) But yeah it does sort a make sense.
December 6, 2008 at 5:09 pm |
I think the bear is brown because bears usually are brown. And you did mention that you were eating a chocolate cake so the colour brown was probably stuck in my mind. The big image of the chocolate cake also helped!
December 6, 2008 at 6:03 pm |
Where the heck does that girl live, a zoo? Hahaha. Or BC? 😛
The bears are tie-dye, because this girl is obviously experiencing an acid trip and the bears are a hallucination.
December 6, 2008 at 8:44 pm |
Why do I get the impression that it has something to do with your Hot Molten Chocolate Cake? You keep mentioning it.
You had to change the brainteaser a little bit. Is the woman a bear? I am confused…..
December 6, 2008 at 9:36 pm |
I don’t know what color the bears might be… I mean, they could be any color depending on the reasoning of each of us… but I’d say I liked Anna’s and Jennifer’s answers :P…
December 6, 2008 at 10:31 pm |
Yeah they were white Polar Bears from Santa Claus land, errr, the north pole that is.
December 6, 2008 at 10:37 pm |
Ohhh I get why you guys think its white!
She goes straight 1 mile, turns left for another mile, and when she walks back another mile she’s back at her house. She’s in the North Pole because it’s the only place that triangle sort of thing could happen. Tricky-tricky~
December 7, 2008 at 12:14 am |
Is this a trick question? Hehe. I’m not so good at these things. 😦
And the cake… The cake is a LIE!!
December 7, 2008 at 5:44 am |
ok, they are white as they are polar bears! she must live at the north pole, my reasoning is that when she turns left the first time, she is going east, then when she turns left again, she is going north. now, if she lived anywhere else but the north pole she would not arrive back at her house, but she would arrive 1 mile to the left of her house.
however, if she lives at the north pole she would end up back at her house as every time you walk in a northwards direction, you are walking towards the north pole!
Genius! xxx haha
December 7, 2008 at 10:19 am |
I agree with Jennifer, a bear can be a direction. So I think she maybe sees a turn in the road and then follows it. I’m pretty sure this is the answer cause every brain teaser I’ve come across had a really obvious answer that doesn’t require extensive knowledge.
December 7, 2008 at 1:35 pm |
She was a day tripper, Sunday driver, yeah.
It took me so long to find out, and I found out!
December 7, 2008 at 4:59 pm |
this doesn’t make any sense… she walked south from her house for 1 mile, sees a bear, and turns left (so she’s traveling east) and walks another mile, sees another bear and turns left again (she now faces north) for 1 mile… she would have to turn left (west) and walk another mile in order for her to get to her house… her path is an open ended square by the description. Unless after she sees the second bear turns some angle, lets call it “x”, and this angle would be somewhere in the domain of 180 < x < 270 degrees (assuming her true right is 0 degrees [south]) in which case the distance she would have to travel to reach her house would be the square root of 2… meaning the angle she would have to turn would be 45 degrees from her true left…
oh haa north pole, equilateral triangle.. I get it
December 7, 2008 at 6:32 pm |
hmmm nakisa 😦
you put answers to shame
ours was….
the first bear is light brown
the second is dark brown
saying she left earlier in the day and walked south the sun would be in position… therefore shining on the bear and making it appear a light brown…
then traveling east.. and depending on how long the mile took to walk…
the sun would be in position away therefore making the bear appear a darker color LOL
and then she goes home and has cake :-p
December 8, 2008 at 7:19 pm |
Yeah, I’d say white as polar bears. I’d go with the poles too:P
December 8, 2008 at 10:01 pm |
White! Polar Bears! Christmas!…yeah…jeez i wish i could just reach into my cpu and grab that cake and eat it now!:P…but seriously…if she walked a total of 3 miles and after taking 2 turns and arriving back at her house, then the side of her house that she left through would have to be at least 1 mile long, which would mean the 2 bears are out in front of her house and are directly across from each other, assuming she walked in a straight line when she turned…so i’m thinking the bears are a grayish, kind of brown color because they’re statues in front of the house on display at the entrance? [assuming she did leave from the entrance of her house initially]of course i didn’t really take into consideration the compass directions really, but everything makes sense in the picture i drew of all of this!…screw it, i’m getting me some cake! 😛
December 9, 2008 at 1:01 pm |
I’m inclined to say the bears must be white because polar bears live in the arctic and the path described suggests that the woman started out at the north pole (spherical geometry anyone :), but then again, polar bears tend to stay near the water where they can hunt seals and never go that far inland, so I have to say that the colour doesn’t matter since the woman was apparently hallucinating. So definitely black and white (I always see koala bears when I hallucinate, so I’m assuming everyone does :-).
December 11, 2008 at 11:50 am |
Yeah, I was thinking white, because theyre polar bears but I cant remember the explaination behind it.
December 11, 2008 at 11:32 pm |
Yah..probably White. The only place that will satisfy the conditions of the story is if you are in North Pole. Polar Bears. But they are cream actually….and that cake is SOO YUMMY!
December 13, 2008 at 12:06 pm |
lol…I must say, you gals are very creative. I never thought of the “bear” as a directional thing (like “bear right” or “bear left” at a fork in the road). Very nice! I suppose the question never makes it explicitly clear that the bear is an animal. In the original version I heard, it says that it was a man who walked out of his house and he shoots the bears when he sees them. Although I suppose you could argue that even in that case, the bears are still signs, not animals, and the man is a little unstable and likes to go around shooting signs.
Also, yes…I suppose the woman could’ve been tripping on acid and the bears could be tye-dyed. lol.
The answer I came up with is what many of you have already said…that the house is at the North Pole, so it is possible to make that triangular sort of trip because of the way latitude and longitude lines curve around the earth. If you look at the top of a globe, the lines form these kind of warped triangles. So, since it’s the North Pole, the bears are probably polar bears and therefore white.
Now, after the fact, I’ve heard some protests to this answer. Namely, that there isn’t any land at exact the North Pole…that it’s ice and water. And that polar bears don’t live at the exact North Pole. And that technically, polar bears have colorless fur, but that it just appears white to us because of the way light reflects off the fur. Also, random bit of trivia…apparently polar bears have black skin. Did you know that? The things you learn. 🙂
December 13, 2008 at 1:40 pm |
Amazing! Polar bears have black skin! Ok so if you shaved all their fur off they would look like black panthas or grizzly bears. Mm…wouldnt be so cuddly looking then, hehe
December 14, 2008 at 4:31 am |
Why does the house have to be at the North pole? The earth is round so the trip could be made anywhere on earth. I would still agree that they are polar bears because the “other” bears usually live in the woods on uneven terrain so the woman could not walk straight, but she could at the north pole since she could just walk over the snow.
December 14, 2008 at 1:14 pm |
Since the answer is out, can we have the choco cake now? 😛
December 14, 2008 at 7:32 pm |
sorry my brain hurts. I like looking at the delish chocolate *mouth drooling* lava cake. That is torture. Oh btw, I’m on a diet so this is doubly torture.
December 17, 2008 at 5:07 am |
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December 29, 2008 at 5:11 am |
Hi
I think the bears were definitely brown in color. As I think it has a connection with the molten chocolate cake. You may also visit http://www.stumblerz.com/chocolate-fun-facts/
for similar fun stuff