Think quickly! 1. If an average hen s egg is 5cm long and weighs 300 grams and an average peacock s egg is exactly twice the length and twice the weight, which egg has the greater circumference? 2. You can use three identical digits in a simple addition sum so that the total is 12. You cannot use the digit 4 so what is the answer? 3. In a hot air balloon off the coast of Ireland, Ben dropped two bottles of soda over the side, one empty and one full. Which smashed to the ground first? 4. The caretaker is raking leaves in the playgrounds. In the front playground, there are 7 piles of leaves and in the back playground, there are 3 piles of leaves. How many piles will he have when he puts them all together? 5. Read this out loud: 11 was a racehorse 12 was 12 111 a race 12112 6. Divide 40 by half and add ten. What is the answer? 7. Assume there are approximately 5,000,000,000 (5 billion) people on Earth. What would you estimate to be the result, if you multiply together the number of fingers on every person's left-hands? (For the purposes of this exercise, thumbs count as fingers, for five fingers per hand.) If you cannot estimate the number then try to guess how long the number would be. 8. There was once a recluse who never left his home. The only time anyone ever visited him was when his food and supplies were delivered, but they never came inside. Then, one stormy winter night when an icy gale was blowing, he had a nervous breakdown. He went upstairs, turned off all the lights and went to bed. The next morning, he had caused the deaths of several hundred people. How? 9. A man holidaying abroad fell off a yacht into deep water. He could not swim and he was not wearing anything to keep him afloat. It took 30 minutes for the people on the yacht to realise someone was missing. The missing man was rescued two hours later. Why didn't he drown? 10. Rearrange the letters of NEW DOOR to make one word. You are not allowed to leave any letters out or put in any extra letters.
11. Joe has 4 white rabbits, 6 brown rabbits and 5 black rabbits. How many rabbits could say that they are the same colour as another of Joe s rabbits? 12. The Roman numeral for 9 is IX. Add one character to this to make it an even number. 13. Read this out loud: YYURYYUBICURYY4ME 14. A man is dozing during mass. He is dreaming about the French revolution and the guillotine. His wife, seeing that he is nodding off taps him on the back of the neck. He has a heart attack and dies instantly. True or false? Give a reason. 15. A man marries twenty women in his village but isn't charged with polygamy. Why? 16. If 1 = 5, 2 = 25, 3 = 325, 4 = 4325 Then 5 =? 17. What 3 letters change a girl into a woman? 18. There is a man who guesses the score of every football game before kick off. How can he do this? 19. A man went to a party and drank some of the punch. He then left early. Everyone else at the party who drank the punch subsequently died of poisoning. Why did the man not die? 20. The rope ladder of a boat hangs over the side of the boat and just reaches the water. Its rungs are 8 inches apart. How many rungs will be under the water when the tide rises 4 feet? HOW DID YOU DO?
Answers to Lateral Thinking exercise: 1. Peacocks don t lay eggs only peahens do. 2. 11 + 1 = 12 3. Neither. Ben was over the sea. 4. 1 pile! 5. One one was a racehorse One two was one too One one won a race One two won one too 6. 90 7. 0 (If only one person has no fingers on the left hand, the answer will be 0 because any number multiplied by 0 = 0) 8. He was a lighthouse keeper. 9. It was the Dead Sea. 10. one word 11. None! Rabbits can t say anything because they can t talk. 12. Add an S = SIX 13. Too wise you are, too wise you be, I see you are too wise for me. 14. False. If he had died, how would we know what he was dreaming of? 15. He is the priest. 16. 5 = 1 (the first line states this) 17. Age 18. Before kick-off the score is always 0-0. 19. The poison was in the ice cubes which would only have melted later in the evening / other creative answers possible! 20. The boat will rise too so the ladder will just reach the water, as before.
Answers to Rebus puzzles: 1)falling temperatures 2) mixed wedding 3) burning the candle at both ends 4) last chance 5) capital punishment 6) giant steps 7) fat cat 8) repeat 9) inbox / boxed in 10) dancing with the stars 11) lost in space 12) gun point Listening exercise (paper folding) Give everyone a sheet of paper. Tell everyone to close their eyes and follow your instructions. Start giving instructions about what to do with the piece of paper examples: 1. fold it in half 2. fold the lower left corner over the upper right corner 3. turn it 90 degrees to the left 4. fold it again 5. rip a half-circle in the middle of the right side 6. make a small tear on the left hand side 7. tear off a small piece from the bottom 8. tear a small straight piece off the top 9. fold it in half 10. tear a small piece off on the left hand side in the middle Once you have given quite a few instructions (more than 10 at least for a great success), tell everyone to open their eyes and unfold their piece of paper. Even though they all received the same instructions and had the same starting material, pretty much everyone will have a different result.
Which shape are you?
People Bingo (Rules available on the Internet or play it your own way!) Is lefthanded Likes poetry Plays a musical instrument Uses Twitter Watches football Owns an Apple computer Is wearing white socks Reads a daily newspaper Likes rollercoasters Eats out at least once a week Speaks a foreign language Has a sat nav FREE SPACE Has done a first aid course Has seen a ghost Has never been to Burger King Likes country music Does own ironing Goes to the movies at least once a month Doesn t wear jewellery Has been to a ballet Rides a bicycle regularly Was born in August Has bought something on Ebay Wears glasses or contact lenses