BRAIN TEASERS

1. Assume there is a room with three light bulbs in it.  Outside the room is a light switch with 3 switches on it labeled A, B, and C.  Once you enter the room, you will no longer be able to access the switches.  How can you, upon entering the room, tell me which of the three switches controls each of the light bulbs?


2. There is a river.  You start on one side with a wolf, a pig, and a carrot.  There is a raft which you can use to cross the river.  Unfortunately, the raft is too small to hold more than 2 things (you being one of them) at a time.  You need to get yourself and all three of the others to the opposite side to continue your journey.  Unfortunately, without you present, the pig will eat the carrot and the wolf will eat the pig.  How do you get all 3 to the other side?

Make sure you exhaust grinding your brain before scrolling below for answer.

 

 

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1. Turn on switch A for 5 minutes or so.  Now turn it off and turn on switch B.  Enter the room.  Upon entering, the lit bulb is clearly connected to B.  Feel the other two bulbs.  The one which is warm is attached to A.  By process of elimination, the cool one is connected to C. 

2. Take the pig across the river and leave it there.  Now come back and get the wolf.  Take him across.  On the return trip, bring the pig back to the original side of the river.  This time across take the carrot over and leave it safely with the wolf.  Finally, go back for the pig and bring it across.  All three are now on the other side of the river.  Journey on.

Numerical Sequence / Series Test

In a numerical sequence or series test it is necessary to identify a pattern that is occurring in the sequence.The numbers in the sequence may be progressing, or they may be decreasing. In some cases they may be both progressing and decreasing within the sequence, and in some cases two separate  sequences may be interwoven. It is up to you to determine which of these is occurring and to continue the sequence by providing  the missing number(s) indicated by the question mark(s) in each  question.

The use of a calculator is not permitted in this test.

A time limit of 20 minutes is allowed in which to complete the 15 questions.

1. 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 15, 18, ? 2. 3, 6, 12, 21, 33, ? 3. 1000, 975, 925, 850, 750, ? 4. 1, 10, 2.5, 7.5, 4, 5, ?, ? 5. 12, 8.5, 5, 1.5, ?

6. 8, 16, 64, 128, 512, 1024, ? 7. 12, 11, 9, 6, 2, ? 8. 1, 1.5, 3, 7.5, 21, ? 9. 2, 6, 9, 27, 30, 90, 93, ? 10. 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 20, ?, ?

11. 100, 99, 96, 91, 84, 75, 64, ? 12. 19, 38, 57, 76, 95, 114, ? 13. 2, 5, 12, 27, 58, 121, ? 14. 10, 9.75, 9.25, 8.5, 7.5, 6.25, ? 15. 10, 11.75, 9.25, 11, 8.5, ?

Answers

1. 22 Add 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4. 2. 48 Add 3, 6, 9, 12, 15. 3. 625 Deduct 25, 50, 75, 100, 125. 4. 5.5, 2.5 There are two interwoven sequences: starting at 1 add 1.5; starting at 10 deduct 2.5. 5. –2 Deduct 3.5 at each stage. 6. 4096 ×2, ×4 repeated 7. –3 –1, –2, –3, –4, –5 8. 61.5 The amount added on is multiplied by 3 each time, ie 0.5,1.5, 4.5, 13.5, 40.5.

9. 279 ×3, +3 repeated. 10. 19, 36 There are two interwoven sequences: starting at 5 add 2, 3, 4, 5; starting at 6 add 2, 4, 8, 16. 11. 51 Deduct 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13. 12. 133 Add 19 each time. 13. 248 ×2+1, ×2+2, ×2+3, ×2+4, ×2+5, ×2+6 14. 4.75 –0.25, –0.5, –0.75, –1, –1.25, –1.5 15. 10.25 +1.75, –2.5, +1.75, –2.5, +1.75

Assessment

Score 1 point for each correct answer.

Total score	Rating	Percentage of population
14–15	Genius level	Top 5%
13	High expert	Top 10%
11–12	Expert	Top 30%
10	High average	Top 40%
8–9	Middle average	Top 60%
7	Low average	Bottom 40%
5–6	Borderline low	Bottom 30%
3–4	Low	Bottom 10%
0–2	Very low	Bottom 5%

Mathematical Intelligence

We all require some numerical skills in our lives, whether it is to calculate our weekly shopping bill or to budget how to use our monthly income. Flexibility of thought and lateral thinking processes are a few skills which are needed in order to solve these problems. Mathematical intelligence generally represents your ability to reason and to calculate basic arithmetic computations. It also helps you to understand geometric shapes and manipulate equations. Mathematical intelligence is a strong indicator of general intelligence because many every day mental tasks require arithmetical operations even though numbers may not be involved.

Here is a question which demonstrates Mathematical intelligence :


Q. A rancher is building an open-ended (straight) fence by stringing wire between posts 25 metres apart. If the fence is 100 metres long how many posts should the rancher use?

Correct Answer: 5

Jobs


Good mathematical abilities can ensure success in various actuarial, accounting or banking positions. If you are good in geometry then you could also be successful as a graphic designer, civil engineer or architect.

Tips that help increase mathematical intelligence


The best way to increase your mathematical IQ is through practice. Here are a few exercises which you can perform every day.
Estimate how much you pay per year for certain frequently purchased products.
Calculate what the change will be the next time you go shopping.
Calculate the sales tax on your own the next time you go to a restaurant.
Learn to balance your checkbook.

Spatial Intelligence

Spatial abilities are the perceptual and cognitive abilities that enable a person to deal with spatial relations, in other words the visualization and orientation of objects in space. Put simply spatial skills assess your ability to manipulate 3D objects by flipping and rotating them. Spatial intelligence questions test raw intelligence without the influence of prior knowledge and as such performance on this scale is indicative of general intelligence. At a first glance, such questions may appear daunting but the trick is not to give up too quickly. Often a second look at the problem will reveal a different approach, and a solution will appear because the brain has been given the opportunity to process information further.


Here is a question which demonstrates Spatial intelligence : 


Q.When the shape on the left is folded at the dotted lines which shape does it produce?

Correct Answer: A

Jobs

People with spatial intelligence like to think in images. Once they have formed an image in their mind they then visually imagine many different results. If you have a lot of spatial intelligence and have an orientation for the arts you are more likely to become a sculptor or an architect. Furthermore, spatial intelligence can be very important in professions which emphasize the manipulation of tangible objects such as engineering and design. It is also useful in everyday activities such as reading a map or fitting things into a box or storage room. Artists, architects, photographers, engineers, decorators, sculptors, pilots, surveyors, inventors, guides and designers usually score highly in this intelligence type.

Tips that help increase spatial intelligence

The next time you go on a long trip be responsible for reading and providing directions.
When you go shopping, try to think of the best way to fit the groceries into the car so that they all fit. Practice with jigsaw puzzles, mazes. Spend free time drawing, building with Lego's and building blocks.

Short Term Memory

Short-term memory (S.T.M) is part of the memory storage system which is capable of storing material for a brief period of time and to some extent it determines how well the rest of your intelligences are utilized. Short-term memory has two important characteristics. First, at any one time it can contain seven, plus or minus two, "chunks" of information. If S.T.M tries to acquire more items than it can handle, the middle items will often be displaced. Second, items remain in short-term memory around twenty seconds. Substantial evidence exists to support a general dependency of reasoning upon short-term memory capacity. The longer information is stored in short term memory the easier it is to manipulate information needed in the execution of complex cognitive tasks (e.g., learning, reasoning, and comprehension).

Here is a question which demonstrates Short term memory :

Q.If the day before yesterday is two days after Monday then what day is it today?

Correct answer: Friday

Tips that help increase short term memory
Your ability to store information in short term memory is affected by many things. Depression and anxiety for instance often affect your concentration and stress can also make you feel "scattered" and jumpy. Marijuana users also experience subtle short term memory deficits that continue for at least six weeks after their last usage.Generally if short term memory tries to acquire more items than it can handle, the middle items will often be displaced.

Chunking of information can lead to an increase in short term memory capacity. This is the reason why a hyphenated phone number is easier to remember than a single long number. Storage also seems to increase if we pronounce the names of the items out loud especially if they are grouped rhythmically.

Try reading this sequence and then recall it:

i g d b f d n o n u c a

Next, try the same exercise on these letters:

c o u n f b a d d i n g

Chunking it into a word you can pronounce made the difference.

Try the same process with this list of numbers:

2 8 3 4 9 6

Next, try remembering this:

28 34 96

Instead of six numbers, you only need to recall three

Verbal Intelligence

It is said that to have a mastery of words is to have in one's possession the ability to produce order out of chaos and that command of vocabulary is a true measure of intelligence. Verbal intelligence measures your capacity to use language in order to express yourself, comprehend stories and understand other people. Verbal abilities include reading, writing and communicating with words. The verbal component of this test examines your vocabulary and your capacity to learn verbal material. It also measures your ability to employ verbal skills in reasoning and problem solving.

Here is a question which demonstrates Verbal intelligence :

Q.Rearrange the following letters to make a single word and then choose  the category in which it belongs.

FARE FIG

(a)City
(b)Animal
(c)Vegetable
(d)Person

Correct Answer: Animal (GIRAFFE)

Jobs
People with strong verbal intelligence skills have a way with words, so to speak. According to Howard Gardner (author of the theory of multiple intelligences) people who excel in verbal intelligence end up being poets, writers, journalists, and lawyers while in high school they tend to participate in drama and debate clubs.


Tips that help increase your verbal intelligence :

 
With some effort you can certainly improve your word skills.
Reading is an excellent way to improve your vocabulary and can do wonders for your imagination as well!
Improve your context skills. Because the vast majority of words are learned from context, it helps to pay close attention to how words are used.
Make up associations and connections. It also helps to relate new words to words you already know.
Crossword puzzles and scrabble can also help. The best way to increase verbal intelligence and develop word skills is practice.

Interesting Question

A man was traveling to Kasoa

At the bus stop, he met a man with 7 wifes

Each wife has 12 sons and 12 daughters

Each daughter of the man's wife had 4 sons and 7 daughters

Each son of the man's wife had 7 sons and 4 daughters

Each grand daughter had 4 friends

How many people got to kasoa? 

Solution::

Just 1 man. Others weren't travelling.

Tricky Intelligence Quotient (IQ) Questions

1. Some months have 30 days, some months have 31 days, but how many months have 28 days?

2. Divide 50 by half and add 40.

3. "How many cubic feet of soil are there in a hole that measures 1 foot by 1 foot by 1 foot?"

4. Would a steel ball in Hawaii travel faster through water at 40 degrees or 25 degrees?

5. A man dressed all in black is walking down a country lane. Suddenly a large black car without any lights on comes round the corner and screeches to a halt. How did the driver know there was a man in the road? 

6. A man is walking outside in the rain. He does not have an umbrella even though it is pouring outside. Nothing is covering his head, yet his hair doesn't get wet. How is this possible?

7. How many 3-cent stamps are there in a dozen?

8. A plane crashes exactly on the American/Canadian border. Where are the survivors buried?

9. If the Vice President of the United States died, who would be president?

10. Would it be cheaper for you to take one friend to the movies twice, or two friends to the movies at the same time?

11. How close of a relative would the sister-in-law of your dad's only brother be to you?

ANSWERS::

1. 12     2. 140   3. 0     4. 40 deg     5. It was daytime.     6. Person was bald.    7. 12     8. Survivors aren't buried.      9. The President     10. Two at the same time      11.  Your mom.

Verbal Aptitude

The definition of ‘verbal aptitude’ is the capacity for general lexical skills – the understanding of words and the ability to use them effectively.

People who possess a high level of verbal skills often excel in fields such as writing (author, journalist, editor, critic), teaching (language, drama), the legal profession (judge, barrister, lawyer) and personnel work (advocate, human resources, counsellor) and as actors, psychologists, interpreters and interviewers.

 Mastery of words is seen by many as having in one’s possession the ability to produce order out of chaos. Because of this it is argued that command of vocabulary is an essential measure of intelligence, with the result that verbal tests are widely used in IQ testing.

Verbal reasoning tests are designed to measure basic verbal aptitude. Typically such tests include spelling, grammar, word meanings, completing sentences, synonyms (words that are the same or similar in meaning to each other) and antonyms (words that are opposite in meaning to each other).

Analyse your IQ

IQ tests are standardised after being given to many thousands of people, and an average IQ (100) established. A score above or below this norm is used, according to a bell curve, to establish the subject’s actual IQ rating. Because beyond the age of 18 little or no improvement in a person’s IQ rating is found, the method of calculating the IQ of a child is different from the method used for an adult. When the IQ of a child is being measured, the subject attempts an IQ test which has been standardised with an  average score recorded for each age group. Thus a 10-year-old child who scored the results expected of a child of 12 would have an IQ of 120, calculated as follows:

IQ = Mental age(12) x 100 / Chronological age = 120.

However, adults have to be judged on an IQ test whose average score is 100, and their results are graded above and below this norm according to known scores. A properly validated test would have to be given to some 20,000 people and the results correlated before it would reveal an accurate measurement of a person’s IQ. Like most distributions found in nature, the distribution of IQ takes the form of a fairly regular bell curve. On the Stanford–Binet scale which is widely used in the United States, half the population fall between 90 and 110 IQ, half of them above 100 and half of them below; 25 per cent score above 110; 11 per cent above 120; 3 per cent above 130 and 0.6 per cent above 140. At the other end of the scale the same kind of
proportion occurs.

Introduction

 Intelligence is the capacity to learn or understand. It is this which determines how efficiently each of us deals with situations as they arise, and how we profit intellectually from our experiences. Intelligence of course varies from person to person, and is what tests of intelligence (IQ tests) attempt to measure.

IQ is the abbreviation for ‘intelligence quotient’. It is generally agreed that an individual’s IQ rating continues in development to about the age of 13, after which it is shown to slow down, and beyond the age of 18 little or no improvement is found. It is further agreed that the most marked increase in a person’s IQ takes place in early childhood, and theories are
continually put forward about different contributory factors. For example, in recent years research in Japan has shown that the playing of computer games by children, which involve a high degree of skill and agility of mind, have resulted in higher IQ measurement.

In the last 25 to 30 years IQ tests have been brought into widespread use in industry because of the need by employers to ensure they place the right people in the right job at the outset. One of the main reasons for this is the high cost of errors in today’s world of tight budgets and reduced profit margins. To recruit a new member of staff an employer has to
advertise, consider each application, reduce the applicants to a shortlist, interview and then train the successful applicant. If robin-bobin the wrong choice has been made, then the whole process has to be repeated.
Employers also use tests to identify suitable jobs for people within an organisation. These tests can be helpful to both the employer and the candidate in identifying strengths and weaknesses, and thus help to find the job for which a person is most suited. Such tests are designed to give an objective assessment of the candidate’s abilities in a number of disciplines, for example in verbal understanding, numeracy, logic and spatial, or diagrammatic, reasoning skills. Unlike personality tests, which are also used by employers in conjunction with IQ tests, aptitude (IQ) tests are marked, and may have a cut-off point above which you pass, and below which you fail or need to be assessed again. Although it is accepted that IQ remains constant throughout life, and therefore it is not possible to increase your actual IQ, it is possible to improve your performance on IQ tests by practising the many different types of question, and learning to recognise the recurring themes.

It is certainly the case that many of us do not exercise our brain sufficiently, yet it is perhaps the most important part of the human body. The intricate web of nerves of the brain somehow manages to regulate all the systems in the body, and at the same time
absorbs and learns from a continual intake of thoughts, feelings and memories. It is the control centre for all our movement, sleep, hunger and thirst: in fact virtually every
activity necessary for survival. Additionally all our emotions, such as aggression, love, hate, elation and fear are controlled by the brain. It also receives and interprets countless signals
sent to it from other parts of the body and from the external robin-bobin environment. Yet it is the part of our body that many of us take most for granted.