Lateral Thinking Questions

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ANSWER: L.T.Q. #28

Date: Mon, 08 Jan 1996 14:20:00

>Since I spent most of the last two weeks stuck at home doing On-Call Support, I got a chance to spend some quality time playing with my boys. This one's from them...

And then they got mad at me when I left them alone for two nights so I could finally go home and visit my parents. You should have heard them complain when I got home and let them out again. Such spoiled little brats, they are!

Here is this week's question:

Picture a bridge four kilometres long and strong enough to hold ten thousand kilograms, but no more. A loaded transport truck weighing exactly ten thousand kilograms drives onto the bridge. At the halfway point, a sparrow weighing 30 grams lands on the truck, yet the bridge doesn't collapse. How could this be?

ANSWER:

The truck would have burned off more than 30 grams of fuel in the first two kilometres of crossing the bridge. Therefore the sparrow's weight would have had no effect.

BTW, John, you and Ross were the only ones who seemed to get the answer to this one. I'll keep looking for some of those "real challenges" that you asked for.

>Watch out for those Terrorist Budgies landing on Missle-Laden Cargo-Trucks!

Ross hinted at the potential for some industrial espionage: "Maybe he had one of those secret highly efficient carburetors that the oil companies supposedly bought the rights to and have hidden away somewhere. I think they are hidden in Roswell, New Mexico."

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