Awesome Brain Teaser!
I was browsing through Facebook just now when I saw this awesome post by @emancipatedhuman. I re-shared it here.
Oh my gosh.
It's so good.
I had to share it with you also. It only really works if you see it in your feed on a mobile device, but oh man, does it work!
Here's what I saw:
Okay, so it's not the best grammar. Get over that for a second. Spend some time and figure out what you think the answer is.
Be sure to look really closely. You might have missed something.
Do you think you have it? If so, quickly scroll down to the comments and leave your answer. (Scroll slower if you want the answer revealed to you).
If you said none, you're actually wrong. That was my first guess, and I was wrong.
Why, you say? Well, on my mobile phone, there's more than meets the eye. If you click the image, you see this:
If you click the image again, you see this:
Tricky! The answer is 8!
But here's what I love about this puzzle. It exposes the confirmation bias in us all. We all think we're "above average," and we all want to latch on to an answer once we think we have it which resolves our cognitive dissonance. We're happy with ourselves and maybe even feeling a bit smug and superior to everyone else who "got it wrong."
Even though I think 8 is the correct answer (I originally, confidently, and incorrectly thought it was none), a good argument can be made for "it depends."
How much water pressure is there?
Too much and the right answer will be 1.
How much liquid is there?
Not enough and the answer will be none.
Does "filled" mean "full" or does it mean "in the process of being filled"?
If the later, the answer is again, 1.
It's such a great puzzle for exposing how quickly we think we're right but can still be wrong. It shows us how we make assumptions when maybe we shouldn't. Keep this one in mind the next time you are so sure you're right and someone else is wrong.
If you want to share it on Facebook with your friends, you can find it here.
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@lukestokes - Lol - the engineer in me said 'depends on water flow rate and the size of orifices and pipe diameters!! However, you are right - I had completely missed the 8th cup.
Thanks- was an interesting brain teaser and your take on the biases is interesting.
Upvoted.
Regards,
@vm2904
haha, we must have been brainwashed in school because I was thinking the same thing ><.
Lol - yes. typical school education does not encourage us to keep eyes open and think outside the box
Okay, maybe I have a mental block, but I don't see how it is 8 over 6. The reason is that 6 would have to fill before the water got high enough in 2 to drop into 7 and then 8. What am I missing?
Edited to add: never mind, found it! Dang!
I did the same thing!
Can we say "great minds"? lol
Dang, I thought I was clever for arriving at 6. I knew I was jumping to conclusions too quickly...
Haha so did I.. the first time I was scrolled back up I "realized" it was 6 and was so confident scrolling back down to find out the answer lol, thanks for sharing @lukestokes
It's such a good puzzle!
I love these kinds of puzzles... and I went through the whole... "none" to "1" to "potentially unanswerable." Very cool-- thanks for sharing!
I’m pretty sure this is an edited version of the original I saw... I’ve seen a version where the block to 3 didn’t exist, so the answer was definitely 3. Even then I still missed the answer initially because I wasn’t noticing all the blockages and holes. This is a fun variation on it though.
Someone just shared that version with me on Facebook! Quite interesting.
Cool, I didn’t go back to check that I wasn’t imagining it! This one I even noticed how the 8 is a different font size. It is a good twist on it, playing with the conventions of the screen and demanding another layer of attention to detail!
I started with 4 and thought 'wait, this is too easy...' and then I was sure it was 6, and thought I was done. Good puzzle!
@lukestokes
This is awesome, this puzzle really got me thinking. My first answer was cup 4, but having a closer look at the blocked pipe made me go for cup 6 and there was no outlet, went further to choose cup7 not knowing the cup itself is having an outlet ...but in all sincerity, I never saw cup 8.
From your analysis, I think I was feeling so sure about my answers just as you said
I think you are right and I will really love to add this that we should all look at things closely before giving answer confidently, which I am also guilty of.
This puzzle really got me thinking about humans and how we see things from different perspective and how we arrived at our results...this is really helpful.
Thanks for sharing this.
Followed, upped and resteemed
@bekky
Thanks for sharing! Glad you enjoyed it.
Welcome
Tricky! The answer is 8! Haha :)) I guess the answer it's 7, because the pipe from 1 to 3 it's blocked, same as the way from 3 to 4 and for 2 to 6. BUT THEN I REALISED! You were not joking with that 8. Good job!
Haha! I saw this post on my feed earlier and had a good chuckle when I saw the discussions. It's always great to just have a laugh about it after everything is said and done. I do fall for these things from time to time as well, but I always make it a point to look at the big picture. In this case, it was a literal interpretation of it haha!
The blockage going to 3 was just so subtle, and the closed off passage from 2 to 6 could be easily missed because one would expect every hole is open. The leak in 7 would immediately make someone think that it's never going to get filled. If the image isn't enlarged, one could easily just miss 8.
Without cheating, ( I did not look at the answer), I say cup 4. Water will never reach any other cup, except number 1.
I am sure there is a catch that I haven’t spotted, (otherwise the question would be too easy), so I will now scroll to the answer.