[For Seniors] Think and Have Fun: Introducing Brain-Stimulating Logic Puzzles

Because Y is going “Yay!” and is happy

Let’s look at the way of thinking from the answer. If you read Satoko’s problem out loud, it might lead you to the answer. For example, “aan” is what you say to a baby when feeding them. Similarly, the kanji for circle (円, en) connects to “een,” like crying; the kanji for faith/trust (信, shin) connects to “shiin,” used to describe a quiet atmosphere. And Y is “waai,” which expresses joy.

Because the truck driver was walking against the flow (going the wrong way)

The truck driver wasn’t riding in the truck. If you assume the truck driver was walking, the answer becomes clear. Focusing too much on “the truck driver” leads to ideas like “a police officer who doesn’t stop a truck going the wrong way.” A one-way sign applies to vehicles, so there’s no problem if a pedestrian walks in the opposite direction.

A married couple who like beer

Let’s think about the differences between beer and tea or water, aside from the alcohol content. Beer has its characteristic “foam,” right? If you pour tea or water into a glass, you don’t get foam. If you change “awanai” (no foam) to “awanai” (doesn’t match), the answer starts to appear. “Awanai” (doesn’t match) connects to the idea of a couple not being compatible, so it refers to couples who don’t like beer and drink tea or water instead. Summing it up, the correct answer is couples who like beer with foam.

The rope tied to the horse wasn't secured, so...

If you focus only on the two elements—“a horse tied to a 4-meter rope” and “a carrot about 15 meters away”—you might be led away from the answer. The horse is tied to a rope, yes. But it doesn’t say the rope is fixed, does it? Since the rope wasn’t secured, the horse was free to move.

4 people

Let’s reason from the problem statement. If it takes three people three minutes to finish three rice crackers, then it takes one person three minutes to eat one cracker. When you divide 100 crackers equally among three people, you get 33 crackers each with 1 cracker left over. It’s incorrect to think, “Three people will eat the remaining one, so it’s still three people,” so let’s think more carefully. The time it takes three people to finish 33 crackers is 3 minutes × 33 crackers = 99 minutes. Since you can’t split the last cracker and have several people eat it, nor can one person finish it in the remaining one minute, you need one more person.