A father and his son were in a car accident. The father died at the scene. The son was rushed to the hospital. But when he got there the ER doctor said, “I cannot operate on this boy because he is my son.” How is this possible?

Assignment Question

Discussion 9 (Chapter 12) Insight (also described as the ‘aha’ moment) is a sudden understanding of a problem or of a strategy that aids in solving the problem, which is often associated with ill-structured problems. Read the examples of 5 ill-structured problems provided below. If you don’t immediately know the answer to all 5 questions, take some time to think about possible answers and take a guess. Make sure you read each problem carefully and provide insightful guesses. Insight often follows taking a break from a problem and has been experienced by most people. Share an example of how that has happened to you or someone you know. Compare the examples from other students and people you know. Can you see any patterns or hints about what might be behind the insight process? Brain-teasers

1. A woman who lived in a small town married 20 different men in that same town. All of them are still living, and she never divorced any of them. Yet she broke no laws (polygamy is illegal). How could she do this?

2. You have loose black and brown socks in a drawer, mixed in a ratio of five black socks for every brown one. How many socks do you have to take out of that drawer to be assured of having one pair of the same color?

3. Two grandmasters played five games of chess. Each won the same number of games and lost the same number of games. There were no draws (ties) in any of the games. How could this be so?

4. A father and his son were in a car accident. The father died at the scene. The son was rushed to the hospital. But when he got there the ER doctor said, “I cannot operate on this boy because he is my son.” How is this possible?

5. Otto lives on the 15th floor of his apartment building. Each morning he rides the elevator down to the lobby, which is on the 1st floor. But each evening when he returns, he rides the elevator up to the 10th floor and then takes the stairs (which are inside the building) to the 15th floor. However, when it rains, Otto takes the elevator up to the 15th floor. Why does he do this?