Brain Teasers
Willy Pete
Situation
Situation puzzles (sometimes called lateral thinking puzzles) are ones where you need to ask lots of yes or no questions to figure out what happened in the situation. These are good puzzles for groups where one person knows the puzzle and answers the questions.Situation
Sinbad the soldier was out on a training exercise. He was observing a simulated enemy squad planting mines in a field. It was important that he see where the mines were being planted and mark them on the map. Suddenly Willy Pete arrived on the scene in front of Sinbad, blocking his view of the squad. Sinbad ran 20 steps to his left, but Willy Pete was still blocking his view. He ran 40 steps back to the right, but still Willy Pete was blocking his view. How could this possibly happen?
Answer
Willy Pete is a nickname the military commonly uses for the chemical "White Phosphorus". White phosphorus is used in bombs, artillery, and mortar shells as a smoke screen.Hide Answer Show Answer
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Comments
Very nice . I learned something
yay! first comment!!!!!!
yay! first comment!!!!!!
I did not knoe that that is cool info
I assumed Willy Pete must be the nickname for a plane or huge truck. Learned something new.
Great Job!!!! Loved it!
I assumed the same as scallio... either that, or by "simulated combat" you meant on a computer screen.
... i thought willy pete was a man that was fat.
I figured Sinbad was a toy soldier, and Willy Pete would be a child, who would be much larger than the toy.
Silly Willy! Good one.
I thought he was trying to look through a pass between two rocks, or something. This might fit better in trivia.
I'd rather not go to basic training before I can solve some of these teasers.
Interesting but I'm not sure it's a situation brain teaser, or a brain teaser at all. It is simply a test of whether you know a particular fact. If you know it, you get it, otherwise there is no way you can work it out. Is there another teaser category for this sort? The misdirection of the apparent name does make it fun.
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