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Puzzle # 5A |lateral thinkingLogic | Difficulty level: bulbbulbbulb

This is not a pipe...
   Once the famous Belgian painter René Magritte drew a pipe with a caption below it: “this is not a pipe”. Why is this not a contradiction?

abracadabrain puzzle 5

 

Source of the puzzle: © G. Sarcone, Archimedes' Lab, February 2008.
Please report any error, misspelling or dead link. Thanks!
      

Solution
To puzzle 5A

Not a pipe
   The caption seems a contradiction but is actually true: the painting is NOT a pipe, but RATHER an ‘image’, a representation of a pipe. As Magritte himself commented: "Just try to stuff the painted pipe with tobacco! If I were to have had written on my picture 'This is a pipe' I would have been lying...".
The American psychologist William James asserts that concepts (words, images, symbols) are 'timeless', and can only be juxtaposed and compared, they cannot be identified as reality: "the concept 'dog' does not bite; the concept 'cock' does not crow...".

 
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Puzzle # 6A | lateral thinking Lateral thinking | Difficulty level: bulbbulb

abracadabrain puzzle 6

Is the glas half-empty or half full?
   Albert, while enjoying a pint of very good beer, wonders if there is a simple way to settle if his beer glass is half-empy (or half full) without using stick, string, or implement of any kind for measuring. Hic! Sorry...

Source of the puzzle: © G. Sarcone, Avianca Journal, February 2008.
Please report any error, misspelling or dead link. Thanks!
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Solution
To puzzle 6A

Half-empty or half full?
   All that is necessary is to tilt the glass as shown in figures 1 to 3, and if the edge of the surface of the beer exactly touches the lip of the beer glass at the same time that it touches the edge of its bottom, it will be just half full (or half-empty, see fig. 2). This method applies to all SYMMETRICALLY constructed vessels.

solution

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