[rookie1ja]

Bear - Back to the Einstein's Riddles
The famous physicist allegedly made this riddle for his scholars.
A fellow encountered a bear in a wasteland. There was nobody else there. Both were frightened and ran away. Fellow to the north, bear to the west. Suddenly the fellow stopped, aimed his gun to the south and shot the bear. What colour was the bear?
If you don't know, this may help you: if the bear ran about 3.14 times faster than the fellow (still westwards), the fellow could have shot straight in front of him, however for the booty he would have to go to the south.

Spoiler for Solution

It all happened on the North Pole. When the man shot, he must have been right on the North Pole. Getting it? So it makes sense to assume that the only color the bear could be was WHITE.
So this is it. I've heard another logical solutions (even that there are no bears neither on the North nor on the South Pole), but this one presented makes sense to me. And what about you?

[Milander]

Too easy and this puzzle has been around for simply ages in other forms. One of those involving windows in a house. Might interest you to know that David Eddings has use this puzzle in yet another format in book 2 (I think) of his Belgariad series of novels..


Here is another poser for you though:

A man is discovered dead in a phone box, the phone is hanging off the receiver and there are two holes in the glass to the right and left of him. There is no evidence of foul play. How did the man die?

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He was explaining to a friend the size of a fish he'd caught, cut his wrists on the glass... nuff said you got it I'm sure

[rookie1ja]

I might add a few lateral thinking puzzles like that one in the future. They just need some hints/guidance but some of them are really good.

[nirajha]

There is a serious flaw over here. Since you are talking about spatial rotation you should specify that the trajectory of the bullet curves as per the earth's surface.

[kedbrain]

we are not talking bullets here

[Tap_521]

I AM CONFUSED ABOUT THE ORIGINAL BRAIN TEASER. IF THE GUY WAS AT THE NORTH POLE AND THE BEAR WAS TOTALLY WEST IT WOULD HAVE LOOKED LIKE THIS.
MAN


BEAR
IF THE MAN SHOT HERE IT WOULD NOT MATTER THE COLOR OF BEAR HE WOULD NOT SHOOT THE BEAR.

[Aaron Burr]

Since it is a polar bear than wouldn’t the answer be clear not white because a Polar bear’s fur is in fact clear?

- You do not have to be faster than the bear, just fast than the slowest guy running from the bear

[Canon]

Einstein did not author puzzle. See:

http://www.rec-puzzl.../index.php?Bear

[mynameisjjonas]

Quote

I AM CONFUSED ABOUT THE ORIGINAL BRAIN TEASER. IF THE GUY WAS AT THE NORTH POLE AND THE BEAR WAS TOTALLY WEST IT WOULD HAVE LOOKED LIKE THIS.
MAN


BEAR
IF THE MAN SHOT HERE IT WOULD NOT MATTER THE COLOR OF BEAR HE WOULD NOT SHOOT THE BEAR.

Don't think of the bear running west of a point where the man was, but where he ended up, the north pole. Then, the bear would be doing circles around him. And, he would aim souh no matter where the bear was.

[sharknateher]

Whoa. Very rarely do I encounter people who know that a polar bear's fur is indeed clear and that the properties of the hair reflect and refract light in such a way as to make it appear white, especially when surrounded by snow. However, the question does not ask what color is the bear's fur. It asks, what color is the bear? And generally speaking, despite the clear hair feature, the polar bear does indeed appear to be white in color in most any surroundings (except zoos where fungus turns the fur green - sad

Quote

Since it is a polar bear than wouldn’t the answer be clear not white because a Polar bear’s fur is in fact clear?

- You do not have to be faster than the bear, just fast than the slowest guy running from the bear