If you want to figure out the Internet’s latest brainteaser, it’s time to think like a child.
National Geographic posed a question on its TV show Brain Games that is stumping many more adults than children. Take a look at this drawing of a school bus below: Can you tell which way it’s headed?
Image: National Geographic
According to the show, 80% of children under the age of 10 could answer the question instantly by applying common sense and logic.
That’s a little harder for adults, apparently. To solve the puzzle, you have to consider the following factors:
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Where are the doors? Is this some sort of futuristic bus where people are beamed inside a la Star Trek? Of course not. Simple logic will tell you that the doors are on the other side of the bus. Mr. Spock would be pleased.
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Now consider which side of the road the bus is on. People in America drive on the right side of the road, so you can assume this is the “right side.” Now place your bus driver. Is there a bus driver? Let’s hope so, or all these bus people are doomed. Since the bus on the right side of the road, you can assume through visualization that the bus driver is on the left-hand side.
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Next, let’s assume this bus was constructed correctly and the bus driver’s seat is at the front (or, again, certain doom awaits our bus people). Since the bus driver is on the left, and the left is the front, you can assume our non-doomed bus is going toward the left.
Image: National Geographic
Of course, if you’re in the UK or another country where people drive on the left side of the road, everything is reversed and the bus is actually going right. Therefore, the bus is going in both directions, being stretched through time and space, forever and ever.
Now, do this simple logic problem in your head in less than a second, like any 10-year-old can.
Children are much better at taking in the first visual cue given and making a snap judgement based on that cue. Adults, on the other hand, take in different visual and other sensory cues before coming to a final judgement — making their decisions slower and perhaps more thought out (though there were no specific figures as to how many adults were stumped by the problem).
At least adults are still great at arguing about how a dog can wear pants.
