Puzzles Gone Wrong: a continuing series

[tahnan]

Once again, in the category of "unclear on the concept" puzzles, this one from Tanga.

There's a lot wrong here—the solution method has problems, I think, and the pictures are too small to make out clearly. But the real issue...well, let the author explain. In case you don't want to go look, it's an odd-one-out puzzle, and the third and fifth lines are, respectively, pictures of: a helicopter, an airplane, a kite, an eagle; mouth, nose, chin, eyes. Now, from the answer:

The third one could trip some people up. The answer is Kite, because it is tethered to the ground, but some people may think the eagle because the others are man made.

[...]

The fifth one is again a stumbling block. The answer is Eyes because there are two of them, but some people will think chin because the others concern the senses.

Dude. If you know that your puzzle is ambiguous, perhaps fixing it is a good idea.

Comments

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

I'd even say that the wrong answers are more convincing than the right ones - you can let go of a kite, for instance, and there are two nostrils.

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

And two lips, giving further credence to the chin option.

[seekingferret.livejournal.com]

What about double chins?

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

Perhaps a better approach to this puzzle is: Find an explanation for all of them! That's at least a modest challenge.

Like, the Ohio, Oregon, Florida, Maine one:

Ohio is the only one without an ocean.

Oregon is the only one which ends in a consonant.

Florida is the only one more than 50% surrounded by water.

Maine is the only one that was a member of the original 13 colonies.

These are all equally reasonable. I think I'd vote for Maine as being the most interesting solution of the ones I came up with.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

There've been good puzzles centered on the idea of "given these four things, explain why each one is the odd one out"--Games had a page of them way back when. (One of them was something like "The first is a shed, while the other three are domiciles; the second is red, while the other three are white; the third is made of ice, while the other three are made of wood..." Something like that, anyway.)

[luckylefty.livejournal.com]

Except for the fact that Maine was not one of the original 13 colonies; it was part of Massachusetts at the time, and didn't become an independent state until 1820.

[mrmorse.livejournal.com]

My answer to the first was "eagle, obviously, but I could see how it might be kite." My answer to the second was "I bet it's eyes, even though my first response is mouth because it has five letters." But that's based on the words. I could see interpreting the mouth as lips, which throws out the justification for mouth and for eyes at the same time. Nifty.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Dude. Your ICON. Does that thing actually exist?

[mrmorse.livejournal.com]

Yes. It's a photo of a prototype demoed earlier this year. I desperately want one.

[jedusor.livejournal.com]

Holy CRAP. *so much want*

[q-pheevr.livejournal.com]

That's a remarkably dumb puzzle, not just because of the "there are multiple answers, but ours is the right one" thing, but also because the answers themselves are so dull. And "tethered to the ground"? If you want the kite to be the odd one out, it should be because it's the only one that engages in purely unpowered flight.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

It's not especially inspired, no. (And as it happens, "doesn't fly under its own power" was what I had, too.)