Brain teaser

A brain teaser is a form of puzzle that requires thought to solve. It often requires thinking in unconventional ways with given constraints in mind; sometimes it also involves lateral thinking. Logic puzzles and riddles are specific types of brain teasers.

One of the earliest known brain teaser enthusiasts was the Greek mathematician Archimedes. He devised mathematical problems for his contemporaries to solve.

Example

One can argue about the answers of many brain teasers; in the given example with hens, one might claim that all the eggs in the question were laid in the first day, so the answer would be three.

Intuition

The difficulty of many brain teasers relies on a certain degree of fallacy in human intuitiveness. This is most common in brain teasers relating to conditional probability, because the causal human mind tends to consider absolute probability instead. As a result, controversial discussions emerge from such problems, the most famous probably being the Monty Hall problem. Another (simpler) example of such a brain teaser is the Boy or Girl paradox.

Hoot N Holler

Hoot N Holler is a steel family roller coaster manufactured by Zierer of Germany, formerly known as Brain Teaser from 1997 to 2012. The coaster is currently located at Darien Lake in New York.

History

When constructed in 1981, it was the first roller coaster at the park. The coaster was originally called Ladybug for its ladybug shaped trains. The coaster was located in the vicinity of the Giant Wheel from 1981-1988. It was later moved to Adventure Land for Kids (created in 1988) where it was renamed Nessie the Dreamy Dragon to fit with the dragon theming of that area. Then, it was moved near Mind Eraser in an area called Tiny Trio which featured two other rides called BMX Motocross (relocated to Elitch Gardens as Trike Bikes) and Dodgems (now known as Raccoon Rally).

The ride cars were green with yellow seats (prior to that the cars were red) and the track was black until it was moved to its new location and renamed in 1997. The ride from 1997-2011 had a red track with teal supports and a single light blue train with red seats. This color scheme is similar to the nearby Mind Eraser, an inverted roller coaster built by Vekoma in 1997. The ride now has a sea green track and supports and a single brown train themed as an owl.