The latest fad sweeping the back pages of newspapers is a great little logic puzzle called sudoku. Another fad is online IQ testing. I think this proves the public's hunger for puzzles.
Anywho, I reckon someone should syndicate an IQ style test on the back page of the paper.-- xaviergisz, May 25 2005 As opposed to a crossword?-- Eugene, May 25 2005 Crosswords are, in a large part, a test of your vocabulary. IQ tests, on the other hand, are a test of your reasoning ability, and theoretically independent of how much you know.-- xaviergisz, May 25 2005 The problem with IQ tests is that (much like sudoku) you get better at them the more of them you do. After a while they become meaningless.-- wagster, May 25 2005 This would go along with my theory that peoples IQ levels fluctuate radically during the course of a week. One day your a genious the next day your fumbling and you cant remember that there are only 3 words in the english language, excluding names and slang, that start with DW. I agree you would have to have a different test every day. That would help create a lot of jobs.-- 10clock, May 25 2005 //One day your a genious // Sadly for you [10clock], today is not that day.-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, May 25 2005 "Dweeb" is slang, shirley?-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, May 25 2005 This would train people to learn the tricks to solving IQ-type problems, thus nullifying the ability of *real* IQ tests to accurately measure people's IQ.
(IQ should measure one's ability to solve a problem that's completely new; not a problem that one has seen in some similar form before.)-- phundug, May 25 2005 I think that a well written crossword puzzle exercises far more than just vocabulary. The clues are generally not staightforward definitions; you must be able to understand the "flips" on meaning--the often obtuse viewpoint--in order to find the analogy. There's a broad range of mental abilities called into play to do that well and especially in the limited amount of time most people devote to solving a crossword.-- bristolz, May 25 2005 I agree, bris. Our local Sunday paper runs a crossword puzzle that tosses in clues about stuff only people from around here would know. And the theme is usually very pun based. Vocabulary is essential to get the easier words, but logic and slanting angles in the way you think, are the most useful tools.
(Probably most closely akin to the Boston Globe puzzle.)-- blissmiss, May 25 2005 Ditto to Bris and bliss.I try to tackle the Times and Telegraph crosswords every day and usually get there (or close) in the end. These are certainly not so much a test of vocabulary as a test of getting inside the mind of the compiler. It does help to be able to spot a 'forced' sentence as that can give you a clue to the light. Consider 'Follow the invisible man in the sportswear department' (9).In general, there are only one or two words per week of which I am unfamiliar - the rest is lateral thinking.-- gnomethang, May 25 2005 [phundug]: //(IQ should measure one's ability to solve a problem that's completely new; not a problem that one has seen in some similar form before.)// any new problem is istinctively reduced to problems that were solved before, and solving new problems, making even faster connections doesn't necesarily make iq tests obsolete, but rather improves iq.
in my opinion playing chess only makes you smarter until the point where you've learned all the tricks, beyond that it's only a memory-reflex test. same goes to football. i played chess and go during my childhood, and they were only fun by the point i started to see patterns that build a match. say sudoku is a logic puzzle? i'm going to look up sudoku right now-- sweet, May 25 2005 IQ tests basically, it is currently said, measure your ability to do IQ tests. This would, then, make people's IQs higher. Not that it really matters.-- dbmag9, Jun 29 2006 I thought it was going to be a measurement used to determine if you should bother getting out of bed... [+] anyways.-- FlyingToaster, Aug 13 2009 Invite them to the HB?-- coprocephalous, Aug 13 2009 random, halfbakery