Are you up for a quick and clever test to gauge your intelligence? Welcome aboard the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT), known as the world’s shortest IQ test ๐Ÿง .

Despite being just three questions long, don’t be deceived by its seeming simplicity. This crafty little quiz is designed to assess your ability to discern when a problem is more complex than it first appears ๐Ÿค”.

The faster you figure it out, the higher your intelligence might be!

Let’s dive in, shall we? Here are your three brain-teasers ๐Ÿ•น:

  1. A bat ๐Ÿ and a ball โšพ cost ยฃ1.10 in total. The bat costs ยฃ1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
  2. If it takes five machines ๐Ÿญ five minutes to make five widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?
  3. In a lake ๐Ÿž, there is a patch of lily pads ๐Ÿ€. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half the lake?

Most people guess:

  1. 10 pence ๐Ÿ’ฐ
  2. 100 minutes โฐ
  3. 24 days ๐Ÿ—“

Unfortunately, those answers would be incorrect. Drumroll ๐Ÿฅ, please! Here are the correct answers:

1. The ball costs 5 pence.

Here’s how: If the ball costs X, and the bat costs ยฃ1 more, then it will be:

X (ball) + ยฃ1 (extra for bat) = Bat’s cost.

So, Bat+ball=X + (X+1) =1.1

Therefore, 2X+1=1.1, and 2X=0.1

Solving for X gives us X= 0.05 (or 5 pence) ๐Ÿ’ก๐Ÿ’ฐ.

2. 100 machines would take 5 minutes to make 100 widgets.

Since five machines make five widgets in five minutes, logically, one machine will take five minutes to make one widget. So, if we have 100 machines working simultaneously, they will make 100 widgets in five minutes โฐโš™๏ธ.

3. It would take 47 days for the patch to cover half the lake.

If the patch doubles every day, it would logically be half the size the previous day. So, one day before it covers the whole lake (on day 48), the lake would be half-covered ๐Ÿ€๐Ÿž.

It’s worth noting that, despite its apparent simplicity, not everyone passes this test with flying colors. In a survey of nearly 3,500 people, 33% got all three questions wrong, and a staggering 83% missed at least one.

Even at the prestigious MIT, only 48% of students sampled were able to nail all three questions. Though the test is short and does not measure all aspects of intelligence, it certainly offers a challenging way to quickly assess one’s problem-solving skills.

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