You’ve probably seen a couple of riddles about fluid mechanics, where you have to try and determine which water tank gets filled up first, for example. Twitter user @_herbeautyxo decided to share a new fluid riddle and posted the following picture on her feed with the caption “Who gets coffee first?”
If you’re a fan of riddles and puzzles, you’ll probably have this one figured out in no time – or at least, that’s what you might think. This particular riddle is quite deceiving and tricky, as the majority of responses were completely wrong.
In fact, the answer is shockingly simple and doesn’t even involve complicated physics – but you should definitely try and solve it before peeking at the correct answer below.
The coffee riddle is presented in a simple manner. In the picture, we can see that coffee is being poured into a top container, which branches into a sort of maze of other containers. Underneath the maze, there are four pipes leading to four different coffee cups.
“Let’s see who’s (sic) brain works. Who gets coffee first?” the Twitter user posted.
With more than 2000 retweets and 4500 likes, this coffee riddle has truly taken the internet by storm. Over 2000 people commented on the tweet trying to find an answer to the riddle.
Of course, let’s assume that the coffee is being poured at a constant rate into the first container and that there’s enough coffee to fill the entire maze.
Which cup gets the coffee first?
The most common answer that people gave was cup 4, which is a logical answer considering the workings of fluid mechanics. Next up would be cup 9, cup 7 and then finally cup 5.
That seems like the correct answer, right? Wrong.
Another theory that Twitter users shared was that all cups would get their coffee at the same time – regardless of the placement of the pipes in the maze. That answer is also completely incorrect.
You might want to grab a cup of coffee yourself and take a very close look at the pipes instead of the maze structure.
Look at the endings of the pipes. The answer has been in front of your eyes the whole time.
Alright – we admit, it’s a bit tricky. There’s actually only one cup of the four that gets coffee, number five!
The explanation? All of the other pipes are completely blocked off which means liquid can’t pass through.
Cup 5 is the only one with an opening and thus the only correct answer.
Not all riddles are complicated, but this one sure is tricky!
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