Brain Power: How Did The Man Miss The Deer In The Road?

by Brad Isaac on November 25, 2007

Thinking is good for you. Studies show that puzzles and games improve brain power as we age. Some reports say puzzles even stave off Alzheimer’s in elderly patients.

If you don’t know the answer to this puzzle, think. Don’t just Google it. No studies report search engines help our brains function better. In fact, they allow us to be happily forgetful since we can simply “Google” what we don’t know or what we’ve forgotten.

So here’s your brain teaser of the day:

A man is driving home from a party. He enters the interstate with his headlights off. He rapidly increases the speed of his car to 75 miles per hour.

Suddenly, a deer jumps out into the middle of the highway – right into the lane he was driving. But the man swerves and barely misses the deer.

Considering he didn’t have his headlights on, and he was traveling at such a high rate of speed, how did he know to swerve and miss the deer?

Can you figure out the answer?

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{ 8 comments }

Igor November 25, 2007 at 12:58 pm

He came home in the morning, so he didn’t have to keep the headlights on.

Ludwig November 25, 2007 at 12:58 pm

- A car that drove in front of him already swerved before him
- A car on the opposite lane had his headlights on so he saw the deer
- Streetlights (do you have those on interstates?)

All in all just different ways of illumination! well ;-)

Oh! Wait a minute: Did anyone say it’s nighttime?
Coming home from a party could be the morning after etc.! It’s just daytime, so he saw the deer because of, well, the sun :-?

greetings,
Ludwig

November 25, 2007 at 3:39 pm

Why, I do believe it’s daylight outside!

Mariano November 25, 2007 at 3:50 pm

I like Ludwig’s answer. The “correct” answer (the one seen in other places where this puzzle is mentioned) would be that you never said it was darktime, but there are lots of possible answers, like those mentioned by Ludwig. There are usually hundreds of answers to puzzles, and they are all valid as long as they don’t conflict with what is said in the puzzle itself.
Nice puzzle, nice parallel thinking ;)

November 26, 2007 at 9:20 am

Some answers

-it’s daylight
-the moon was full
-the road was lit with street lights
-he had night goggles on
-the deer has been eating grass near a nuclear power station and developed glow in the dark abilities.
-the driver is actually a character from Heroes.

In decreasing order of likelihood. :-)

The other game I like is to come up with the most uses for a paper clip.

Will November 26, 2007 at 11:11 am

Or it could just be the guy was drunk and was swerving because of that. It was purely coincidence that he swerved around the deer…

November 26, 2007 at 12:07 pm

Yea, it was daytime.

Brad Isaac November 27, 2007 at 7:37 pm

Most of you got it right. It was daytime. Good Job! :)

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