These Common Sense Questions Look Easy But Can Challenge Your Logical Reasoning

For the smartest and most intelligent people, they believe they are on top of the world when it comes to tackling riddles and common sense questions. After all, they possess some of the fastest brains in the world and have excelled in academic settings that were far more mentally and intellectually exerting. It is not always the case as being smart does not always translate into having common sense.

This will be addressed further below in this article. Some really smart people have come up against questions of this nature and surprisingly found themselves failing more than passing. To test your ability to logically reason and make accurate deductions, below are twenty tricky and commonsensical questions.

Common Sense Questions to Test Your Ability to Reason

These questions will test the depth of your general knowledge, explore your ability to take a step back from intuitive thinking and go beyond the obvious. If you get a majority or even all of them, it means you are not only smart or intelligent, you also possess common sense in spades. Take a look at the questions and get cracking!

1. C is the father of D, but D is not the son of C. How is this possible? – C has a daughter
2. A farmer has 752 and took one shot that got them all. How was he able to achieve this? – He took a photograph of all the sheep
3. How many times can you subtract the number 5 from 25? – Once you subtract 5 from 25 once, you would be left with 20 and if you try subtracting again, it wouldn’t be from 25 but from 20. So it is once.
4. If peacocks do not lay eggs, how are baby peacocks born? – Peahen, the female peafowl
5. Before Mt Everest was discovered, what was the tallest mountain in the world? Everest was the tallest mountain even before its discovery as mountains don’t grow.
6. How is it possible for a man to go nine days without sleep? – By sleeping in the night time
7. Suppose there are five oranges in a basket. How will you distribute the oranges to five people while ensuring that one orange remains in the basket?  – If you are included in the five and you leave your own orange in the basket
8. A criminal on death row is condemned to three rooms. The first one is a fiery inferno, the second room is full of armed assassins, and the third is full of hungry lions that are yet to eat for three months. What room is the safest? – The room with the 3 starved lions as they would likely be dead if they had not eaten in 3 months.
9. If you imagine that you are in a sinking boat in a body of water full of sharks, how do you survive this? – Stop imagining
10. Which is heavier between a hundred-pound bag of steel and a hundred-pound bag of feathers? – They both weigh just the same – 100 pounds

Now, See if You Can Figure these Common Sense Test Questions Out:

1. While some months have 30 days and others have 31, how many have 28 days?
2. You are in a room with a lantern, stove, and candle, and you only have one match. Which do you light first?
3. If two fathers and two sons went fishing and caught three fish that are enough for each of them, explain how this math is possible.
4. A man dressed in all black was walking down a country lane. A black car with no light on immediately braked after rounding a bend. How did the driver spot the man in all black?
5. A rooster laid eggs on the roof of a barn. Which way did the eggs roll?
6. If a wind blowing from the east causes a coconut to fall from the tree, where will the coconut land?
7. Who was the US President in 1700?
8. Lake Geneva is in which state?
9. How many items are in a baker’s dozen?
10. Why was a truck driver who went down the wrong way in a one-way street in front of a cop not pulled over?

How did your common sense stand against those questions? Did you find yourself struggling at times? Surprised you felt bad? That is because you might have an incorrect idea of what common sense really means.

What Does It Mean To Have Common Sense?

Common Sense is simply the ability to apply sound and logical judgment to issues. It entails being perceptive, analytical, and understanding the result of an action. Having common sense means you see things as they are and not what people want to trick you into seeing. When you have common sense, your decision-making is top-notch and devoid of irrationality.

Common sense can be a subjective matter. A lot of people accuse others of lacking common sense when the person does not behave or react in a manner that is acceptable to them. There are usually generally accepted behaviours and reactions expected of humans. When there is an individual that does not conform to these ‘normal’ reactions, people might say they lack common sense and failing to use their gumption.

The truth, though, is not everyone will conform to general standards. The definition of common sense might differ from one person to another. It is why many people argue that common sense is a subjective concept. Science and common sense can often clash though according to research. Sometimes, the commonsensical approach to some issues does not produce the same result as a scientific approach. For this reason, scientists do not advise people to rely on common sense and instead recommend pursue questions that challenge conventional thinking.

How Do You Get Common Sense or Are You Born With It?

Chances are you have heard one person utter the statement ‘He/she was born with common sense’. This statement, however, is not exactly accurate. Common sense is something you acquire and fine-tune over time as you continue to gain life experiences.

Sometimes it comes with age and someone feeding you information. Babies do not have the common sense and awareness to avoid certain things. This is why they can stretch out their hands towards the fire or put themselves in dangerous positions. As they grow and process more information about the dangers of certain things, the more they distance themselves from them. In this manner, they have learned the common sense to judge situations better and avoid potentially fatal situations.

One could also learn common sense in a social setting. It is common sense for you to look at the road before crossing if you have been living all your life in a relatively urban environment. An individual that has lived all their life in a forest may not have access to this common sense and might step into the road without checking for any cars.

Similarly, a city individual might not have the common sense not to approach a raging bull. Meanwhile, this is common knowledge to everyone in rural settlements and farmlands. In both cases, getting information and experiencing things first hand will help sharpen their common sense.

Learning what is culturally acceptable in a place and tailoring your behaviour accordingly is common sense, and this is not something that comes with birth. You learn and acquire it with time and experience.

Is There A Difference Between Intelligence and Common Sense?

Some have argued that having a high IQ is linked to an absence of common sense. Psychologists argue differently, that this is a convenient concept that allows men to avoid the all-round responsibilities that women are expected to shoulder.

Psychologists describe common sense as practical decision-making. As a result, several intelligent people on the autism spectrum would appear to lack common sense. However, the two qualities are not always mutually exclusive. You can be highly intelligent and still possess excellent common sense.

While it is not surprising to find a lot of people use both terms interchangeably, it is important to note that they do not mean the same thing. There are various disparities between the terminologies, and they both apply to different scenarios. Below are some of the differences between both:

Thus, it is not surprising to find that we have moments when we ask questions about the common sense of smart people. Intelligent people tend to overshadow common sense with their impressive brainpower a lot of the time. However, it can be a challenging thing, especially in relationships, as they are perpetually cerebral instead of sentimental. This poor judgment indicates a lack of common sense. As a result of this need to apply brainpower to every situation, intelligent people can apply extreme pressure on themselves and choke under this pressure.