The Grey Labyrinth is a collection of puzzles, riddles, mind games, paradoxes and other intellectually challenging diversions. Related topics: puzzle games, logic puzzles, lateral thinking puzzles, philosophy, mind benders, brain teasers, word problems, conundrums, 3d puzzles, spatial reasoning, intelligence tests, mathematical diversions, paradoxes, physics problems, reasoning, math, science.

Kurto · Daedalian Member

So this friend of mine is laying on the ground. Me, being a nice guy, go over to him, intentionally stop his heart, and leave. He calls me a few days later and thanks me.

What happened?

CzarJ · Hot babe

Was his heart running? *snicker snicker*

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Speaking of which, describe your favorite pair of pants.

Cadmium · Heavy Metal

Does it matter where your friend is laying on the ground?
Your friend didn't die by stopping his heart?
Did you literally stop his heart?
Did your friend thank you for stopping his heart?
Is there a reason that you left him after stopping his heart?
Does the fact that he called you a few days later have anything to do with it?

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Any similarities between what I say and what I mean are purely coincidental.

groza528 · No Place Like Home

I'm not sure if I've heard this one or not, so I'll invis. This is a POTENTIAL SPOILER
Does your friend have a pacemaker?

jfr0 · Guest

I feel there might have been some electicity between you and your friend.

Kurto · Daedalian Member

That invisible thing is awesome! Sorry I used to be a regular, but I haven't been around for a long time.

CzarJ: His heart wasn't stopped prior to my actions

Cd:
It doesn't matter where he's laying
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Sort of, but it's not important

groza528: No

MBA · Daedalian Member

Please use the standard format for 'lateral puzzles' like this one where answers are posted in bold with the original questions quoted. It makes it easier on the rest of the guessers when the questions start piling up. Like this:

Does it matter where your friend is laying on the ground? No
Your friend didn't die by stopping his heart? No
Did you literally stop his heart? Yes
Did your friend thank you for stopping his heart? Yes
Is there a reason that you left him after stopping his heart? Yes
Does the fact that he called you a few days later have anything to do with it? Yes but irrelevant

[This message has been edited by MBA (edited 04-19-2002 10:34 PM).]

Kurto · Daedalian Member

My bad.

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Though I'd never use cocaine, I'm curious to know what it smells like.

Chuck · Daedalian Member

It doesn't say he stops his heart from beating. Maybe it's an external mechanical heart that came loose and was rolling away, and had to be stopped from rolling before it broke.

Infintessimal IQ · Daedalian Member

You're not referring that when the heart spasms, you have to stop it before you start it going regularly again?

Kurto · Daedalian Member

IIQ: Explain.

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Though I'd never use cocaine, I'm curious to know what it smells like.

groza528 · No Place Like Home

I think I know what he means.
Usually the all the muscle fibers in the heart are timed precisely and synchronous, but when the heart goes into defibrilation a few fibers are beating out of sync with the others, which causes big problems as you'd imagine.
Usually the easiest way to solve this problem is to stop the heart completely and allow it to resume normal patterns. That's what prompted my pacemaker answer, but I suppose it could happen to someone w/o.

Just in case we're completely up the wrong tree: Is the 'heart' in the puzzle an ordinary human heart?

Infintessimal IQ · Daedalian Member

Sorry, I was a bit vague.

In hospitals, the point of those electric shock pads they use is to first stop a heart completely, so that it can restart beating without trouble. If this person was suffering a heart problem, and you were in a hospital, that would be a possible answer.

Kurto · Daedalian Member

Yeah, that's what I was looking for. The biological explaination for anyone who is wondering: All of your heart cells can beat on their own without any message from the brain or anywhere else. The sinoatrial, SA, node is the natural pacemaker for your heart, it tells all the cells when to beat and at what pace. When the heart goes into fibrillation (all/some of the cells are out the normal synch), the most common "cure" is to just shock the heart and stop all electrical activity. The SA node sends its stimulus faster than all the other cells of the heart, so the normal beating is resumed, hopefully.

Good job both of you!

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Though I'd never use cocaine, I'm curious to know what it smells like.

raines · Icarian Member

I understand why you might do that if he had been lying on the ground, but why ever would you stop his heart if he was merely laying on the ground, as indicated in the original problem?