Fun Brain Games to Kill Time When You're Bored

[SpitfireAce]

Does anyone know of any good number games or thinking games (i.e. tic-tac-toe) to kill time when you're bored? Something that doesn't even require a pen and paper if possible...

 

[Poop-Loops]

Take a nap.

 

[lisab]

I do math problems in my head. Add fractions with different denominators, find prime factors, that sort of thing.

 

[Poop-Loops]

I only resort to that if I am both bored and in discomfort or pain, such as when I am at the dentist's office, or having the stomach flu. It definitely let's you meditate through the moment, but I try not to do too much of it, or else I want to vomit. =/

 

[lisab]

Vomit? No way. It's very relaxing. It's how I fall asleep at night, too.

 

[Poop-Loops]

I don't know, but it feels like when I have "too much of one thing" I want to vomit. This can come from counting dots on the ceiling when I'm in waiting at the DMV or something, adding numbers because I'm bored, stuff like that. It just seems like my brain is being overflowed with the stuff and it can't take it.

I should probably note, though, that I've vomited a few times as a kid from having too much of one thing. Like 8 or so apples in a day. Like half a watermelon. Stuff like that. Not fun.

 

[Noone]

Yes i call it metal line math...
First look at an object, then look at your foot.
then with your imagination take the image of your foot and place it to the first object, then take your foot and flip it over and over again till you fliped it enuf time's to surpase the lenght. The point of this is to use your body to messure somthing without any tools.
say you ware a size 12 shoe, aka 1ft, if you fliped it 3time's the object is 3feet long.
I use a mental ruler that has more line's on the line, so i can messure an object by sight and create a gauge of how long it can and can't be. It took me a lot of hours on bored day's, but its a worth while skill to have.
Im working on metal hat. Which is a mental tool for finding the size of an object far away by creating the depth froma gaint size ruler in the back round, then the gaint ruler falls down to me while it stays at its first location making a triangle ... still haven't made a perfect gauge of what the size could or couldn't be, yet :)...the ruler change's size when i drop it.. takes metal training to prevent it form doing...havent spent the time to perfect.

So give it a try, its a great time passer, and you don't need a paper or a pen, just somthing to look at.

 

[SpitfireAce]

that first idea is so ingenious and practical, thanks a lot =) the second thing sounds tricky... maybe if you had a fixed marker, i.e. you look at a tower in the distance, right above it is the sun, if you move a few paces to the right and look again, you'll see that the tower is now some distance to the left of the sun... I think that the apparent distance the tower seemed to move is proportional to the change in angle (this is probably bs, I didn't do any calculations)... anyway if you have this angle and and distance you moved to the right, that is enough to calculate the distance to the object (this part's true)

 

[BobG]

Does anyone know of any good number games or thinking games (i.e. tic-tac-toe) to kill time when you're bored? Something that doesn't even require a pen and paper if possible...

We had a large family (9 people) when I was younger, so we'd play 'sevens' on long road trips. Each person counts in turn unless the number is a multiple of 7 or ends in 7, in which the case the player has to clap. We could play that for hours. At least until you reach the 7000's.

We played that around the camp fire at our family reunion last fall, as well. I was surprised the husbands, wives, and cousins were so inept at that game.

 

[DaveC426913]

With nothing to do but talk, I usually enjoy the "What happened" type stories.

"Every weekday, a man gets in the elevator on the 20th floor, rides it to the ground floor, exits, and goes to work. At night, he comes home, gets in the elevator, but gets off at the 15th floor and walks up the remaining five floors to his apartment. Why?"

The idea is to have the other person ask yes/no questions to narrow the possibilities:

"Was the elevator in good working order"? Yes.
"Did the man make any stops on his way from the 15th to the 20th floor?" No.
"Did anyone else who used the elevator do this?" No.
"Was the man sane?" Yes.
etc.

 

[lisab]

With nothing to do but talk, I usually enjoy the "What happened" type stories.

"Every weekday, a man gets in the elevator on the 20th floor, rides it to the ground floor, exits, and goes to work. At night, he comes home, gets in the elevator, but gets off at the 15th floor and walks up the remaining five floors to his apartment. Why?"

The idea is to have the other person ask yes/no questions to narrow the possibilities:

"Was the elevator in good working order"? Yes.
"Did the man make any stops on his way from the 15th to the 20th floor?" No.
"Did anyone else who used the elevator do this?" No.
"Was the man sane?" Yes.
etc.

Answer below:

Because he was too short to reach the 20th floor button.