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One day, while in a twenty-story building, Mary was holding her 2 month old baby. As Mary was playing with the baby, she accidentally dropped it out the window. The baby, though, survived. How?

(The baby was wearing normal clothes, not anything special to protect it from this sort of thing.)

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    $\begingroup$ Lol possibly too broad? Maybe edit it? $\endgroup$
    – NL628
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 3:12
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    $\begingroup$ I just added the lateral thinking tag. I want to see what types of answers people will come up with. $\endgroup$
    – SteamCode
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 3:13
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    $\begingroup$ @kraby15 We specifically do not want puzzles open ended enough that the idea of "I want to see what types of answers people will come up with" enters into it. We even have a close reason for: "This question may invite speculative answers, as the question is not fully defined. The validity of some answers may be based upon opinion. Good questions for this site have a limited number of objectively correct answers. See also: Why are questions off-topic if they invite answers which are not demonstrably correct, or are otherwise speculative?" $\endgroup$
    – Rubio ♦
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 6:20
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    $\begingroup$ Note to answerers: If you see a question that is sufficiently undefined that, even though you can pretty quickly guess what the intended answer is, you can readily come up with other, equally Not Wrong solutions to the puzzle as written, please restrain your urge to indulge in posting "clever", "funny" or "unique" solutions. IF you do that, it should be specifically to demonstrate how the puzzle is too broad, and you should remove the obviously not intended "solutions" afterward - your aim was to instruct, not to leave permanent commentary on the puzzle (nor to gain rep from doing so). $\endgroup$
    – Rubio ♦
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 6:27
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    $\begingroup$ Note to the community: "brain teasers" riddles are almost never a good fit for our objective of creating a collection of high quality puzzles and Q&A about puzzles. They almost invariably suffer from being too broad, as well as being so well known to so many people that they're not interesting - answering them is not so much "solving" them as it is seeing who can type the answer first. Ideally, people wouldn't post them; if they did, people wouldn't answer them; and if such questions and answers did appear, the community would vote to keep them off the site, with downvotes, VTCs, and VTDs. $\endgroup$
    – Rubio ♦
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 6:34

13 Answers 13

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Perhaps:

Mary was on the ground floor of the 20-story building.

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    $\begingroup$ You were first. $\endgroup$
    – SteamCode
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 2:57
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    $\begingroup$ By 15 whole seconds, yep! :D $\endgroup$
    – puzzledPig
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 2:58
  • $\begingroup$ Will you accept puzzledPig's answer? It's kind of scary realizing that my answer is first even though I know for a fact it's wrong... $\endgroup$
    – NL628
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 3:04
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The baby was a

Baby cat and cat's always land on their feet :P

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  • $\begingroup$ Creative answer, but not the one i was looking for. lol $\endgroup$
    – SteamCode
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 2:57
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    $\begingroup$ I know lol I was just posting something different XD $\endgroup$
    – NL628
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 2:57
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    $\begingroup$ The only problem is that a two-month old kitten would most likely not survive a fall like that. $\endgroup$
    – SteamCode
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 3:00
  • $\begingroup$ Lol true :P letsee...robotic kitten? $\endgroup$
    – NL628
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 3:01
  • $\begingroup$ Actually cats start at a very young age, and may have perfected it by 2 months old. Cats will always land on their feet, assuming they're dropped from at least a few feet off the ground. $\endgroup$
    – Tas
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 5:54
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What about

The baby is a doll, Mary is a little kid (or just a little different)

Why:

You used the word It every time you refer to it (multiple times), not he/him/her/she/

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  • $\begingroup$ interesting theory... $\endgroup$
    – SteamCode
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 3:06
  • $\begingroup$ (The baby was wearing normal clothes, not anything special to protect it from this sort of thing.)...when you take this too literally and you assume the baby does not have skin but rather plastic... LOL $\endgroup$
    – NL628
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 3:08
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What about

There is a balcony just below the window, perhaps even with a padded chair...

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The building is twenty stories but Mary lives on the first floor

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  • $\begingroup$ @puzzledPig posted the same answer before you :P $\endgroup$
    – NL628
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 2:56
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    $\begingroup$ @NL628 I see that now. Some of these riddles have 10 people get the answer instantly and it's a battle of typing it the fastest. $\endgroup$
    – Riley
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 2:58
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    $\begingroup$ Yep :P check this one out: puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/64049/so-many-anagrams $\endgroup$
    – NL628
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 2:58
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Even in tall buildings, not all windows are necessarily external windows (think glazing between a kitchen and breakfast room) ... and even among external windows, not all of them overlook a sheer drop... (think living room to balcony).

Update also not all windows are glazed house windows are they? (think of a child's playhouse / "wendy-house" with fabric walls and a lightweight frame, to play in, and the parent holding the child out of its "window" to make him/her giggle)

After all, you only said "the" window but never said what kind of window or where it overlooked......

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Oh, this one's obvious.

A tornado happened to be drifting by at the time, but it wasn't strong enough to carry the baby away, just strong enough to slow and soften the baby's landing. Obviously.

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  • $\begingroup$ That''s some next level lateral thinking here. $\endgroup$
    – The random guy
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 8:21
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Maybe

Mary was holding a baby butterfly. Butterflies learn how to fly pretty quickly, and thus, the butterfly would survive.

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  • $\begingroup$ hmm... interesting. $\endgroup$
    – SteamCode
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 3:10
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    $\begingroup$ Not an entomologist, but... can butterflies even be babies? I was under the impression that butterfly was the "adult" stage. $\endgroup$
    – Alex Jones
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 5:29
  • $\begingroup$ How a butterfly were wearing normal clothes? $\endgroup$
    – Hola Soy Edu Feliz Navidad
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 8:25
  • $\begingroup$ @HolaSoyEduFelizNavidad Well, normal for a butterfly. $\endgroup$
    – Acccumulation
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 22:22
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You think that their head would be split!

Good luck was with them that morning - they fell in a barrel of shaving cream

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Because she was holding the baby standing on the ground floor.

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  • $\begingroup$ Hello and welcome to PSE. Please hide your answers in spoilers. $\endgroup$
    – rhsquared
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 7:34
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The baby fall inwards and not outwards of the window.

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    $\begingroup$ Welcome to PSE. Please hide your answers in spoilers. $\endgroup$
    – rhsquared
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 7:36
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There was a window cleaner at the 19th storey, who caught the baby.

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Since this is lateral thinking...

The world they are in is made of jelly. So the roads are made of jelly and the baby just bounced off with no injuries...

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