Brain Blow Level 51

Overview

The monitor on the desk displays a yellow screen covered with chocolate ice cream cones, and a few more cones sit out on the desk itself. The prompt asks how many ice cream cones you can see, with minus and plus counters at the bottom and a Clear button beside an Ok button. A TV remote on the left is only a distractor. The hidden part of the puzzle is that one cone is tucked behind the brown TV stand, so a first glance undercounts; you need to check around and behind objects before entering the total.

• Difficulty: Easy
• Estimated moves: 3

Step-by-Step Solution

1. Read the prompt asking how many ice cream cones you see, and start counting the cones on the monitor first. The yellow screen holds two rows of cones, three in the top row and three in the bottom row, which gives six cones on the display.

1. Move your attention below the screen to the desk surface. Count the cones standing on the desk in front of the remote and the TV stand; these are fully visible and easy to miss if you focus only on the monitor.

1. Check the area behind and beside the brown TV stand rather than stopping at the front row. One additional cone is partly hidden behind the stand, peeking out at its right edge, and it only counts once you have looked around that side.

1. Add the monitor cones and the desk cones together: six on the screen plus four on or beside the desk comes to ten cones in total.

1. Use the plus button under the counter to raise the number from zero up to 10, tapping it repeatedly until the counter matches your total. If you pass the number, use the minus button to step back down instead of restarting.

1. Tap the green Ok button to submit the answer. The level confirms the count once 10 has been entered, and the completion screen appears.

Strategy & Reasoning

Counting puzzles in this series usually place a few objects where they do not sit in a neat line, and the obvious ones on the monitor are only part of the answer. The remote control beside them carries no cone and should not be counted, while the cone behind the stand is deliberately placed where a quick scan of the front surface misses it. Working in two zones, screen first and desk second, prevents you from mixing the two groups or double-counting a cone that appears in both areas.

The counter controls at the bottom confirm that the expected result is a single number entered by tapping plus or minus, not a tap on each cone itself. That means the real work is locating every cone, including the partially hidden one, before you touch the controls. Submitting early from the six or nine clearly visible cones will be rejected, so finishing the visual search before pressing Ok avoids a wrong entry and a reset.

Tips & Common Mistakes

• Do not count the TV remote as an ice cream cone; it is a separate object placed beside the cones to distract your eye.
• Check behind the brown TV stand before giving a total, because the extra cone there is partly blocked and a front-only scan leaves it out.
• Enter the full total with the plus and minus buttons and tap Ok only after the counter matches your count; tapping Ok on a low guess will not advance the level.