Concept 4 of 6
Substitution Chain: If X is called Y…
Today's big idea
Answer the question normally, then swap your answer using the rename rules.
Only the final answer gets renamed, so do the real thinking first.
How it works
👀 What's going on?
Imagine a game where your family swaps the names of things. Milk is called juice, and juice is called water. Someone asks what you pour on cereal, and you have to answer in the new names.
💡 Here's the trick
The chain above renames red as blue and blue as green. Asked for the colour of the sky, your brain says blue first, and that is correct in real life. The puzzle then wants the renamed version, which is green.
🪄 How to do it
- 1.Ignore the chain above and answer the question with the real, true answer.
- 2.Hunt through the rules for one that starts with your real answer.
- 3.Swap in the new name from that rule, and that is your final answer.
✍️ Try it
Three rules: a spoon is called a fork, a fork is called a knife, and a knife is called a plate. What do you cut bread with? Now the harder one: with the same rules, what do you eat soup with?
You really cut bread with a knife, and the rules call a knife a plate, so the answer is plate. For soup you really use a spoon, and a spoon is called a fork, so the answer is fork.
⚠️ Watch out
You might be thinking that fork gets renamed too, so soup needs a knife. Stop after one swap. Fork is your answer, and it does not get renamed a second time. You only rename the answer you found, never the new name you just wrote. One swap, every time.
🌟 Why this matters
Holding a real answer and a pretend name at the same time is the skill behind every made-up game rule you follow. Board games, playground games and code words with a friend all ask you to keep both versions in your head.
Exam tip: Write the true answer in the margin first, then swap it, and the trap option stops working.
Watch me solve one
Quanta solves it
“Watch how I think through one of these — then you try.”
THE PROBLEM
“If red is called blue, blue is called green, and green is called red — what colour is the sky?”
- 1
Answer normally first
The sky is blue. Ignore the rules for this step.
- 2
Check the rules for 'blue'
Rule says blue is called green. So swap.
- 3
Apply the swap
blue → green
- 4
Answer ✓
Sky = green
Now you try one — same steps, different story 👇
See it in action
⚡ Time to play!
First answer the question for real, then swap your answer using the rules.
SUBSTITUTION · ROUND 1 OF 3
Which fruit is red and crunchy?
Step 1 — really, what is the answer?
Quick check
✅ VERIFICATION
If a cow is called a lion, a lion is called a tiger, and a tiger is called a cow, which animal gives us milk?
⚡ Finish the activity above first to answer.
Keep going!
Up next: Letter Arrangement
Fruit / animal / colour narrows to just one real answer.