Friday, 28 November 2008,
Okay, I'm back again just because I feel like posting something on this blog... Ingenious, eh? Heh, thank you, thank you. :D
Anyway, these few days I've still been mucking around and doing nothing and more nothing. Except choir practice, of course. Oh yeah, we're performing at the Esplanade Concourse on 9th December, 7-9 pm. So you must come and support us, okay? Me and Wenxin. Hehe. (HA WENXIN I TOLD YOU I WOULD SAY THAT, YOU STILL DON'T BELIEVE)
Here's something totally random to keep you entertained, in case you happen to be browsing though this utterly pointless blog. Wait, that was nonsense because if you weren't browsing, you wouldn't be reading this. So forget that. Ehehe. In case you were wondering, however, they're just a few harmless brainteasers. Spill your brains out, er, I mean rack your brains. Whatever.
The Man in the ElevatorA man lives on the tenth floor of a building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. In the evening, he gets into the elevator, and, if there is someone else in the elevator - or if it was raining that day - he goes back to his floor directly. Otherwise, he goes to the seventh floor and walks up three flights of stairs to his apartment. How come?
Sheikh's HeritageAn Arab sheikh tells his two sons to race their camels to a distant city to see who will inherit his fortune. The one whose camel is slower will win. The brothers, after wandering aimlessly for days, ask a wise man for advice. After hearing the advice they jump on the camels and race as fast as they can to the city.
What does the wise man say?
Philosopher's ClockThis is an old logic puzzle. One philosopher had a clock, which he had forgotten to wind up. He had no other clock, watch, radio, TV, phone or any other device telling the time. So when his clock stopped he went to a friend (road from one house to another is flat plane only), stayed there the whole night and when he came home, he knew the right time.
How could he know?
MagnetThis is a logic puzzle published in Martin Gardner's column in the Scientific American.
You are in a room where there are no metal objects except for two iron rods. Only one of them is a magnet.
How can you identify this magnet?
And if you're still here, I admire your perseverance. Answers here~! Don't cheat, okay?
The Man in the Elevator - solutionThe man is a of short stature. He can't reach the upper elevator buttons, but he can ask people to push them for him. He can also push them with his umbrella.
Sheikh’s Heritage - solutionThe wise man told them to switch camels.
Note: This one's a bit hard to understand, so here's a more precise explanation. If the brothers switch camels, they should go as fast as they can because if one of them is the fastest, his camel still belongs to the other one so he wins because his brother's camel is faster and therefore his is slower.
The Philosopher's Clock - solutionHe set his clock to noon (midnight) when he left for his friend's house. When he arrived at his friend's house, he noted the exact time. He then spent the night there.
He left his friend's house exactly 12 hours later than he arrived, and he traveled at the exact same speed in both directions. This way, when he arrived home, his clock read 12:00 plus TWICE the time it took to walk to (or from) his friend's house. This way, he knew exactly how long it took him to walk one way.
He simply added this time to the current time on his friend's clock, and he had the correct time on his clock.
Magnet - solutionYou can hang the iron rods on a string and watch which one turns to the north (or hang just one rod).
Gardner gives one more solution: take one rod and touch with its end the middle of the second rod. If they get closer, then you have a magnet in your hand.
The real magnet will have a magnetic field at its poles, but not at its center. So as previously mentioned, if you take the iron bar and touch its tip to the magnet's center, the iron bar will not be attracted. This is assuming that the magnet's poles are at its ends. If the poles run through the length of the magnet, then it would be much harder to use this method.
In that case, rotate one rod around its axis while holding an end of the other to its middle. If the rotating rod is the magnet, the force will fluctuate as the rod rotates. If the rotating rod is not magnetic, the force is constant (provided you can keep their positions steady).
Brainteasers amuse me, but they make my brain hurt. Ouch. That'll be all until I find some more postworthy nonsense. Yes, I know 'postworthy' is not a word. It's those brainteasers, I tell you!
18:20