Akbar called Birbal and asked him to draw a line on the floor. He asked Birbal to make that line smaller without erasing it. Birbal smiled and did it before Akbar could blink his eyes.
A worker is to perform work for you for seven straight days. In return for his work, you will pay him 1/7th of a bar of gold per day. The worker requires a daily payment of 1/7th of the bar of gold. What and where are the fewest number of cuts to the bar of gold that will allow you to pay him 1/7th each day?
You walk into a creepy house by yourself. There is no electricity, plumbing, or ventilation. Inside you notice 3 doors with numbers on them. Once you open the doors you will die a particular way. Door No.1 You’ll be eaten by a lion who is hungry. Door No.2 You’ll be stabbed to death. Door No.3 There is an electric chair waiting for you. Which door do you pick?
On my way to St. Ives I saw a man with 7 wives. Each wife had 7 sacks. Each sack had 7 cats. Each cat had 7 kittens. Kittens, cats, sacks, wives. How many were going to St. Ives?
In 2011, people playing Foldit, an online puzzle game about protein folding, resolved the structure of an enzyme that causes an Aids-like disease in monkeys. Researchers had been working on the problem for 13 years. The gamers solved it in three weeks.
