Three men in a cafe order a meal the total cost of which is $15. They each contribute $5. The waiter takes the money to the chef who recognises the three as friends and asks the waiter to return $5 to the men.
The waiter is not only poor at mathematics but dishonest and instead of going to the trouble of splitting the $5 between the three he simply gives them $1 each and pockets the remaining $2 for himself.
Now, each of the men effectively paid $4, the total paid is therefore $12. Add the $2 in the waiters pocket and this comes to $14. Where has the other $1 gone from the original $15?
There are two dice with empty faces in front of you and a marker. You can mark any number on each of the faces of the two dice, but you have to display all 31 days of the month using the two of them.
Which numbers will you mark on which dice so that you can easily depict all the dates of the month?
The owner of a popular clothing store comes up with his own method of pricing items. A vest costs $8, socks cost $10, a tie costs $6, and a blouse costs $12. Using the owner’s method, how much would a pair of underwear cost?
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.
