There was once a college that offered a class on probability applied to the real world. The class was relatively easy, but there was a catch. There were no homework assignments or tests, but there was a final exam that would have only one question on it. When everyone received the test paper it was a blank sheet of paper with a solitary question on it: 'What is the risk?'.Most students were able to pass, but only one student received 100% for the class! Even stranger was that he only wrote down one word!
What did he write?
A rain drop fell from one leaf to another leaf and lost 1/4th of its volume. It then fell to another leaf and lost 1/5th of the volume. It again fell on another leaf and lost 1/5th of the volume.
This process kept repeating till it fell on the last leaf losing 1/75th of its volume.
Can you calculate the total percentage of loss from the initial volume when the drop has fallen to the last leaf accurate up to two decimal places?
The day before the 1996 U.S. presidential election, the NYT Crossword contained the clue “Lead story in tomorrow’s newspaper,” the puzzle was built so that both electoral outcomes were correct answers, requiring 7 other clues to have dual responses.