There is a jar in which there are two types of candies.
20 blueberries and 16 strawberries. You perform the following steps:
1) You take out two candies.
2) If the two candies are of the same flavour, you add a blueberry one otherwise, you add the strawberry one.
You repeat these two steps till there is just one candy remaining in the jar. Which flavoured candy will be left?
If you had an infinite supply of water and 5-quart and 3-quart pails, how would you measure exactly 4 quarts? What is the least number of steps you need?
In front of you, there are 9 coins. They all look absolutely identical, but one of the coins is fake. However, you know that the fake coin is lighter than the rest, and in front of you is a balance scale. What is the least number of weightings you can use to find the counterfeit coin?
Three people are in a room. Ronni looks at the Nile. The Nile looks at Senthil. Ronni is married but Senthil is not married. At any point, is a married person looking at an unmarried person? Yes, No or Cannot be determined.
You have a square. What you have to do is cut and reassemble the square such that you create a Red Cross sign that has the same volume as that of the square.
Suppose we lay down two cups in front of you. One of the cups is filled with tea and the other one with coffee. Now we ask you to take a spoonful of tea and mix it with the coffee. At this moment, the coffee cup has a mixture of tea and coffee. You have to take that mixture (spoonful) and add it back to the tea.
Can you now tell if the cup of coffee has more tea or the cup of tea has more coffee?
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.
