There are 20 people in an empty, square room. Each person has full sight of the entire room and everyone in it without turning his head or body, or moving in any way (other than the eyes). Where can you place an apple so that all but one person can see it?
You are a prisoner sentenced to death. The Emperor offers you a chance to live by playing a simple game. He gives you 50 black marbles, 50 white marbles, and 2 empty bowls. He then says, 'Divide these 100 marbles into these 2 bowls. You can divide them any way you like as long as you use all the marbles. Then I will blindfold you and mix the bowls around. You then can choose one bowl and remove ONE marble. If the marble is WHITE you will live, but if the marble is BLACK... you will die.'
How do you divide the marbles up so that you have the greatest probability of choosing a WHITE marble?
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?
You along with your friend are standing in front of two houses. Each of those houses inhabits a family with two children.
Your friend tells you the below two facts:
1) On your left is a family that has a boy who likes accounts but the other child loves science.
2) On the right is a family with a seven-year-old boy and a newborn baby.
You ask him, "Does either of the family have a girl?"
To this, he replies, "I am not quite sure. But can you guess that? If you are right, I will give you $500."
Which family do you think is likely to have a girl?
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.
