You have two strings whose only known property is that when you light one end of either string it takes exactly one hour to burn. The rate at which the strings will burn is completely random and each string is different.
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.
Assume the given figure to be a delicious doughnut. Yes, now you can concentrate more on the puzzle. So you have this delicious doughnut in your refrigerator when your friends come knocking at the door. There are eight of them. Now you have to make three cuts in this doughnut so that each one of you nine people can enjoy a piece of it. Neither you nor your friends would mind the size of their piece as long as they are getting it. How will you do it?
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.