You are in a room that has three switches and a closed door. The switches control three light bulbs on the other side of the door. Once you open the door, you may never touch the switches again. How can you definitively tell which switch is connected to each of the light bulbs?
In a family supper, a grandfather, a grandmother, two fathers, two mothers, four children, three grandchildren, one brother, two sisters, two sons, two daughters, one daughter-in-law, and one mother-in-law need to sit at a table.
There are only seven chairs available at the place. How many more chairs do they have to borrow so that everyone can sit down together for the suppers if everybody requires a separate chair?
When a clock is observed, the hour hand is at a minute mark and the minutes hand is six minutes ahead of it.
When the clock is observed again after some time, the hour hand is precisely on a different minute mark and the minute hand is seven minutes ahead of it.
Can you calculate how much time has elapsed between the two observations?
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.
