A man has a barrel filled with oil that weighs 100 pounds, and then he puts something into it. Now the barrel weighs less than 100 pounds. What did he put in the barrel?
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. How do you measure 45 minutes?
On my way to St. Ives I saw a man with 7 wives. Each wife had 7 sacks. Each sack had 7 cats. Each cat had 7 kittens. Kittens, cats, sacks, wives. How many were going to St. Ives?
An apple seller is hosting a competition. He offers 1000 apples and 10 boxes to the people who pass by. The challenge is to put those 1000 apples in the 10 boxes in such a manner that if he asks for any amount of apples, the person can directly give him the boxes or a combination of boxes. If the person can do it, he promises to give a thousand apples for free.
If you happen to pass by the apple seller, will you be able to win a thousand apples?
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.
