Two guards were on duty outside a barracks. One faced up the road to watch for anyone approaching from the North. The other looked down the road to see if anyone approached from the South. Suddenly one of them said to the other, "Why are you smiling?"
A bag contains 64 balls of eight different colours. There are eight of each colour (including red). What is the least number you would have to pick, without looking, to be sure of selecting 3 red balls?
A landlord calls both of his sons and tells them that their horses will now decide who will transfer the inheritance. He tells them to race along the land till the end and the one whose horse will be slower will win and be the heir to all the property.
Both of them keep wandering for days but to no result. Then they ask a wise man regarding it. The man advises them on the matter after which they jump on the horses and race as fast as they can till the end. Why did they 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.
