A man lives on the fifteenth floor of an apartment building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. In the evening, he gets into the elevator, and, if there is someone else in the elevator, or if it was raining that day, he goes back to his floor directly. Otherwise, he goes to the tenth floor and walks up five flights of stairs to his apartment. Can you explain why he does this?
There are hundred red gems and hundred blue gems. The blue gems are priceless while the red gems equal wastage. You have two sacks one labeled Heads and the other Tails. You have to distribute the gems as you want in the two sacks. Then a coin will be flipped and you will be asked to pick up a gem randomly from the corresponding sacks.
How will you distribute the gems between the sacks so that the odds of picking a Blue gem are maximum?
The king of Octopuses has servants who have six, seven or eight legs. The distinguishing characteristics of the servants is that the one with seven legs always lie but the one with either six or eight legs speak the truth always.
One day, four servants meet and converse:
The black one says, 'We have 28 legs altogether.'
The green one says, 'We have 27 legs altogether.'
The yellow one says, 'We have 26 legs altogether.'
The red one says, 'We have 25 legs altogether.'
Can you identify the colour of the servant who is speaking the truth?
An infinite number of mathematicians are standing behind a bar. The first asks the barman for half a pint of beer, the second for a quarter pint, the third an eighth, and so on. How many pints of beer will the barman need to fulfill all mathematicians' wishes?
What does man love more than life, and hate more than death or mortal strife; that which satisfied men want; the poor have, and the rich require; the miser spends, the spendthrift saves, and all men carry to their graves?
You walk into a creepy house by yourself. There is no electricity, plumbing, or ventilation. Inside you notice 3 doors with numbers on them. Once you open the doors you will die a particular way. Door No.1 You’ll be eaten by a lion who is hungry. Door No.2 You’ll be stabbed to death. Door No.3 There is an electric chair waiting for you. Which door do you pick?
Suppose you are sitting in an interview and the interviewee asks you an aptitude question.
You have three buckets with a capacity of 4 litres, 8 litres and 10 litres and you have a large tank of water. Now you have to measure 3 litres of water precisely using those buckets. How will you do it?
The day before the 1996 U.S. presidential election, the NYT Crossword contained the clue “Lead story in tomorrow’s newspaper,” the puzzle was built so that both electoral outcomes were correct answers, requiring 7 other clues to have dual responses.