My sock drawer has 26 blue socks, 13 pink socks, 33 green socks, and 12 red socks, how many socks would I have to pull out in the dark to be sure I had a matching pair?
You are stuck on an island where you have nothing. You find four pieces of paper somewhere on the island. What will be your strategy to escape from the island safely?
PS: No other resource is available to you on the island, neither can you build anything.
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?
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.