A swan sits at the center of a perfectly circular lake. At an edge of the lake stands a ravenous monster waiting to devour the swan. The monster can not enter the water, but it will run around the circumference of the lake to try to catch the swan as soon as it reaches the shore. The monster moves at 4 times the speed of the swan, and it will always move in the direction along the shore that brings it closer to the swan the quickest. Both the swan and the the monster can change directions in an instant.
The swan knows that if it can reach the lake's shore without the monster right on top of it, it can instantly escape into the surrounding forest.
A father told his three sons he would die soon and he needed to decide which one of them to give his property to. He said, “Go to the market and buy something large enough to fill my bedroom, but small enough to fit in your pocket. From this, I will decide which of you is the wisest and worthy enough to inherit my land.†They all went to the market, and each came back with a different item. The father told his sons to come into his bedroom one at a time and try to fill up his bedroom with their items. The first son came in and put some pieces of cloth he bought and laid them across the room, but it barely covered the floor. The second son came in and laid some hay on the floor, but there was only enough to cover half the floor. The third son came in and showed his father what he bought. He wound up getting the property. What did the third son show his father?
A man is shown a portrait painting. He looks closely, then tells, “Brothers and sisters have I none, but that man’s father is my father’s son!†Who is the man in the portrait?
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.
