Answers to previous questions.
Two fathers and two sons went fishing. Each caught exactly one fish and yet there were only three fish caught. Why?
Each caught a fish and yet only three fish were caught. Hence, there were only three people. How could that be? It must be that one of the three people fulfils a dual role of being both a father and a son. Therefore, it must have been a grandfather, a father and his son who went fishing.
Brown, Jones and Smith are a doctor, a lawyer, and a teacher. The teacher, who is an only child, earns the least money. Smith, who married Brown's sister, earns more than the lawyer. What is each man's job?
Smith earns more than the lawyer and more than the teacher (who earns the least).
Thefore, Smith must be the doctor. Brown has a sister but the teacher has none, so Brown must be the lawyer. That means Jones must be the teacher.
People in family.- 9
Basketball.
The first player only shakes hands with 8 other players, the second player only shakes hands with 7 other players ( he already shook hands with the first player!), the third player only shakes hands with 6 players ( he already shook hands with the first player and second player ), and so on, until the last player who only has one possibility left. Therefore: 8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1=36
Find a simple method of solving:
6751X + 3249Y = 26751
3249X + 6751Y = 23249
One answer
Add the equation to give: 10000X + 10000Y = 50000
Divide by 10000 to give: X + Y = 5
Subtract to give: 3502X - 3502Y = 3502
Divide by 3502 to give: X - Y = 1
Therefore: X = 3 and Y = 2
How many students got an "A"?
First find the common denominator for the numbers 3, 4, 6, and 8. The only common denominator less than 30 is 24. Therefore, the students with a "B" = 8, "B-" = 6, "C" =4, failed = 3. This represents 21 of the students; so the 3 remaining students received an "A".
Professor Mumble. ¼
Who is the Hapkido Instructor? - Xerxes
What are the two numbers?
20/4
How many gallons of gas did I buy that day?
13.7 gallons at 46 cents = $6.30 ( to the nearest 1/2 cent.) Therefore, my change from the $20.00 was $6.30 as I had been charged $13.70.
B O G
. 8 4 3
x 8 4 3
2 5 2 9
3 3 7 2
6 7 4 4
7 1 0 6 4 9
Last, but not least.
a) Could you theoretically describe your world well enough for you to survive on their world?
b) Well enough, that you could not tell the difference?
Possible answer.
Since the aliens understand the same physics, mathematics, and chemistry as we do, we can use these to create a basic model of our world and build up from there. We can define our basic units of measurement- meter, second, kilogram, etc., using the fundamental properties of nature. For example, the second is based on the radioactive properties of the chemical cesium-133. In addition, the meter is defined by the speed of light and the second.
"Qualitative" properties such as color, smell, etc., also derive from chemical properties. We could describe a certain shade of red purely in terms of its wavelength, or by its chemical properties. Smell again is purely a factor of the differing proportions of many different molecules in the air.
I could describe the can of coke on my desk in nearly enough detail that they could reproduce it flawlessly: create a cylindrical shell of such-and-such aluminium compound of .1mm thickness. Fill it with 99.1% water, .2% sugar, etc. (again taking time to define what aluminium, water, and sugar are by their chemical components). Coat the aluminium shell with the following dyes, at these coordinates... In this manner, we could even get them to paint on the "Coca-Cola" logo and other designs.
Now you may nod and say, yes, it seems that you can describe any such object with this precision. Therefore, the alien could create a world virtually indistinguishable for ours.
But not so. There is a fundamental property that we take for granted that is not so simple to communicate to the alien. That is the property we know of left vs. right. To illustrate, look into a mirror. Imagine a world that looked exactly like the one in the mirror. How could make sure the alien was building your world, not the looking-glass world?
To describe your world you must have defined a coordinate system, one with x,y, and z axis, all perpendicular to each other. However, even if the alien followed your instructions perfectly, he could still do so and end up with a different orientation, so that everything he did was reversed.
Some curious properties would emerge in the world he created, but only relative to yours. The Coke can's writing would be reversed, but the alien would not know. You might have said "make sure the 'o' is to the right of the 'C'". Moreover, the alien dutifully checked this, but if he used the reversed coordinate system, his left would be synonymous with your right.
Not only that, but even the molecules would have reversed symmetry. While water would behave the same, your body would be unable to digest the sugar with "left-handedness"-- all your cells are designed to break down right-handed sugar.
Is there no property of nature that would let you discriminate left and right before you arrived in the alien's world?
In fact, some subatomic properties have an inherent left/right orientation. One example is Beta decay. Richard Feynman describes how to define left/right using this phenomenon:
"Listen, build yourself a magnet, and put the coils in, and put the current on, and then take some cobalt and lower the temperature. Arrange the experiment so the electrons go from the foot to the head, then the direction in which the current goes through the coils is the direction that goes in what we call the right and comes out on the left."
"So, great you think," that saves me from going to a world where I will starve to death, and will not be able to read without a mirror. Kind of weird that it all hinges on such a non-obvious property."
But there's more. All the natural laws that exhibit this favouritism towards a particular left/right orientation are reversed for the case of their antiparticle. If you are not familiar with antimatter, antimatter is like "looking-glass matter". An anti-electron (more commonly called a "positron") has the same mass and physical properties as a regular electron, but with a positive charge. And an anti-proton is just like a regular proton but with a negative charge. Therefore, a positron will orbit a nucleus with an anti-neutron and an anti-proton just like an electron would orbit a regular nucleus. In this way, if the alien lived in an antimatter Universe, he would have built the mirror image of your world and would not have noticed the reversal of left/right symmetry, because antimatter reverses all the natural laws, which exhibit that property.
Now if he did, you have a bigger problem to worry about than not being able to drink the soda. Anti-matter and matter are not compatible at a more fundamental level. When they meet, they cancel each other out and convert their total mass into energy via a process aptly termed "annihilation". A anti-Coke can weighing a little more than 12 ounces would react with 12 ounces of normal matter to produce explosion equivalent to thermonuclear bomb.
As Feynman puts it:
"... What would happen when, after much conversation back and forth, we each have taught the other to make space ships and we meet halfway in empty space? We have instructed each other on our traditions, and so forth, and the two of us come rushing out to shake hands. Well, if he puts out his left hand, watch out!"
Four riddles, you have two words on either side of a set of dashes. Each dash represents a letter of the word, & the word on the left is a synonym of the word. The word on the right is a synonym of the word if one of the word's letters are removed. Determine what the two words are for each puzzle
EXAMPLE: break ---- sleep
The answers would be SNAP & NAP.
Q1. frustrate ---- lubricate
Q2. call ----- sharpen
Q3. twist ---- vase
Q4. fragment ----- firm
