The Riddle Thread….

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  • #1069787
    squeak
    Participant

    1. If you replace the 90 in the sequence with 10^100, then the answer is 96. Otherwise, I have no idea.

    #1069788
    feivel
    Participant

    1) 96

    #1069789
    stamamen
    Member

    blinky got #5 correct.

    ICOT got #’s 2 – 4 correct.

    feivel got #1 correct.

    squeak seems to have coincidentally gotten #1 correct with incorrect reasoning. Perhaps feivel can explain the logic.

    That leaves #6 unresolved. ICOT, really there is no hints or Q&A allowed on these interview questions. But there isn’t only a single correct answer for that. Your “a)”‘s might be plausible, but isn’t the best response that was given for that question. (You’re playing with your life.) And there was no liquid mentioned, so assume none.

    #1069790
    squeak
    Participant

    Joe, please explain why 96 is correct. What is the pattern in the series you gave?

    #1069791
    stamamen
    Member

    Spell it out.

    #1069792
    feivel
    Participant

    you know the pattern squeak.

    and yes the possible flaw is that ninety could be replaced by googol.

    you could answer either: googol is a name of a number but it does not follow the same system of nomenclature as all the other numbers listed in the series

    or

    you could say the series is arbitrarily limited to numbers of two digits or less, which of course should have more fairly been mentioned in the presentation of the problem.

    #1069793
    squeak
    Participant

    Yes? what about when you spell it out? Lots and lots of numbers are spelled with x number of letters. For example, why 10 instead of 1? Both are 3 letters.

    #1069794
    feivel
    Participant

    its the largest number, of that many letters, using that particular nomenclature, however you define it.

    if you dont like the nomenclature caveat then youre right.

    you would have to change ninety to googol, and the next number in the series after ninetysix would be googolplex.

    #1069795
    stamamen
    Member

    One googol would be correct (and a cleverer answer, considering who asked the question.) There wasn’t only one correct response.

    #1069796
    feivel
    Participant

    which makes me think:

    actually im not sure if you COULD replace ninety with googol (and my googolplex answer would also be incorrect)

    im not so sure that “googol” is a number.

    one hundred is a number, two hundred is a number, is “hundred” a number? im inclined to say no, but i can see how one could argue yes (based on common understanding that stam hundred is one hundred)

    #1069797
    stamamen
    Member

    ICOT (or anyone else): You want to take another shot at #6, or should I let the cat out of the bag?

    #1069798

    stamamen-

    Okey-dokey, you want more answers.

    Here you go:

    b) The balloon will move forward, stay in the same place, or move backward relative to the car. Since gas (i.e. regular air in this case) is compressible, it will undergo slight compression toward the read of the car due to inertial drag. Therefore:

    B1) Under normal acceleration, the compression is negligible, so the balloon will move forward as initially explained.

    B3) Under extreme acceleration, the air in the car will be compressed backward and the balloons inertia will combine to such a great extent that the balloon will actually move backward.

    6) a) You saw the table in half. You then put the two halves together, making a whole. You exit the blender thru the whole.

    #1069799
    stamamen
    Member

    You got these, but here is a longer winded explanation:

    2. The near-universal intuition is that the balloon leans backward as you accelerate. Well, the intuition is wrong. Your job is to deduce how the balloon does move and to explain it to the interviewer.

    Untie the helium balloon and let it hit the moonroof. It becomes a spirit level. The balloon is a “bubble” of lower-density helium in higher-density air, all sealed in a container (the car).

    Gravity pulls the heavy air downward, forcing the light balloon against the moonroof.

    When the car accelerates, the air is pushed backward, just as your body is. This sends a lighter-than-air balloon forward. When the car brakes suddenly, the air piles up in front of the windshield. This sends the balloon backward. Centrifugal force pushes the air away from the turn and sends the balloon toward the center of the turn. Of course, the same applies when the balloon is tied to something; it’s just less free to move. The short answer to this question is that the balloon nods in the direction of any acceleration.

    4. Every page number has a digit in the units column. With N pages, that’s N digits right there. All but the first 9 pages have a digit in the tens column. That’s N – 9 more digits.

    All but the first 99 pages have a digit in the hundreds column (accounting for N – 99 more digits).

    I could go on, but not many books have more than 999 pages. A book with 1,095 digits in its page numbers won’t, anyway.

    This means that 1,095 must equal:

    N + (N – 9) + (N – 99).

    This can be simplified to:

    1,095 = 3N – 108.

    That means that 3N = 1,203, or N = 401. That’s the answer, 401 pages.

    #1069800
    stamamen
    Member

    Okay, now the biggie, #6:

    So how do you measure a talent for invention? The blender riddle encapsulates the process of inventing a new product. You begin by brainstorming. There are many possible answers, and you shouldn’t be in a hurry to settle for the first idea that seems “good enough.”

    The two most popular serious answers to the blender riddle seem to be (1) lie down, below the blades and (2) stand to the side of the blades. There ought to be at least a nickel’s width of clearance between the whirring blades and the bottom or sides of the blender jar. Another common reply is (3) climb atop the blades and position your center of gravity over the axis. Hold tight.

    None of the above answers scores you many points at Google. Former and current Google interviewers have said that the best answer they’ve heard is: Jump out of the jar.

    Huh?

    The question supplies an important clue: the word “density.” “Being shrunk to the size of a nickel” is not a realistic predicament. For starters, it might mean eliminating 99.99% of the neurons in your brain. To deal with a question like this, you have to decide where to suspend disbelief.

    The fact that the interviewer mentions a detail like density is a nudge. It says that things like mass and volume matter in this question and that a successful answer can use simple physics.

    That is the kernel of a good answer to the question.

    #1069801
    stamamen
    Member

    So you really want that job at Google, huh? Okay, if you get all these Google interview questions correct you’re their next Executive V.P.:

    7. Design an evacuation plan for San Francisco.

    8. What is the most beautiful equation you have ever seen? Explain.

    Okay, okay, those are too open-ended for your nerves? Those we’ll be the extra-credit for you. Here are some more for you to answer:

    9. Imagine a country where every family wants to have a boy. Every family keeps having children until they have a boy; then they stop. What is the proportion of boys to girls in this country? (Hint: Ignore multiple births, infertile couples, and couples who die before having a boy.)

    10. Use a programming language to describe a chicken.

    11. Look at this sequence:

    1

    1 1

    2 1

    1 2 1 1

    1 1 1 2 2 1

    What’s the next line?

    #1069802
    stamamen
    Member

    Did I mention that Google receives a million job applications a year? It’s estimated that only about 1 in 130 applications results in a job. By comparison, about 1 in 14 high-school students applying to Harvard gets accepted.

    #1069803

    noitallmr

    I bet you had no clue that your post would be this popular when you posted your first post -_-

    #1069804
    writersoul
    Participant

    Lateral Thinking Problems (from a website)

    A man is wearing black. Black shoes, socks, trousers, coat, gloves and ski mask. He is walking down a back street with all the street lamps off. A black car is coming towards him with its light off but somehow manages to stop in time. How did the driver see the man?

    A man went to a party and drank some of the punch. He then left early. Everyone else at the party who drank the punch subsequently died of poisoning. Why did the man not die?

    This is an unusual paragraph. I’m curious how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it. It looks so plain you would think nothing was wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is unusual though. Study it, and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out.

    (There’s a book a lot like this paragraph. THAT WAS A MAJOR HINT.)

    #1069805
    blinky
    Participant

    writersoul- the answer to your last riddle is that there is no letter E found in it

    And for the first one im just guessing- he was wearing reflectors

    #1069806
    writersoul
    Participant

    blinky- yes and no

    #1069807
    not2bright
    Member

    writersoul:

    1) It was the middle of the day and you don’t need streetlights when the sun is shining 🙂

    2) He drank the punch and then poisoned it

    -OR-

    The punch contained some gluten and everyone else at the party had intense forms of celiac’s while he did not

    -OR-

    “Everyone else subsequently died of poisoning” not necessarily due to the punch, just later on in life they all happened to die from poisoning, and you seem to assume he did not die at all, in which case he happens to still be alive but eventually he will also die

    Take Your Pick

    #1069808

    writersoul-

    1) Clearly “It was during the day” is too obvious an answer. Therefore, the correct answer is, the man used to work in the Chernobyl power plant, so he now glows in the dark (boy, that was easy).

    2) Same man. The activated charcoal he swallows daily for the radiation absorbed the poison.

    3) The Chernobylian man wrote the paragraph. It’s very unusual – how many paragraphs do you know that are written by glow-in-the-dark men?

    #1069809
    cinderella
    Participant

    writersoul- The poison was in the ice. He drank the punch before the ice had melted.

    #1069810
    writersoul
    Participant

    not2bright and cinderella: correct!

    ICOT gets points for originality 🙂

    What is

    Pharology

    machirology

    melissopalynology

    cytology

    deltiology

    esperatology

    pulicology

    selenology

    gelotology

    hippology

    #1069811
    cheftze
    Member

    A ‘snooker’ table (measuring 8 metres by 4m) with 4 ‘pockets’ (measuring 0.5m and placed at diagonal slants in all 4 corners) contains 10 balls (each with a diameter of 0.25m) placed at the following coords:

    2m,1m…(white ball)

    …and red balls…

    1m,5m… 2m,5m… 3m,5m

    1m,6m… 2m,6m… 3m,6m

    1m,7m… 2m,7m… 3m,7m

    The white ball is then shot at a particular angle from 0 to 360 degrees (0 being north, and going clockwise).

    Just to make it clear, a ball is ‘potted’ if at least half of the ball is in area of the ‘pocket’

    Assuming the balls travel indefinitely (i.e. no loss of energy via friction, air resistance or collisions), answer the following:

    a: What exact angle/s should you choose to ensure that all the balls are potted the quickest?

    b: What is the minimum amount of contacts the balls can make with each other before they are all knocked in?

    c: Same as b, except that each ball – just before it is knocked in – must not have hit the white ball on its previous contact (must be a red instead of course).

    d: What proportion of angles will leave the white ball the last on the table to be potted?

    #1069812
    feivel
    Participant

    machirology: the study of how to look like a very important person.

    melissopalynology: the study of the friends of anyone named melissa.

    deltology: investigating the inner workings of faucets

    gelotology: the compiling of jello recipes

    hippology: the study of why people put on weight after age 40

    #1069813
    blinky
    Participant

    Pharology- The study of Egyptian rulers

    #1069814
    writersoul
    Participant

    Sorry, all wrong (though I like Feivel’s definitions better than the real ones (: )

    However, I’m not so sure these were so fair of me to post, because they’re pretty obscure. Some knowledge of Greek and Greek mythology can help on many of them (along with some trivia knowledge).

    To make up for it, another riddle (this time solvable!)

    From a website:

    INSTRUCTIONS:

    Read the descriptions provided below and try to guess which proverb (old saying) they each represent. Don’t worry if you say the “proverb” in a slightly different way than shown in these answers. Over the years, there are many slightly different ways of expressing an old proverb!

    If a large solid-hoofed mammal becomes available to you without compensation, refrain from casting your faculty for seeing into the oral cavity of such a creature.

    Each vaporous mass suspended in the firmament has an interior decoration of metallic hue.

    It is not advantageous to place the sum total of your barnyard collections into the same wicker receptacle.

    Feathered bipeds of a kindred mind in their segregated environment associate with a high degree of amiability.

    Deviation from the ordinary or common routine of existence is that which gives zest to man’s cycle of existence.

    He who locks himself into the arms of Morpheus promptly at eventide, and starts the day before it is officially announced by the rising sun, excels in physical fitness, increases his economic assets and celebrates with remarkable efficiency.

    Do not traverse a structure erected to afford passage over a waterway until the time of drawing nigh

    A mobile section of petrified matter agglomerates no bryophytes.

    Pulchritude pertains solely to the epidermis.

    #1069815
    squeak
    Participant

    Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

    Every cloud has a silver lining.

    Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

    Birds of a feather flock together.

    Variety is the spice of life.

    Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man miss all the nightlife.

    Don’t cross the bridge until you come to it.

    No use crying over spilled milk.

    A rolling stone gathers no moss.

    Beauty is only skin deep.

    #1069816
    BaalHabooze
    Participant

    RIDDLE ME THIS:

    1) Which is the next letter in this sequence? E N T J Q K ?

    2) Which burns longer?

    a) a birthday candle

    b) a Chanuka candle

    c) a Yartzeit candle

    3) What travels around the world and stays in a corner?

    #1069817
    writersoul
    Participant

    2) a chanukah candle because it burns 8 days?

    3) a stamp

    #1069818
    tzaddiq
    Member

    1) ??

    2) none, they all burn shorter

    3) a stamp

    #1069819
    BaalHabooze
    Participant

    Answers:

    1) “A” : playing cards

    E ight

    N ine

    T en

    J ack

    Q ueen

    K ing

    A ce

    2)correct tzaddiq

    3) correct writesoul and tzaddiq

    L’Chaim, L’Chaim!!

    #1069820
    BaalHabooze
    Participant

    **first one to get these wins a prize**

    name 10 things that are black and white

    name 10 things that are multi-colored

    name 10 things that are enormous in size but meaningless to you.

    name 10 things that are small in size but incredibly important

    #1069822
    Oh My Gosh
    Member

    1) zebra, newspaper, penguin, Cow, Documents, Hubby’s Wardrobe, receipt,Chess Board, Panda Bears, UPC.

    2) tissue box, glue stick, grocery bag, bedroom, vegetables, fruits, tuna can, google home page, box of crackers, ads on YWN.

    3) Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Joe Biden, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Ronald Raegen, Abe Lincoln.

    4) fingers, toes, heart, brain, liver, nose, mouth, eyes, ears,lungs.

    #1069823
    BaalHabooze
    Participant

    oh my Gosh…you win!!! took a while, but you did it!

    check’s in the mail with your prize of $100,000. congradulations!

    #1069824

    do another contest(And higher the prize to 1,000,000)!

    #1069825

    stame amen the next numbers equal 13

    #1069826
    Luna Lovegood
    Participant

    What comes first the phoenix or the flame? 🙂

    #1069827
    writersoul
    Participant

    A circle has no beginning.

    #1069828
    tzaddiq
    Member

    more than 1 answer:

    1. what’s round on the ends and high in the middle?

    2. what’s black when clean, and white when dirty?

    3. what’s blue and not heavy?

    #1069829
    SaysMe
    Member

    1.a jelly donut? a mountain?

    2.chalkboard!!

    3.the sky?

    #1069830
    tzaddiq
    Member

    Answers:

    1) Ohio (O-HI-O)

    2) chalkboard – correct, Saysme!

    3) light blue

    #1069831

    where has ICOT gone?

    #1069832

    chocandpatience-

    I’m right here ?

    Thank you for asking.

    #1069833

    Hair, Thair, Everywhair

    3) All bearded U.S. presidents had this trait in common.

    4) How Caesar (supposedly) hid his baldness.

    5) A near miss with disaster is sometimes called this.

    6) An audacious, dangerous and risky act is sometimes metaphorically referred to as this.

    7) A famous Sherlock Holmes short story references this fictional group.

    8) This garment is worn by religious fanatics to make them physically uncomfortable.

    10) This is what camel-hair brushes are really made of (usually).

    11) Edward Teach was better known and feared by this nickname.

    12) Recommended cure for a hangover.

    15) By law, food service workers must wear these.

    16) This soldier’s safety device may not fit bearded men properly.

    #1069834
    writersoul
    Participant

    What is wrong with this statement?

    #1069835
    SaysMe
    Member

    writersoul- it isn’t one! 🙂 i liked it tho

    #1069836
    writersoul
    Participant

    1) Amish

    4) Laurel wreath

    5) Close shave

    7) Red-headed League (I love that story!)

    8) Hair shirt

    9) Turtle was dropped on his head

    11) Blackbeard

    15) Hairnet

    16) Gas mask

    #1069837
    OneOfMany
    Participant

    14) the rhino

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