So, you have a two equal sized buckets. One contains water and the other contains the same amount of wine. You transfer a cup of wine to the water bucket and mix it in. Next you transfer a cup of the mixture back to the wine bucket. Is there more wine in the water, or water in the wine?
As ever, please do NOT post your answers, but do feel free to say if you have solved it and how long it took. I will post the solution on Monday. Have a good weekend!
The Freakonomics Blog has just run this rather nice interview with my good self. I discuss 59 seconds and my new study, where I will be randomly assigning zoo animals to people.
I came across this yesterday and hadn’t seen it before. So simple but so lovely. The shape in the middle of the image is a perfect circle….
Does it work for you?
A subliminal classic today. What do you see and think about when you look at this image….
Answer after the break (warning: adult content!)
Yesterday I sent out a tweet saying that today I would turn the blog over to a guest, and asking for posts. My thanks to everyone who submitted their entries.
The winning entry came from Andrew J Speirs, with his great Ten Facts About Playing Cards. I have taken the liberty of editing them a bit, but here we go with ten things you probably didn’t know about playing cards…… (more…)
John and Jane are very much in love, but live a long way apart.
Jane wants to send John a box containing a lock of her hair, but in such a way that no-one can open the box en route.
Both John and Jane each buy a padlock that could secure the box. However, to avoid discovery, neither John nor Jane can have a key to the padlock that belongs to the other (so Jane cannot have John’s key, and John cannot have Jane’s key).
How can the two lovers create a scheme to ensure that John can open the box when he receives it?
As ever, please do NOT post your answer, but do feel free to say if you think you have solved it and how long it took. Solution on Monday!
Whilst in the US I appeared on CBS’s The Early Show. The interview seemed to go well. However, a few people have contacted me to suggest that the shirt i was wearing was not that great. I am well aware that it is easy to be irrationally swayed by a vocal minority and so, in the interests of scientific inquiry, thought I should seek the opinions of a larger number of people.
It would be great if everyone could take a look at the clip (sorry about the ads) and let me know what they think. Here is the clip…..
Feel free to write a comment and vote in the exciting poll…..
A few posts ago I asked everyone to list the traits that they found most desirable in a romantic partner. The results were interesting, with each of the sexes looking for surprisingly similar stuff.
I thought it might be even more interesting to reverse the question and discover if men and women also agree on what they dislike.
So, list TWO traits that you find unattractive in a potential romantic partner. Women, list your answers here.
A few posts ago I asked everyone to list the traits that they found most desirable in a romantic partner. The results were interesting, with each of the sexes looking for surprisingly similar stuff.
I thought it might be even more interesting to reverse the question and discover if men and women also agree on what they dislike.
So, list TWO traits that you find unattractive in a potential romantic partner. Men, list your answers here.
Whilst in the States I discussed 59 Seconds at length on the Eye On Books podcast, the interview has just gone online here.
Anyway, thought you might enjoy this amazing video……
But is the clip genuine? If so, is it just practice?
An old classic this week. Three triangles have been made of out three matches apiece…
Can you move just three matches and create exactly five triangles?
As ever, please do NOT post your solutions, but feel free to say if you think you have solved it and how long it took. Answer on Monday. Have a good weekend. i shall spend most if it sleeping trying to get back into UK time!
Nostradamus was a French seer who made lots of ambiguous predictions about the future. There is fierce debate about his work, with supporters believing that he could indeed see into the future, and skeptics arguing that his writings are a load of ambiguous rantings.
Today I thought it would be fun to ask you to play the part of Nostradamus and make some predictions for 2010. Please don’t look at the other comments before thinking of your predictions, and let’s see what themes emerge and, more importantly, whether they are proved right as the year progresses.
So, look deep into your crystal ball……what is going to happen in 2010?
A few posts ago I asked men and women to come up with the three traits that they most desired in a romantic partner. I have now made a word cloud of the results. So…here is what women look for….
and here is what men look for….
What do you think? What are the main differences?
Ace skepchick Rebecca Watson kindly sent me this great illusion….
Any ideas about why it works?
If you are in or around Boston I hope that you can make it to my talk tonight (details here). I can promise at least one laugh. And again, special thanks to Rebecca Watson for helping to make this happen.
That said, here is the Friday puzzle….
Macy and Preston are brother and sister. They get on well, but have one strange quirk. They happen to be in the same class at school, and Macy insists on sitting behind Preston, but Preston insists on sitting behind Macy. How can this seemingly impossible situation be resolved such that both of them are happy?
As ever, please do not post your solution, but do feel free to say if you solved it and how long it took you. Answer on Monday.
Having a fun time on the tour. A huge thanks to everyone who came to see the talk in NYC – the place was packed and the atmosphere was great. I am in Washington DC today, and onto Boston tomorrow. For anyone in or around the Boston area, I will be giving a late talk here.
Update: I will be doing a couple of surprise events on the tour – the first one is in Seattle on 11th Jan at a sex shop! This will be a fun talk at the Love Zone, starting at 8pm.
David B kindly sent me this great video that seems to show someone breaking a glass with the power of their voice….
Is it genuine? Does the human voice really contain that kind of energy? If not, what is going on?
