I'm posting one puzzle, riddle, math, or statistical problem a day. Try to answer each one and post your answers in the comments section. I'll post the answer the next day. Even if you have the same answer as someone else, feel free to put up your answer, too!
Monday, August 30, 2010
A response to a mistake,
What won't break if you throw it off the highest building in the world, but will break if you place it in the ocean?
1) A fall. The word "place" suggests conceptualizing a fall in this context as occurring at the edge of or just above the ocean, in which case the water would break that fall. But technically speaking, if a fall is thrown off a building - and assuming you can throw a verb - it would eventually be broken by the ground.
2) A storm, or the weather. This can mean either a violent beginning, or a sudden change. In the first sense, if "in" can be taken to mean "just above" the ocean, a storm being relocated there would be associated with an increased humidity that might bring about such a violent beginning, whereas if you cast the storm down from the top of a tall building, the resulting increase in atmospheric pressure would probably preclude such a start. In the second sense, if "in" literally means "inside of," the weather would certainly change suddenly, that is, it would disappear, if you plunged it underwater. There would, however, be little change in the weather between the top and the bottom of a building.
3) A wave. This was my first thought, and is probably the best. A wave breaking means curling over and dissolving into foam. It can't do that if it's not within a larger body of water. Dropped from a building, it would just dissolve into vapor.
I'd be impressed if anybody read this entire answer.
flour? sugar? salt? dirt? cocaine? a rubber band ball, although itd take time for the water to break it down...it would though. paint? toilet paper? all of the above? pollen? a bird? a paper air plane?
I post the questions at work to keep us thinking. We came up with four possible answers: A wave, Bubble, Snowflake, and one square of toilet tissue....Paper will get water logged and float a long time before breaking down, so that to me is a stretch.
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I have three answers, none of them satisfying.
ReplyDelete1) A fall. The word "place" suggests conceptualizing a fall in this context as occurring at the edge of or just above the ocean, in which case the water would break that fall. But technically speaking, if a fall is thrown off a building - and assuming you can throw a verb - it would eventually be broken by the ground.
2) A storm, or the weather. This can mean either a violent beginning, or a sudden change. In the first sense, if "in" can be taken to mean "just above" the ocean, a storm being relocated there would be associated with an increased humidity that might bring about such a violent beginning, whereas if you cast the storm down from the top of a tall building, the resulting increase in atmospheric pressure would probably preclude such a start. In the second sense, if "in" literally means "inside of," the weather would certainly change suddenly, that is, it would disappear, if you plunged it underwater. There would, however, be little change in the weather between the top and the bottom of a building.
3) A wave. This was my first thought, and is probably the best. A wave breaking means curling over and dissolving into foam. It can't do that if it's not within a larger body of water. Dropped from a building, it would just dissolve into vapor.
I'd be impressed if anybody read this entire answer.
My answer is not so scientific, but I would say paper?
ReplyDeleteiPhone 4 with a parachute :P
ReplyDeleteSurface tension?
ReplyDeleteA bubble.
ReplyDeleteTissue paper is the 'answer' here, but I love the other answers.
ReplyDeleteIt is a snowflake. doesn't break when it falls and breaks apart immediately.
ReplyDeleteLeft out it breaks apart immediately in water.
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought of wave, but the other answers are great too.
ReplyDeleteflour? sugar? salt? dirt? cocaine? a rubber band ball, although itd take time for the water to break it down...it would though. paint? toilet paper? all of the above? pollen? a bird? a paper air plane?
ReplyDeletei thought it was paper too :)
ReplyDeletewatev it was close nuf
And edward, i stopped reading ur answer after "a fall"
I post the questions at work to keep us thinking. We came up with four possible answers:
ReplyDeleteA wave, Bubble, Snowflake, and one square of toilet tissue....Paper will get water logged and float a long time before breaking down, so that to me is a stretch.