Hanging over a pulley there is a rope, with a weight at one end. At the other end hangs a monkey of an equal weight. What happens if the monkey starts to ascend the rope? Assume that the mass of the rope and pulley are negligible, and the pulley is frictionless. AnswerThe monkey is pulling […]
Two frogs fell into a container of liquid. The height of the container was six feet, so the frogs couldn’t possibly get out. After a few minutes, one frog sank to the bottom and died. The other frog swam around in circles until eventually, the liquid became hard and the frog could jump out. What
Suppose you have an open-topped box that is 5cm x 5cm x 5cm (capacity: 125 cubic centimetres) Inside the box is a steel ball bearing that is 25 cubic centimetres in size. Next to the box is a two-litre pail filled with mercury. How many cubic centimetres of mercury would you have to pour into
In a small metal fabricating shop, two men were welding aluminium brackets when both men felt dizzy and collapsed before they could get out of the shop. A foreman bringing his truck in to be fixed at that moment opened a bay door and drove in. Seeing the men on the floor, he jumped out
John was drinking a bottle of Diet Coke, and he had a Mentos mint in his mouth. He accidentally back-washed and the mint went into the bottle. He screamed, dropped the bottle, and stepped back about ten feet.Why did he do this? AnswerWhen he loses the Mentos into the soda, the gelatin and gum arabic
I was drinking champagne at a party, when someone came over and spilled a raisin into my almost full 20-ounce glass. It was shaped like a regular glass, though much larger. Two friends, who always quarrelled, came up. The first one said that the raisin would sink, while the second said that the raisin would
In Madadia, a rather strange and misguided assassin, from his hidden position, uses a high-powered rifle to shoot someone in the foot from 50 feet away. The bullet travels at 1,300 feet per second. Both the person being shot at and the assassin are at sea level. What will be the first evidence to the
A scientist gives you two jars: one is filled with the poisonous gas of chlorine, and the other filled with the dangerously reactive element called sodium. He will pay you 5 million dollars if you ingest both jars. How do you do it without killing yourself? AnswerEasy. You pour the contents of both jars together
If boiling water is poured into a thick drinking glass as well as a very thin wine glass, of the two, which is more likely to crack? Explain. AnswerSurprisingly enough, the thick glass is more likely to crack since glass is a poor conductor of heat. In a thin glass, the heat passes more quickly
Duffus Mcclutski, having way too much spare time on his hands, decided to train the ducks in his pond. When Duffus held up a dark blue card, the ducks swam to the right; and when he held up a dark red card, they swam to the left. His neighbour, Mr. Redneck, was quite impressed –
A man was walking through the Sahara desert, and was dying of thirst. His caravan was attacked by a group of brigands. He ran off, and the brigands let him live. He was desperately trying to find water, when he stumbled upon a random town. He went up to a random man, and pleaded for
While his parents were away, a teenage boy and his friends drank some of the parents’ gin. This, of course, was strictly forbidden. They then poured water into the gin bottle to return the level to where it had originally been and put the bottle back exactly where they had found it. However, when the
Billy decided to step up his income by becoming a magician. On his first performance, his first 29 tricks went over like a flapjack. For his grand finale, small, weak, Billy would tear in half a New York City Phone Book with his bare hands. When he approached the podium holding the phone book, he
A man was going to bleach his socks because they had got muddy the day before. As he was pouring the bleach into the washing machine, he spilled some on the floor. He got some cleaning fluid and mopped it up with a rag. Minutes later, he was dead. What killed him? AnswerWhen you mix
NASA is on a mission to collect dust from the moon’s surface. A team is put together to design an apparatus that an astronaut can use to accomplish this task. One member of the team designs a type of vacuum cleaner which can be used to suck up and collect the dust. He is immediately