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

Why is it that a plane is allowed to take off and fly in a thunderstorm, but the space shuttle is not? AnswerThe exhaust plume of the space shuttle effectively grounds the space shuttle for a considerable part of its initial flight. Therefore, the shuttle could be struck by lightning. A plane is not grounded,

A tightrope walker frequently carries a long pole to help him balance. Why does this help? AnswerA tightrope walker remains standing by keeping his centre of mass directly above the rope. If his centre of mass moves off the centre, he must correct this or he will rotate off the rope and fall down. By

A blacksmith wishes to cool his hot piece of steel as rapidly as possible. He has a bucket of icy-water and a bucket of oil (at room temperature). Which bucket should he dump his steel into? AnswerHe should put the steel into the oil as the liquid will lower the temperature quicker. The water will

Gerta’s husband left her for another woman, so she decided to make a lethal mixture to take her life. Attempting to make it as powerful as possible, she mixed sodium hydroxide with hydrochloric acid. She quaffed her cocktail of death, but nothing happened. Why? AnswerSodium hydroxide is a base and hydrochloric acid is an acid.

A helium-filled balloon is tied to the floor of a car that makes a sharp right turn. Does the balloon tilt while the turn is made? If so, which way? The windows are closed, so there is no connection with the outside air. AnswerBecause of buoyancy, the helium balloon on the string will want to

Duffus Mcklutski was not the most suave debonair guy. He was a cross between Grizzly Adams and the local garbage collector. So when the girl next door remarked that he was kind of cute in a bushman sanitation worker kind of way, but would look better with curly hair and a bath, Duffus wasted no

Fred, a recently diagnosed diabetic, started to feel very dizzy and faint. “I don’t know what to do,” he slurred, “I’ve used my insulin like the doctor said and I didn’t eat anything since breakfast, never mind anything sweet.” His friends couldn’t agree what to do. Jim suggested giving sugar as he was sure he’d