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
Bob dares Jack to squeeze an ice cube in the palm of his hand, as tightly as he can for 5 minutes. Within a matter of seconds Jack starts to feel a burning sensation. Trying to prove his manhood Jack bears the pain as long as he can. About 65 seconds later, Jack opens his
How can you sink a needle that is floating in a bowl of water without touching it, dropping anything on it, or shaking the bowl? AnswerDish soap! The molecules in dish soap separate the water molecules from one another, and since the surface tension of the water is no longer as great, the needle sinks!This
Elephants have almost no predators and they feed on plants, so they don’t need to hear all that well (neither to protect themselves or to find food). But why do they have such big ears? AnswerThey’re for regulating the body temperature. Since an elephant has a large body mass compared to its skin surface, it
If I dropped a bowling ball in a bucket of water which is 45 degrees F, and dropped another bowling ball of the same weight, mass and size in a bucket at 30 degrees F, both of them at the same time, which ball would hit the bottom of the bucket first? AnswerThe ball in