The Virtuosi: Problem of the Week #3
The minions of Dr. Cherrycoke have placed Mr. Bond in an elaborate and unnecessary death contraption that, if triggered, would drop our hero into a pit of ravenous killer koalas. In other words, certain death!
swans on tea
Just another SFN Blogs site
Ok, are these ‘lateral thinking’ problems judging by the types of comments it’s received, or is the answer as obvious as I think it is.
Most people who assign the problem assume it’s obvious and has the neat solution of the water level staying exactly the same (absent evaporation, condensation, etc.).
But most people who assign the problem don’t know that water has strange expansion/contraction properties as a function of temperature, so that the level of the water (ignoring evaporation, condensation, etc.) will go up or down depending on its initial temperature.
Ummm… Koalas are herbivores which exclusively eat Eucalyptus. I doubt they’d ever kill anyone, although their large claws for tree-climbing could do damage if they were defending themselves from predators. Just a thought.
AC, I agree. There’s always a set of assumptions, and if the person trying to solve the problem has not assumed the same things, you can get a problem that becomes more difficult if you know more.