Lateral Thnking Questions
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Originally posted by Spotnick Oh, and here's another one...There is a room ahead of you with a closed door, on the wall you have 3 switches, in the room there is a lightbulb, you must find out which switch is opening the light, and you can only open the door once.How do you do it?
how do you open a light anyway?
is it the one with the label that says light switch by it?
No, actually it's quite simple.
- Open the first switch, wait 5 mins.
- Close the first swith
- Open the 2nd switch
- Go into the room, look which light is opened, it's #2
- Touch the other bulbs, find the one who is hot, that's #1
- #3 is then the other one...
As easy as that 
Originally posted by Spotnick 10 doctors are at a party, they all drink punch, one doctor is beeped for an emergency, when he comes back, everybody's dead.. how come?
The ice cubes are poisoned, the emergency doctor drinks up,at this point the ice has not melted .Later on his return, his fellows are dead, the ice having melted thus releasing the deadly toxin.
Originally posted by Garymac > Originally posted by Spotnick> 10 doctors are at a party, they all drink punch, one doctor is beeped for an emergency, when he comes back, everybody's dead.. how come?
The ice cubes are poisoned, the emergency doctor drinks up,at this point the ice has not melted .Later on his return, his fellows are dead, the ice having melted thus releasing the deadly toxin.
A guy is kidnapped and knocked out. He wakes up some time later in a locked room with just a bed & sink with no way of escape or seeing the outside world. He knows however that he's been taken to either Sydney or New York, one of which will give him hope of rescue. How can he determine which city he's in?
The guy fills the sink with water. In the Northern hemisphere the water will turn clockwise, while in the Southern hemisphere the water will flow counterclockwise. New York is in the Northern Hemisphere and Sydney is in the Southern Hemisphere. Looking the direction of the water draining from the sink he knows where he is.
Originally posted by Element115 Spot on!
Actually, I've heard that whole "water flowing in the opposite direction" is a urban myth, but I'm not one to spoil the answer 
Originally posted by Taboo # 7 > Originally posted by Element115 Spot on!
Actually, I've heard that whole "water flowing in the opposite direction" is a urban myth, but I'm not one to spoil the answer
It was confirmed in a Simpsons episode, so I doubt that it's a myth 
Originally posted by Taboo # 7 > Originally posted by Element115 Spot on!
Actually, I've heard that whole "water flowing in the opposite direction" is a urban myth, but I'm not one to spoil the answer
Please don't do that, I was looking so smart.
It's caled the Coriolis Force. Not quite an accurate belief that sink water spins in opposite directions north and south of the equator, not quite inaccurate.
Originally posted by bLuE oRdEr It's caled the Coriolis Force. Not quite an accurate belief that sink water spins in opposite directions north and south of the equator, not quite inaccurate.
Now I am a learned person.
Originally posted by bLuE oRdEr It's caled the Coriolis Force. Not quite an accurate belief that sink water spins in opposite directions north and south of the equator, not quite inaccurate.
Has anyone even watched the water spin down the drain? It just seems to go down, and that's it.
I tried that test in my sink years ago, and it didn't seem to go in one particular direction, so I put it down to having a dodgy sink! Anyway, Tristan said it was confirmed in a Simpsons episode, and I've just remembered it featured in an X-Files episode also, so I'm not gonna argue! 
Originally posted by bLuE oRdEr It's caled the Coriolis Force. Not quite an accurate belief that sink water spins in opposite directions north and south of the equator, not quite inaccurate.
Okay, spoiling my own answer I've found an article in a scientific magazine saying that the Coriolis effect is too weak to be dominant in a sink. :(
By bizarre coincidence last week I was watching a repeat of an episode of Pole to Pole (series where Michael Palin travels from Pole to, erm Pole) and he had reached the equator.
They had a bloke there who everyday gave a little demonstration of this with a funnel and some water. He goes about 20 feet north of the equator and pours the water down the funnel, it flows one way, then he goes back and crosses the equator south to a similar distance and does the same. It flows the other way. The effect gets stronger the further you get from the equator so by the time you reach Sydney/New York it should be pretty obvious. Mind you, if you were a spanner like me I wouldn't remember which way was which, so it wouldn't be much help!
Don't you just love science?
