When the day before yesterday was referred to as the day after tomorrow, the day that was then called yesterday was as far away from the day we now call tomorrow as yesterday is from the day which we shall now be able to speak of last Monday as a week ago yesterday. What day is it?
You dance in a circle of joined hands,
And though they spin away I can always see your face,
In the world, no matter where I am,
One look at you and I know my place.
An analogue clock is a circle, and the hands of a clock are joined at the middle.
The hands can point away from you, but the clock face is always visible.
No matter where you are in the world, you can probably find a clock.
“One look at you and I know my place…in time!”
Thanks to Helena for creating this and sending it in.
Mario, from Super Mario Brothers video game by Nintendo. He roams the land searching for the princess and his primary method of getting rid of folks is to stomp on them.
If you turn the word upside down it’s the same word (the W and M flip to resemble themselves). A shark swims to attack, but it’s not bad. Sharks are just trying to eat. I’d still recommend you swim away if you see one swimming toward you.
You’re waiting to board your flight at the airport with 99 other passengers, each with an assigned seat. All but one of the passengers will gladly sit in their designated seat. The only exception is Randall, a scoundrel who refuses to follow the rules. When he boards, he will choose a random, unoccupied seat.
If a rule-following passenger finds someone in their spot, they will choose another one at a random from the remaining unoccupied seats.
What is the probability that the last person to board the plane will sit in their proper seat?
The randomness stops as soon as someone else sits in Randall’s assigned seat. The chances of this happening range from 1 out of 99 to 1 out of 1 (when only one seat remains).
Thus, the probability of the last person sitting in their own seat can be calculated as 1/99 plus the sum of 2 to 98 of the formula 1 / n × (n + 1), which works out to 0.5, or 50%.
So there’s a 50% chance the last passenger will sit in their own seat thanks to Randall for screwing up order and procedure when boarding an aircraft.