You are a prisoner sentenced to death. The Emperor offers you a chance to live by playing a simple game. He gives you 50 black marbles, 50 white marbles and 2 empty bowls and instructs you to divide the 100 marbles into the two bowls. You can divide them however you want as long as all the marbles are in the bowls. You will be blindfolded and the bowls and marbles will be thoroughly mixed. You will then choose a single marble from one of the bowls. If the marble is white, you live. Black and you will be put to death.
How do you divide the marbles up so that you have the greatest probability of choosing a white marble?
Place one white marble in one bowl and place the rest of the marbles in the other bowl (49 whites, and 50 blacks).
This way you begin with a 50/50 chance of choosing the bowl with one white marble and living. Even if you choose the other bowl, you still have an almost 50% chance of picking one of the 49 white marbles. There are no guarantees in life, but this gives you the best change of surviving.
One evening a man is walking home from work and an insect flies into his ear. He tries to pry it out but it doesn’t work. Shaking his head isn’t successful either. Finally he managed to get it out. How did he do it?
A completely black dog was strolling down main street during a total blackout affecting the entire town. Not a single streetlight had been on for hours. As the dog crosses the center of the road a Buick Skylark with two broken headlights speeds towards it, but manages to swerve out of the way just in time. How could the driver see the dog to swerve in time?
This walks on graves at night yet in homes during the day, Men are scared of it, women like it, children play with it, It lives on dates and salt, It is covered in hair, Its name starts with ‘M’ and it is mentioned in the Quran.
Moths. Most species of moths are nocturnal, yet they are attracted to light and can be found in homes. Men, in the most generic sense, can be scared of moths (see Mottephobia) as well as the damage they can cause as pests to bee hives, grain, flour, trees and agriculture. Women like moths because of the silk they produce. Children frequently chase and play with moths. Moths are attracted to salt and love to eat rotting fruit (such as dates). Some species of moths are densely covered with tiny hairs and of course it starts with the letter ‘m’. Lastly, moths are mentioned in the Quran (101:4 (Asad) [It will occur] on the Day when men will be like moths swarming in confusion)
I’m not the sort that’s eaten, I’m not the sort you bake, Don’t put me in an oven, I don’t taste that great, But when applied correctly, around me you will find, Problems are so simple when my digits come to mind.
These are names given to groups of creatures or things, but they have been scrambled. What is the correct arrangement?
Colony of Birds Horde of Spiders Den of Wild Pigs Clutter of Crows Nest of Snakes Park of Elks Doylt of Ferrets Gang of Machine Guns Business of Swine Volery of Artillery Hover of Gnats Drift of Frogs
Colony of Frogs Horde of Gnats Den of Snakes Clutter of Spiders Nest of Machine Guns Park of Artillery Doylt of Swine Gang of Elks Business of Ferrets Volery of Birds Hover of Crows Drift of Wild Pigs
Second. Second place is next to winning. Seconds, the measure of time, pass quickly. Seconding a motion is requested by the chair of the body in Parliament. And the second place finisher in many sporting events such as the Olympics is awarded the silver medal.
And as for why the unit of time is called a second, it goes back to the days of Ptolemy. A second of time is the second small part, or pars minuta secunda, of an hour. (Thanks to Tim J for researching it).
We are four against the masses. We are trying to find the one who is the whole package. We sigh, we laugh, we frown while we hope that the next one will be the one. Who are we?