You’re standing 11 feet away from a doorway and with each step you move halfway to the doorway. How many steps will it take for you to get to the doorway?
Technically, the answer is infinity. If you keep going halfway, you’ll never actually make it to the doorway.
But in practice, after 10 steps you’ll be 1/8th of an inch to the doorway and anyone behind you would say to stop being a baby and take a real step through the doorway already.
The magic word – please. It makes people do things they otherwise wouldn’t be inclined to do. When parents are teaching children about manners, they call it the magic word and wait to fulfill a request until the child says please. Once the child says it, the parent feels bound to do it to show the child that it works.
In 2014, Howard returned from his football game later than normal and Trudy, his Mom, was concerned. She asked what position he played, and he said he was a lineman. She asked what team they played and he said the Bears. She asked if anything strange had happened, and he said no. She asked what the score was and he said their team won, 14-1. Satisfied, Trudy sent Howard up to bed. The next morning Trudy told her husband Mick about her conversation with Howard. Mick’s face turned red and he stormed up to Howard’s room.
Mick knew Howard was lying about being at the football game because in American football it’s impossible to score just 1 point (before the 2015 one-point safety rule). A score of 2 is the lowest possible score (awarded for a safety). In fact, 1 is the only impossible score in football. You can score 2 points for a safety, 3 points for a field goal and 6 points for a touchdown, with an extra point for the field goal. You also have the option to go for another touchdown for a 2-point conversion. With 2, 3, 6 and 7 you can generate any other number except for 1.
For example, here are ways a team could score from 2 to 10 points. 2 = safety 3 = field goal 4 = 2 + 2 5 = 3 + 2 6 = touchdown 7 = touchdown and extra point attempt 8 = touchdown and two point conversion 9 = touchdown and field goal 10 = touchdown, extra point attempt and field goal
Breath. Air is light, but even Stig Severinsen, the world record holder can only hold his breath for 22 minutes. The world’s strongest man can’t beat that, but you can have the pleasure of telling him to his face.
Last winter I found myself locked out of my house because I couldn’t remember the 5-digit code to open the garage door. I used the following facts to get inside.
1. The second and third digits add up to 9. 2. The first digit is equal to the second digit cubed. 3. The sum of the third and fifth digits is the smallest number with exactly five divisors. 4. The fourth digit is equal to 6 times the second-to-last digit. 5. None of the digits repeat.
If we label each digit a, b, c, d and e, we get the following equations. 1. b + c = 9 2. a = b3 3. c + e = 16 (since 16 is the smallest number with five divisors – 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16). 4. d = 6 * d (The fourth and second-to-last digits are the same number, meaning d must be zero to satisfy the equation) 5. b must be zero, one or two (b can’t be three because that makes a=27, which isn’t a single digit). Zero and one result in duplicate digits (00907 and 11808 respectively) so the only remaining value for b is 2, giving us 82709 and warmth.
Mike, Jimmy, Nader, Kevin, and Larry were the top five finishers in the regional 500-mile race. They drove yellow, orange, green, red and blue cars but not necessarily in that order.
Neither Kevin nor Larry drove the green car. Kevin finished faster than Mike and Larry. The blue car finished earlier than Larry’s and Nader’s car. The yellow car finished faster than the green car and the orange car. Mike’s and Larry’s car finished ahead of the orange car. Jimmy’s car finished before the blue and the yellow car.
Who drove what color car and what place did each driver finish?
