Aircraft Aviation 2 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 WHAT? ^ If that wasn't your reaction to the title of this thread, then it should have been! I have always had a love for Physics and Mathematics (mainly Physics), and, if everything goes smoothly, I should be starting my MSc 4 year Physics course next September (2014). In preparation for this, and to keep my mind ticking over, I have purchased a somewhat famous Physics book; The Chicken From Minsk. It's a peculiar but brilliant book featuring a collection of 100 (very!) difficult Physics and Maths problems from the Russian University level and Olympiad papers. I thought it would be nice to start a thread here on MH, posting the problems one by one until someone solves them. If you don't mind, I'll be keeping one question ahead of whatever I post on here (since I did initially buy the book for myself after all!). Hopefully some of you will be able to solve some of the problems. They are more thought-provoking in nature rather than requiring several pages of complex algebra, and start off easy,and get progressively (much) more difficult. I think that this thread will be of particular interest to those engineers and scientists out there but everyone is welcome to participate. I shall state now that advanced knowledge of Physics/Maths is NOT required to solve all of the problems; just a little common sense (I say a "little"). Anyway,this idea might fall down fast, but lets see how this goes! I'll keep a tally here on this first thread of who solves which problem(s). The book does give hints, so I'll post these as we go along if nobody can find a solution. Many Thanks, Jack SCORING TALLY: Kasper - 2 (Problem #1, #20) Dai - 1 (Problem #2) Joe - 4 (Problems #3, #9, #10, #11) Micke - 1 (Problem #5) John (Guest) - 5 (Problems #8, #12, #14, #16, #19) John (Allard) - 4 (Problems #13, #15, #17, #18) UNSOLVED: For some reason or another the following problems were unsolved, perhaps because we weren't getting anywhere with an answer, or perhaps because the book gives an "unclear" answer in which case it is difficult to tell who is correct. * Problem #4 Link to post Share on other sites
Aircraft Aviation 2 Posted November 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Problem #1 Natural Childbirth - Two siblings are born naturally on the same date, in the same year, to the same mother and father. However, they are not twins; neither fraternal nor identical. Is this possible or impossible? Link to post Share on other sites
ddavid 149 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 When you say "... on the same date, on the same year ...", the second phrase is redundant, which implies that "the same date" may not include 'year' and, possibly, 'month'. Were that the case, then one 'twin' could be born in January and the second, in December. Merry Christmas! Cheers - Dai. Link to post Share on other sites
Aircraft Aviation 2 Posted November 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Not quite Dai .... Hint - Pay careful attention to what is stated and what is not stated. Link to post Share on other sites
jaydor 345 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Brother and Sister Link to post Share on other sites
ddavid 149 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 I guess I've assumed that the 'siblings' are related, but this isn't necessarily the case as each 'new' child could be a sibling to an older brother/sister, who shares the 'same mother and father'. Wonder what Eddington would have made of this... Cheers - Dai. Link to post Share on other sites
jaydor 345 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 The answer is Yes as it is the result of all natural childbirth.. Link to post Share on other sites
Kasper 14 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Possible, nowhere is stated that they are the only siblings from the same parents born on that date. So this leaves open triplets, etc. Link to post Share on other sites
ddavid 149 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 I'll buy that, Kasper - Thanks. Cheers - Dai. Link to post Share on other sites
hifly 925 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Ah yes, must refresh my lateral thinking synapses. Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 I agree. The operative question was, "Is this possible or not possible" or words to that effect. It is possible if the siblings in question are part of a set of triplets, quadruplets or a larger litter. John Link to post Share on other sites
jaydor 345 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 We are talking of the human kind and not of the animal world? Are we not? Link to post Share on other sites
Aircraft Aviation 2 Posted November 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Spot on Kasper, well done! The answer is indeed triplets (or indeed quadruplets... and so on). As a result, this situation is of course possible. I'll add Kasper to the tally and post the next one... Link to post Share on other sites
Aircraft Aviation 2 Posted November 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Problem #2 The Dumb Parrot (or the problem with Mathematicians) - The owner of a pet shop is a retired mathematician. He never lies, and he makes very precise statements. He tells a customer the parrot in the cage is extremely intelligent - in fact, "this bird will repeat every words he hears". The customer, impressed, buys the parrot. In a few days, the outraged customer returns with the parrot, saying, "I spoke to him for hours every day, but this stupid bird has not repeated a single word I said". Nevertheless, the pet shop proprietor did not lie. Is this possible? NOTE: On a personal level I found this problem much easier than the first. There are also multiple solutions to this one; the score goes to whoever gets any viable answer first. Link to post Share on other sites
ddavid 149 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Either the pet- shop owner has a poor command of english or the parrot is deaf... Cheers - Dai. Link to post Share on other sites
Aircraft Aviation 2 Posted November 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Spot on Dai, deafness was the first thing that sprung to mind when I first read it too. Getting through these quickly aren't we? Only 97 to go! Haha. Link to post Share on other sites
Aircraft Aviation 2 Posted November 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Problem #3 A Question of Art - A sculptor named White, a painter named Black, and an artist named Red meet in a cafe. One of the three says: "I have black hair, and you two have red hair and white hair, respectively, but none of us has a hair colour that matches his name". White responds: "You are quite correct". What colour is the artists hair? Again, I don't think this should cause too many problems. Link to post Share on other sites
mutley 4,498 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Black? Link to post Share on other sites
hifly 925 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 They are all artists Link to post Share on other sites
Aircraft Aviation 2 Posted November 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Right you are Joe! Link to post Share on other sites
Aircraft Aviation 2 Posted November 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Problem #4 To Eat or Sleep, That Is the Question! - A problem in logic from the gulag: let us assume that one can survive exactly two weeks without food or without sleep. What should you do, eat or sleep, at the end of the fourteenth day without sleep and food? This was the first real hard one for me! Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Eat. Food is required to eat and if that is an option, it must be there. Sleep requires nothing else and can be done any time. John Link to post Share on other sites
Aircraft Aviation 2 Posted November 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Interestingly John, that is the first answer I jumped to when I first read it. Unfortunately, it wasn't the "correct" answer (as I said this is the first one I really struggled with!!!). Hint: The answer is neither definitively sleep nor eat (EDIT: nor travel at the speed of light!?!?!). Link to post Share on other sites
allardjd 1,853 Posted November 10, 2013 Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 Travel at the speed of light? John EDIT: You edited your post above, adding the bit about the speed of light. That wasn't there when I made this post. JDA Link to post Share on other sites
Aircraft Aviation 2 Posted November 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 10, 2013 If only . EDIT: Yes John, I didn't realise it was a serious suggestion!!! Link to post Share on other sites
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