#133 Think tank
Toddler Tina has noticed that Sticky, her stickleback, is struggling because the water in the slim fish tank is only 2 centimetres deep. She would like to top up the tank with water, but the tap is beyond her reach, so she has the bright idea of dropping one of her toy bricks into the tank instead.
Fortunately, the brick misses the fish, and the water level rises to become exactly level with the height of the brick, which is lying flat. The brick is twice as long as it is wide, and three times as long as it is high. The interior of the tank is one-and-a-half times as long as the brick, but only two-thirds as wide as the length of the brick.
What are the dimensions of Tina’s toy brick?
Solution next week
#132 One of these days
Solution
The quiz will be on Thursday. If it were on Monday, statement A would be false, B would be true and D would be true, making C false. Now, E can’t be true, because then it would become false, and it can’t be false, because then it would become true.
So there is a contradiction, telling us it can’t be on Monday. Similar logical contradictions exist for the other days except Thursday.
Quick quiz #121
1 What name is given to the process through which plants naturally shed leaves, flowers and fruit?
2 Who proposed the “plum pudding” model of the atom?
3 What is the brightest star in the constellation Aquila?
4 How are the feet of the osprey different from those of most other raptors?
5 What was the name of Charles Babbage’s proposed mechanical general-purpose computer?
Answers
1 Abscission
2 J. J. Thomson
3 Altair
4 They are zygodactyl, with two toes that point forwards and two that point backwards
5 The Analytical Engine