This is a fire test of your imaginative ingenuity and creative resourcefulness in facing this challenge.

Here's a typical job interview question from McKinsey to rack your brain: why is a man hole cover often round as shown here?

Here are my possible answers:

1) If the man hole cover had been a square cut, it will drop into the manhole easily through the diagonal space;

2) When taken out, one can easily roll the manhole cover, which is too heavy for hand carry, on the ground;

3) The drill for creating the manhole is round;

A QUICK & BRISK LESSON FROM MY SLIDEWORKS: RACK YOUR BRAINS ~ Part II

[continued from the Last Post.]

MY MOST FAVOURITE PHOTO SHOOT

This snapshot happens to be my most favourite photo shoot, taken about fourteen years ago, during my holidays along the southern edges of Gobi Desert with my late Catherine, as part of the Ancient Silk Road sojourn.

It was also my first encounter with the obnoxious beast known as the "Ship of the Desert".

I was told by my guide - in no uncertain terms - that I should not stand in front of the creature at any time, as it would happily provide me with an horrendous as well as torrential experience of his habitual spit.

Up close, the creature was far from ugly. Soft doey eyes & long curly eyelashes gave its face a friendly delicate look, which belied their underlying toughness.

Actually, I was most impressed by the creature because of its legendary survival ability in a truly inhospitable environment.

I had read that it could store water in its blood stream & not in its hump ~ one of the most enduring & misunderstood myths.

Interestingly, its hide could provide tents for shelter, & the meat was said to be similar to veal, although a little tougher. The milk was actually more nutritious than cow’s milk, & was often used fresh as a drink, as well as being made into cheese.

More interestingly, the camel's dung could be used as a fuel with no drying necessary.

Do you know that a "camel" is also called an "oont"?

Anyway, to cut to the chase, the camel is really a wonder of self-containment & self-sufficiency, able to survive hostile environments just on what is contained within.

[Interested in a "Rack Your Brains" exercise about camels? If so, please go to this link in my 'Optimum Performance Technologies' weblog to have a crack!]

RACK YOUR BRAINS

Can you add just one line to the roman numeral as shown below:

X I

& convert it into the number 'Ten'.

Give it a go, just for the fun of it!

There are many possibilities. All you need to do is to shift your focus & revv up your imagination!

I will give you one, just to set the ball rolling, as follows:

X / I

RACK YOUR BRAINS: ANSWERS

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1. How do you put a giraffe in the fridge?

Correct answer: Open the fridge, put the giraffe inside, close the fridge.

This question checks if you tend to make simple things complicated.

2. How do you put an elephant in the fridge?

Wrong answer: Open the fridge, put the elephant inside, close the fridge.

Correct answer: Open the fridge, remove the giraffe, put the elephant inside, close the fridge.

This question checks your ability to consider implications from your previous actions.

3. The Lion King organized a moot for the animals: all the animals are present but one. Which one?

Correct answer: The elephant. The elephant is in the fridge.

This checks your memory.

Even though you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you will answer the next one for sure.

4. You have to cross a river, but it is populated by alligators. What are you going to do?

Correct answer: You swim across the river because all the alligators are attending the moot.

This question checks if you learn quickly from your mistakes.

According to Andersen Consulting Worldwide, 90% of the managers who undertook the test failed all the answers.

But many preschoolers got several correct answers. Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) says this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals have the brains of a four year old.

RACK YOUR BRAINS

What follows is actually a very old 'Rack Your Brains' exercise, originally developed by Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) to study managerial creativity.

1. How do you put a giraffe in the fridge?

2. How do you put an elephant in the fridge?

3. The Lion King organized a moot for the animals: all the animals are present but one. Which one?

4. You have to cross a river, but it is populated by alligators. What are you going to do?

Give it a go, just for the fun of it!

[The correct answers will follow in the Next Post.]

RACK YOUR BRAINS

In how many ways can you address the following problem:

1 + 1 = ?

RACK YOUR BRAINS

Take out a sheet of blank paper, & use say a black marker pen to draw a small dot right in the centre.

Now, tell me what do you see?

Let's go to the next level.

Use your black marker pen again, & draw a small circle around the small dot.

Now, tell me what do you see?

RACK YOUR BRAINS

Using seven 10-cent coins, make a circle and a rectangle at the same time.


[Adapted from Quiz #2 (attributed to Akira Aizawa) in Japan Close-Up, July 2009, published by the PHP Institute, Japan;]

RACK YOUR BRAINS!

Place a mirror in front of you (or hold it in one hand).

In the other hand, hold a pencil. On a sheet of paper draw the shape of a concentric star. Hold something about a foot above the paper so that you cannot see this star directly.

Now, whilst looking at the reflection of this star in the mirror, draw the shape of the star between the two concentric lines, all the way round.

Can you do it?

[Excerpted from 'Unleashing Genius with the World's Most Powerful Learning Systems', by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

SOLUTIONS TO THE NEURODYNAMIC TEASERS & FLEXORS

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SOLUTION TO TEASER #7:

Adding what the teachers paid to what the bellboy has is meaningless. One thing has nothing to do with the other. Each person initially paid $10, giving a total of $30. They then received $5 from the bellboy.

The total now becomes $35. Out of this, each teacher took back $1, giving a balance of $35-($1x3) = $32. And they also gave the bellboy $2. So the final balance was $32 -$2 = $30.

SOLUTION TO TEASER #8:

Prisoner C calls out the colour of his hat correctly. His reasoning: A and B cannot see anyone, so they’re out of contention. D can see the hat colour of B and C. If they were the same, he would have called out. Since he stays silent, and can see that B has a white hat, C reasons that he must be wearing a black hat! Voila!

SOLUTION TO TEASER #9:

Amigo stands looking across the river, and then simply adjusts the brim of his hat so that his eyes just see past the brim to a point a little beyond the other side of the river, on the opposite bank.

Maintaining this position of head and hat, he turns his head, and looks past the brim to another point on the ground on his side of the river.

Taking note of this point, he now walks towards it, with measured, deliberate paces. An estimate of each pace multiplied by the number of paces to the spotted point gives him the approximate width of the river.

[Excerpted from the Braintertainment segment of 'Unleashing Genius with the World's Most Powerful Learning Systems', by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

SOLUTIONS TO THE NEURODYNAMIC TEASERS & FLEXORS

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SOLUTION TO TEASER #4:

Check your senses, and your sensations. Turn on two switches and leave them on for about 15 minutes. Then turn off one of these switches.

Now go to the room with the lamps.

One of the lamps will be off and cold. The switch for this lamp is the one that was originally left off. Another lamp will be off, but hot. The switch for this lamp is the one that you first turned on and then off after 15 minutes. And the lamp that is illuminated is connected to the one remaining switch that is still on.

SOLUTION TO TEASER #5:

Tie anything heavy enough to one end of a rope and set it swinging.

You could use a bunch of keys, a handkerchief with coins, a shoe, a wallet, whatever is on you. Then grab the other rope and stretch out the free arm. When the first rope swings towards you, grab hold and eureka!

SOLUTION TO TEASER #6:

The letter ‘m’.

[To be continued in the Next Post. Excerpted from the Braintertainment segment of 'Unleashing Genius with the World's Most Powerful Learning Systems', by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

SOLUTIONS TO THE NEURODYNAMIC TEASERS & FLEXORS

[continue from the Last Post]

SOLUTION TO TEASER #1:

Start by burning one of the two strings at both ends, and the other string at one end.

Since each string takes one hour to burn up, the string that has been lit at both ends must be consumed in half an hour (30 minutes). At this point, the other string has also been burning for 30 minutes. It has 30 minutes of life remaining.

Now light up the unlit end of this string. When it meets the initially burning other end, half of 30 minutes will have elapsed, that is, 15 minutes. This gives us the initial 30 minutes plus these additional 15 minutes = 45 minutes.

SOLUTION TO TEASER #2:

One possibility is to set fire to the ground you’re standing on.

Since the wind is blowing towards you, let it blow the fire away from you for a while, then start walking towards it. By the time the main fire gets to where you were, there will be no grass or trees left to burn. It will eventually sputter out.

SOLUTION TO TEASER #3:

One weighing! Place on the scale one coin from the first stack, two from the second, three from the third, and so forth.

You know how much the coins on the scale should weigh if none of them were counterfeit. Therefore to determine which stack is counterfeit, look at the weight and figure out how much heavier it weighs. The number will correspond to the stack from which that group of coins came.

For example, if it’s four grammes heavier, the fourth stack is counterfeit because you placed four of its coins on the scale.

[To be continued in the Next Post. Excerpted from the Braintertainment segment of 'Unleashing Genius with the World's Most Powerful Learning Systems', by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

SOME NEURODYNAMIC TEASERS & FLEXORS FOR YOU!

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TEASER #7

Late one night, three teachers arrive for a convention in a neighbouring city. They check into a hotel, but since there’s only one room left, they agree to share it.

In view of the inconvenience caused, the hotel agrees to charge them only $30 for the night. Each person pays the cashier $10 and retires to the room.

Several minutes later, the cashier realises that since they have skipped dinner, he’ll give them back $5, thus reducing the room rate to $25.

He gives the bellboy five $1 notes and asks him to return this money to the teachers. Each teacher takes one of the dollars and then give the bellboy two dollars as a tip. Now each teacher has paid $9 and the bellboy has $2, giving a total of $29.

What happened to the missing dollar?

TEASER #8:

Four prisoners, A, B, C, and D, have been buried in sand, in a standing position, up to their shoulders. It is not possible for them to turn around; they can only look forwards. An opaque wall separates prisoner A from the rest.

What is known is that two of the prisoners are wearing black hats and two are wearing white hats. No prisoner has been told the colour of his own hat. They must work this out within 5 minutes, without speaking to one another, or they will all be killed.

Any prisoner can call out the colour of his hat if he is certain, but if his reasoning is incorrect, they will all be put to death.

If his reasoning is correct, they will all be saved. Is it possible to work out with certainty, the colour of a prisoner’s hat? If so, which prisoner calls out correctly?

TEASER #9:

Amigo Abadiano was standing on a riverbank, looking across to the far side. His amiga, Agnes, asks him to reckon how wide he thinks the river is. Amigo adjusts the rim of his hat, and then turns to look downstream.
In a few moments, he starts walking with very deliberate paces, along the riverbank.

A short while later, he turns and calls out, “About 50 metres, plus or minus a bit.”

How did he estimate the width of the river?

[To be continued in the Next Post. Excerpted from the Braintertainment segment of 'Unleashing Genius with the World's Most Powerful Learning Systems', by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

SOME NEURODYNAMIC TEASERS & FLEXORS FOR YOU!

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TEASER #4:

You are in a room where there are three light switches, each of which activates a lamp in another room. You are allowed to:

(a) turn on any two switches, and

(b) visit the room only once to check which of the three lamps are on.

How can you work out which switch turns on which lamp?

TEASER #5:

Look at the sketch on the next page and imagine that you are the person shown standing in this room.

You have been given the task of tying together the ends of the two strings suspended from the ceiling.

The strings are located so that you cannot reach one string with your outstretched hand while holding the second in your other hand.

The room is bare, and you have only the resources you would normally have in your clothing or handbag.

How do you solve the problem?

TEASER #6:

What occurs twice in a moment, once in every minute, yet never in a million years?

[To be continued in the Next Post. Excerpted from the Braintertainment segment of 'Unleashing Genius with the World's Most Powerful Learning Systems', by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

SOME NEURODYNAMIC TEASERS & FLEXORS FOR YOU!

In this post, Dilip Mukerjea offers some FUN-atic elements of creative genius, via selected brain teasers & mind flexors, to agitate your neurons!

TEASER #1:

There are 2 pieces of string. Each piece is made of a different material and of different lengths. Both pieces of string take exactly 1 hour to burn from one end to the other end. The speed of burning is not uniform throughout, so it can burn quickly first, then slowly at the end or in any random way.

If you are given only these 2 pieces of strings and a box of matches, how do you measure 45 minutes?

The solution only requires you to burn the strings. No other actions like cutting, measuring, etc., are involved.

This problem was set by a Professor for a Ph.D qualifying exam at Stanford University. Expected to answer in 15 mins.

TEASER #2:

You’re on an island that has no beaches and the sea is full of sharks. The island is 950 metres long and 30 metres wide. A fire starts at one end of the island and there’s a fierce wind blowing towards you. All the grass and trees are very dry and burning rapidly. There are no rocks or sand on the island. There is no boat to make a getaway.

What can you do to save your life?

TEASER #3:


There are ten stacks of ten silver dollars. You are given the weight of a real silver dollar, and are told each counterfeit coin weighs one gramme more than a real silver dollar. You also know that one of the stacks is counterfeit, and you can use a scale that weighs by grammes.

What is the minimum number of weighings needed to determine the counterfeit stack?

[To be continued in the Next Post. Excerpted from the 'Braintertainment' segment of 'Unleashing Genius with the World's Most Powerful Learning Systems' by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

RACK YOUR BRAINS!

Just in case you are stuck with the 'Rack Your Brains!' exercise in an earlier post, here's the correct answer.


[Excerpted from the 'Igniting Innovation' edition of The Braindancer Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea.]

RACK YOUR BRAINS!

Look at the two views of an object. What does the side view look like?


[Excerpted from the 'Igniting Innovation' edition of The Braindancer Series of bookazines by Dilip Mukerjea.]