Some night when you can't get to sleep, try these puzzles in your head in the
dark. They're at least as good as counting sheep. I've done them in my head, and
they're kinda fun.
1. Little Egbert bought a mountain. Its shape was a perfect hemisphere
with a 5270-ft radius, set on a flat plain. He decided to build a railroad to
transport him to the top. It was a monorail, which made it very easy to plan,
with minimum width, and only one rail. The rail was offset 10 ft away from the
surface of the mountain, to avoid digging, so the radius was exactly 5280 ft.
The train could only ascend a 4% grade. The basestation was at the very bottom
of the mountain, so the train could not get a running start up the hill. How
much track did Little Egbert have to buy? (a) 25.00 miles (b) 25.020 (c)
25.040 (d) 25.40
1b. For extra credit, if the train leaves the basestation going north
on the west side of the mountain, from which direction does it approach the
summit? I don't have a really solid answer for this one. You tell me!
2. Little Egbert was walking across a field at 2.000 mph. The closest
road ran true north, but the place he was going was 2 miles north and 0.1 miles
east of his starting point. So he walked straight across the field, the shortest
route between two points. His brother Pythagoras decided to walk along the road
at 2.000 mph, for 2 miles, and then cut true east. When he got to the corner
and started east, he saw that Egbert was quite close to the end point. He decided
to speed up to get there at the same time. How fast did he have to walk to achieve
that ? (a) 8.0 mph (b) 16 (c) 80 (d) 160.1 (e) 442
3. It's easy to set up two double-pole double-throw switches, one at
each end of a room, so people entering the room can turn a common lamp on or
off with either switch. Little Egbert added a new kitchen and dining room to
his house. The kitchen was triangular with three doors. How could he arrange
three switches so that anybody entering at any door could turn the main lights
on and off just by throwing the adjacent switch? The dining room had four doors.
How could he arrange switches at all four dining room doors with the same capability?
(Note, I just got a new kitchen with three doors and a new dining room with
four doors.)
4. Here's another sphere problem. Little Egbert sat atop a 16-ft stepladder,
in Quito, Ecuador, astride the equator. He lowered a weight by a thread from
a well-defined point at the top of the ladder to mark the place on the ground
directly below it. Then he pulled up the weight—and waited—and dropped
it. It hit the ground at a place not exactly the same as the first point. What
was the difference in position? This goes to show that when you drop something,
it does not just fall "down." (Unless you are at the North Pole or the South
Pole.) Assume the radius of the Earth is 4000.000 miles and that g = 32.0 ft/s2.
Thus, the rotational velocity of the Earth is 25,132.74 miles/24 hours, or 1047.20
mph, or 1535.89 ft/s, or 18430.70 in./s. An accuracy of 1% is requested. (If
you have a release mechanism that does not affect the weight's transverse motion,
you can find out how far you are from the equator. Or, you could find out if
you have a release mechanism that does not affect the weight's transverse motion
by rotating the release mechanism in various directions.) (a) 1.4 mils (b) 14
(c) 34.2 (d) 112
5. Compute the square root of 156 to a precision better than 1 ppm.
(It is easy to compute to 1 ppb.)
The answers will be published in Electronic Design. Complete solutions
with explanations will be posted on my Web site at www.national.com/rap on
April 15. (I apologize in advance for any complaints that I should have written
this in metric terms. Sorry, but that's not going to happen. Brain puzzlers
do not start out "There was a hemispherical mountain with a radius of 1609.265
m...")
Comments invited! rap@galaxy.nsc.com —or: Mail Stop D2597A, National
Semiconductor P.O. Box 58090, Santa Clara, CA 95052-8090