medievalelks

Again, don't spoil it if you've seen this before. It's from the same book as the other.

Five people are in a room with no windows, no furniture, etc. The floor is a cement slab. Embedded in the middle of the floor standing vertically is a foot long metal pipe. At the bottom of the pipe is a ping pong ball, with roughly 1mm of clearance all the way around.

Problem: Get the ball out of the pipe without damaging the ball, pipe, or floor. You have the following at your disposal: One carpenter's hammer, a 12" wood ruler, a 6" piece of string, a paper clip, and a refrigerator magnet.

SlyMaelstrom

Ummm... would one of my fellow occupants happen to be MacGyver?

I guess I have several questions (which clearly have nothing to do with the actual solution, because you would have mentioned them). Can the ruler fit in the pipe? can the hammer head fit in the pipe? is the magnet powerful enough to be pulled by the hammer head if the ball was in between? Is the string edible if I get bored?

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Terms of Service

Mario F.

hmm...

Ideally the clip should somehow be put under the ball. Then the magnet would do the rest slowly pushing the paper clip up and, with it, the ball.

... I guess

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Originally Posted by brewbuck:
Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

medievalelks

Recount the inventory of everything in the room besides the pipe and ball.

Mario F.

yes, yes. just thinking out loud here

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Originally Posted by brewbuck:
Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

zacs7

Well it's easy if MacGyver was there, just get him to build a death-ray, problem solved.


Seriously, I'd just suck the ball out of the pipe with my mouth

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"I.T. gets the chicky-babes" - M. Kelly
bakefile | vim

MacGyver

You rang, sir?

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Thantos

1) Leave the room
2) Go to a game store
3) Buy a new ping pong ball
4) Realize that paying the 50 cents for a new ball is much more time and cost efficient then trying to get the ball out of the pipe.

KISS baby

medievalelks

That's not it, but realizing that none of the items I listed are of any help is the first step to the real solution.

Also, are you married?

jEssYcAt

I'll go the clean route, though I can imagine what is intended with 5 people...

Pour, uh, water into the pipe until the ball floats to the top. If we use anything else, I don't think I want the ping-pong ball that badly.

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abachler: "A great programmer never stops optimizing a piece of code until it consists of nothing but preprocessor directives and comments "

medievalelks

Ding, ding!

You got it - float it out.

Dave_Sinkula

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrPb41hzYdw

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7. It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct one.
40. There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.*

medievalelks

If that chimp is so smart, how come he hasn't evolved yet? Dumb chimp.

Mario F.

Wow. A brain teaser in which the solution is not part of the problem. I've had better readings in my dentist waiting room.

EDIT: By the way, how does the book propose you fill the tube if there's no "windows, etc" - I presume this also means doors - spit my guts out into a 40mm diameter 1 foot tall pipe? Maybe cut myself with the paper clip and bleed to death into it...

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Originally Posted by brewbuck:
Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

medievalelks

Think outside of the bladder.