Thursday 13 January 2011

The Vanishing Dollar

Three guys go to a restaurant and the bill ends up being $30.
They each pay $10.
The waiter takes the money to the cashier
who says that it should have been $25 instead of $30.
The waiter takes $5 back to the three guys
and gives them each $1 and keeps $2 for himself.
They have each now paid $10 minus $1 = $9.
3 x 9 = 27
+ 2 (that the waiter kept) = $29.
But they paid $30.
Where is the missing dollar?

Hypotenuous

Useful Latin Phrases

Salvé! (Hello!)
Nómen mihí est Quinctílió. (My name is Quinctilius.)
Quid nómen tibí est? (What is your name?)
Ut valés? (How are you?)
Valeó, et tú? (I'm well, and you?)
Aegrótó. (I'm ill.)
Ubí latrína est? (Where is the toilet?)

Ubí habitás? (Where do you live?)
Habitó Rómae. (I live in Rome.)
Liceatne mihí numerum telephonicum tuum habére? (May I have your phone number?)
Labóró capite. (I have a headache.)
Nunc est mihí domum féstínandum. (Now I have to go home.)
Valé! (Good bye!)

Spectacles

It is the theory which decides what we can observe.
— Albert Einstein

You see what your knowledge tells you you're seeing.
— James Burke 'The Day The Universe Changed: The Way We Are'

Concepts Vs The External World

Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world.
— Albert Einstein 'The Evolution of Physics'

One More World Lost …

It is not only species of animal that die out, but whole species of feeling. And if you are wise you will never pity the past for what it did not know, but pity yourself for what it did.
— John Fowles 'The Magus'

Creating Images

When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as poetry. The poet, too, is not so nearly concerned with describing facts, but creating images.
— Niels Bohr to Werner Heisenberg

Peripheral Vision

I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over.
Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the centre.
— Kurt Vonnegut

In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.
— Albert Camus

Widely Held Beliefs

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.
— Bertrand Russell

Observing Relations

Physics is not events, but observations; relativity is the understanding of the world, not as events, but as relations.
— Jacob Bronowski 'The Ascent Of Man'

Inverse Proportions

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
— Albert Einstein