Google, with its creative, youthful subculture, is famous as a great place to work and for its lengthy, grueling interview process that involves bizarre puzzles and brainteasers. A typical question is outlined below, followed by some of the responses to it I found on the net. As Google concedes, many of its questions do not have a single right response. They are designed to reveal a candidate’s approach to problem-solving. Feel free to share your own!
You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?
A1: You simply jump out. As you are scaled down, the ratio of muscle mass to total mass remains the same. Potential energy is given by E = mgh. So, if E/m is unchanged (where E is the energy expended in expanding your leg muscles, and m is your mass), then h is unchanged. Mini-me jumps as high as me. This is the reason why grass-hoppers can jump about as high as people.
A2: I hardly think that anyone being shrunk down that small would even be able to get over the shock of the situation quickly enough to think themselves out of the situation. I’d probably spend a good 10 minutes just trying to figure what the hell happened and where the hell I was. It sounds like Google has been watching too many “Honey I Shrunk …” movies.
A3: From the inside, put both hands and your head firmly against the glass. Plant your feet firmly and begin to rock the blender back and forth – like when you are rocking your car out of a snowbank – and gradually build up the momentum until you topple the blender over on its side. You have over 60 seconds to build up enough momentum to knock it over. Walk out.
A4: If your density stays the same then there is a higher concentration of particles inside than outside. Therefore the medium would equalize and particles would leave your body and you would end up with a density of 1(water). So as the pressure decreases so does volume. So eventually you would end up with 1/1 =1 so the blender would have no effect.
A5: Take off shirt and/or pants. Tie knots to close wrist and neck holes (or each pant leg). Push body against the side of the glass until just above the blades or as far up as possible. When the blades start, jump out over them with the shirt/pants over my head. Let the air vortex carry me up and out of the blender and float to a safe landing on the counter. 🙂 Reminds me of girl scouts.
A6: First, I would be pissed that I was the height of a nickel. Second, I would commit suicide.
A7: Bah, I don’t think merely staying alive in the blender is the way to go. You have no idea when or if the blender will ever be turned off. In fact, the fact that you’ve been placed in a blender in the first place implies that there is a malicious entity involved, someone who wants to see you minced.
A8: I’ll do nothing, because I will shortly implode and die from unbearable tensile forces.
A9: I’m confused, if you’re the height of a nickel and you’re thrown into a blender, wouldn’t the fall kill or seriously injure you?
A10: I quickly realize that even if I get out, I am only the size of a nickel, and will probably never get laid again, so I place my neck on the blade and close my eyes till my 60 seconds are up.
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Note:
I complete three months of blogging today (42 posts). A minor milestone but I feel good about it. I am grateful to those who leave thoughtful comments, or email me, or talk to me about it, and make this activity more engaging and worthwhile.
StatCounter shows that I average 100+ unique visitors a day, of which ~15% are returnees (trends are pointing up). Other than the usual suspects, I don’t know who the other regulars are and would of course love to find out. Please post a comment or email me sometime; tell me how you found my blog, and perhaps even what you like/dislike about it, any memorable posts, etc. (I’m not fishing for compliments :-).
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