Monday 7 March 2011

How many golf balls?

Answer to last teaser: The man is a dwarf. Everyday he rides the elevator to the bottom floor, but on his way up he can't reach the elevator button to the penthouse floor. So instead, he rides to the highest level he can reach, then walks the remaining way up the stairs. On rainy days, he uses his umbrella to press the button.

Great stuff you guys! I saw a lot of right answers in the comments. That tells me my followers aren't just a bunch of dummies =). With no riddle challenges, let's go on to today's riddle! This next one is a classic stress test that is commonly used in interviews. It can also be used to gauge intuition, creativity, problem solving, attention to detail, calculation, etc etc... There is no trick; the point is not to get the right answer, but instead to derive a detailed method that would allow you to arrive at an approximate number. I hope everyone gives it a shot because I'd like to see some deep thinking here! Remember, no wrong answers!

How many golf balls would fit inside a school bus?


Go!

35 comments:

  1. Enough to make it float to the surface if it ever went into a lake or river. :P

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  2. Great answer to the last teaser!

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  3. At least 1 would fit in a school bus.

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  4. oooo it was a dwarf...i have some ideas on the new riddle, will wait till tomorrow for the answer..

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  5. always room for one more golf ball. ;)

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  6. Say a ball takes up a space of 10cm cubed and a bus has a volume of 1,500L.
    1,500L = 15,000cm cubed
    15,000 / 10
    = 1500 golf balls

    *There is no real math to this but the process I would use.

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  7. As many as it would take to fill it.

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  8. A lot? lol idk....

    Loving the idea of this blog btw. Keep 'em coming.

    +follow =]

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  9. I made a really long comment, it was longer than your post. I'm shortening it now: I figured about 700 golf balls could take up the matter I take up (just a guess) and worked around that, filled up the bus in layed down me's in a bus of say 22 seats, included the drivers seat plus the extra room on the bus and figured the number inclined towards 300k golf balls. That seems wrong, so I think I underestimated the amount of GB's, but it would still be my initial guess.

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  10. I think about half a million. Make it 100,000 if there are students inside though.

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  11. none, because the school bus is crammed with children D:

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  12. Is it one of those flat faced buses or the regular old ones? Short or long? Does it have all the seats inside it still, or has it been emptied?

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  13. Fill the bus with water.

    You know the volume of the water.

    Find the radius of a golfball.

    Find the volume of a golfball.

    Divide volume of water / golfball = number of golfballs :)

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  14. Depends... full size bus, or short bus?

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  15. Any golf ball could fit inside a school bus.

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  16. Well, 1 golf ball would fit in a school bus. It would seem silly to have a bus completely full of golf balls. The golf team wouldn't be able to get to the competition, nor have balls to use!

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  17. Seal the openings to the bus off and then immerse in a liquid. Record amount of water displaced. Now do the same thing with the windows, doors, etc. open and record amount of water displaced. Take the difference of the two amounts of water.

    Record the amount of water displaced by a single golfball and then divide the difference of water displaced by the bus by the amount displaced by the golfball.

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  18. I am the beginning of eternity, the end of time and space, the beginning of every end, and the end of everyplace. What am I?

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  19. My friend is a consultant and he always has to solve abstract problems like these. Very interesting stuff. Thank you for posting!

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    check out my blog

    usmonetaryscam.blogspot.com

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  21. All golf balls would.
    I love this blog!

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