Editor’s note: Due to seasonal travel issues, the Monday Microsofty could not be published until today.
To be a good computer scientist or engineer, you have to be a nerd. Nerds like me are offended by flawed portrayals of mathematics and physics in movies and television. For example, in the classic 1939 Wizard of Oz Movie, when the Scarecrow got his brain, he said
“The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side.”
This mistake ruins what is an otherwise wonderful movie for me. I can accept flying monkeys, witches riding brooms and Lollipop Guild Munchkins. But not bad math.
The Scarecrow was trying unsuccessfully to quote Pythagoras’s theorem:
“In a right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides.”
By contrast, the TV series The Big Bang Theory and its spin-off Young Sheldon, are fairly accurate in their math and physics. (Their treatment of Christianity is embarrassingly shallow.) Both the dialogue and the equations on the whiteboard are almost always meaningful. I liked to show off to my wife by explaining what the equations mean but she remained perpetually unimpressed.
This brings us to a classic episode of television’s Alfred Hitchcock Presents which I recently watched. “Crackpot” first aired January 5, 1957 (Season 2, Episode 15.) In the opening scene, a newlywed couple suffers a flat tire and sees that their spare tire is also low on air. Along comes a Good Samaritan who connects the air in his fully inflated spare tire with a hose to the couple’s low-pressure spare tire. The pressure in the two tires equals out and the happy couple can drive on.
But is this good physics? Consider the case where two identical balloons are connected as shown. One is more inflated than the other.
What happens?
Counterintuitively, the small balloon empties into the big balloon. Take a look at a video showing this outcome:
Now back to the Alfred Hitchcock story: Assume the tires are identical. Deflated, the tire low on air will be smaller than the fully inflated tire. So, like the smaller balloon, the smaller tire should empty into the larger tire. Right? If so, then the scene in the Alfred Hitchcock is bogus.
And it may be the reason I’ve never heard of a tire connection hose.
So this week’s Micro Softy question is: Is Alfred Hitchcock’s tire story right or wrong? And why?
Solution to Micro Softy 58: Is a Famous Bassist His Own Grandfather?
First, here’s the question: Rolling Stone’s bassist Bill Wyman married an 18-year-old named Mandy Smith in 1989 when he was 52. Wyman’s son, Stephen later dated and married Mandy’s mother, Patsy Smith. We showed last week that this made Bill his own grandfather by marriage. So last week’s question was this: If Bill is his own grandfather, does it mean Bill is also his own grandson?
No, Bill is not his own grandson. Look at the logic loop from last week. Bill is his own grandfather through the marriage loop (as Stephen’s father and Mandy’s husband, with Patsy marrying Stephen). But he cannot be his own grandson because he’s not the child of his own children or descendants in this scenario.
The Monday Micro Softy is a weekly feature of GeekPlanet News. Here are the links to all the puzzles and answers to date:
Monday Microsofty 58: Is a famous bassist his own grandfather? Rolling Stone bassist can make such a claim but how far can he take it? Is he also his own grandson? We are reversing our usual order and giving the answer to #57 first. Ben could have one of two possible family relationships to me.
Monday Micro Softy 57: My Mother’s Mother-in-Law. Can you figure out this “relativity” puzzle? Part of the trick to solving Monday Microsofty 56 is to decide whether or not to give it a high five.
Monday Micro Softy 56: “Elon Musk”’s circle of numbers The circle of numbers looks pretty simple until you start thinking about it… If you suspected that last week’s talk of baseball was just a distraction from the real puzzle hint, now you can find out.
Monday Micro Softy 55: “It happens every spring.” Baseball, that is. Here’s a puzzle that takes in baseball’s summer. To solve last week’s puzzle, you don’t need to know the distance. Check the problem again for the number you do need to know. You can find puzzles 51 through 54 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 50: Cutting through the cornbread. How did Yuri Senior cut the cornbread into eight identical portions using only three straight cuts? You can guess the answer to Microsofty 49 if you try the test question yourself at home, using a small mirror. Links to Microsofties 46 through 49 are here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 45: Can Tony beat the fast-food curfew? An early curfew on fast food service motivated a boy to exercise more vigorously. But how fast was he pedaling? To solve Micro Softy 44, recall that Tony doesn’t need to take the individual pills each day, only the prescribed amount of each. You will find links here to Micros Softies 41 through 44 as well.
Monday Micro Softy 40: The fate of a false prophet. He wasn’t actually fired for being a false prophet but for something that his prophecy unintentionally revealed. The solution to Micro Softy 39 lies in considering an alternative possible meaning of a word commonly used in sports. You will also find links to Micro Softies 30 through 39 and their answers here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 29: A funeral lament in four lines. The funeral director was puzzled by Dan’s description of his relationship to the deceased but there was no question that his grief was sincere Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 22 through 29.
Monday Micro Softy 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills. Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 11 through 20 as well.
Monday Micro Softy 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar? Here you will find links to the first ten Micro Softies. Have fun!
