This week, I’m going back to the good ole engineering brainteaser. This one is for all you who have to fight to find a parking spot at work! The probability of finding the parking slot occupied is 1/3. You find it empty for 9 consecutive days. Find the probability that it will be empty on the 10th day. You can find this brainteaser and many others at GineersNow.com: Can You Answer These Brain Teasers Like a Silicon Valley Engineer?
fun
-
-
Happy Halloween Denizens of Digital Gotham! Tonight is Halloween, and tomorrow is November 1st, which is the famed Mexican holiday Día de Muertos (A.K.A. Day of the Dead)—a scary-fun time indeed! Therefore, I’m honoring the traditional holiday of “Tricks and Treats” (and other things to go “bump in the night”) in this post just because. All Hallows’ Eve, as Halloween is sometimes known, is celebrated not only in America but in countries from Australia, most countries in Europe, to Japan, among others. Though this holiday unofficially kicks off the American Holiday Season (consisting also of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s Eve, to name a few), it has its roots in Gaelic, Welsh, and Christian influences. For most people who celebrate Halloween it’s usually about getting in costume (like a Bat with a cape! LOL!), going to parties, and if you’re a kid, ringing on people’s doors and “legally” asking for candy! Of course, Digital Batman celebrates Halloween every week when he writes this blog in his cape and cowl. Hahaha!
-
March 13, 2020Chris Ramsay is not your usual nerd. Between his ZZ-Top-like beard, sleeve tattoos, and quotidian hoodie/baseball cap, you would foolishly think that he is not one of the world’s greatest puzzle solvers. And you would be wrong! This guy has built up a massive YouTube subscriber following of over 6.62 million, that’s million with an M, subscribers solving Level 10 puzzles. Level 10 puzzles are the hardest possible puzzles in the world that would drive most of us bonkers trying to solve. But not Chris Ramsay. In fact, he thrives on these challenges. He has spent countless hours attacking some of the world’s most difficult and craziest puzzles such as: The Impossible Excalibur Puzzle The Absolute Hardest Jigsaw Puzzle The Hardest Lock Puzzle in History And many, many others. Even though the amount of time it may take for him to solve one of these could be half a day, his videos are thankfully edited down between 15 and 25 minutes (give or take)—and they are they are truly fascinating to watch. There’s also lot of sped up POV footage and pithy commentary as he tinkers with these mind-numbing enigmas. Another thing to note about Chris is that he’s a very good cinematic videographer as well. Frequently, he’ll introduce a new puzzle video with a sweeping array of lens flared artistic and themed cinematography along with an epic Game of Thrones-style music score. It’s his signature film style, coupled with his happy-go-lucky (and extremely patient) persona, along with his inconceivable ability to solve crazy puzzles that make him a YouTube sensation. If you like real physical 3D puzzles that you can touch, rotate, tinker with, and lose your mind over, then you want to watch Chris Ramsay’s YouTube Channel. He’s also got links to where you can purchase these puzzles yourself for hours of intense eye-hand-brain coordination entertainment that...
-
February 24, 2020In honor of the Oscars recently, I’ve decided to offer an engineering cinematic trivia contest. Why an engineering theme? Well, currently my day job is creating content for a great software company whose customers are engineers for manufacturing industries. So why not? See if you can guess the movie titles from the descriptions below (provide the years as well): Astronomer gets world to build a giant cosmic faster-than-light ship based on a message from space. Abandoned astronaut uses science to survive on desolate world while his crew mates figure out how to rescue him. American businessman builds largest airplane in the world and kicks off the airline industry while he descends into mental illness. Paranoid monarch takes a woman in lieu of tribute to fund building his massive robber-proof tomb. Two western men aid the Chinese army in defending their country from an invasion of a horde of supernatural creatures. The last one is not really about building anything as it simply glorifies a great ancient structure. In the meantime, Digital Batman’s got you covered with hints for you below!
-
January 27, 2020Here’s a quick little brainteaser for young and old alike! Slice the square into 4 identical sections, so that in each section there is 1 caterpillar with its leaf. One caterpillar will not have a leaf, she is taking a diet. This and many other great geometry puzzles can be found on BrainDen.com!
-
January 20, 2020When writing fun stuff for my company’s global communications site, sometimes I like to throw in a brainteaser every now and again—especially given that a lot of PTC’s employees and customers are engineers. So here are two geometry puzzles to get those old mental juices flowing! 64 = 65 Geometry Paradox Where does the hole in second triangle come from (the partitions are the same)? Write Numbers Write the numbers from 1 to 8 into the squares, so that the squares with consecutive numbers do not touch (neither edges nor corners). These and other amazing geometry puzzles can be found here on BrianDen.com.
-
October 14, 2019How many squares are in this image? But here’s the twist: you have to present your logic behind the answer.
-
April 20, 2016Not too long ago on a rainy night early in October 2015, I found myself attending my 30th high school reunion for the RHS Class of 1985. Attending Revere High School was, like for a lot of young people, both a harrowing and amazing experience. However, over the years, I seemed to only focus on the former, and had all but forgotten the latter. Why? It probably had to do with a less than pleasant personal life. My parents were split up, my family struggled to make ends meet, my social life was all over the place, my young romantic life was non-existent (not for lack of trying though), and I had no idea who and what I was or to become. In fact, as it turns out, I had many, many friends in high school who reminded me of just how much they liked me, and still liked me 30 years later. 30 years… Quite a long time to lose touch with so many good people. I basically avoided all the reunions until the last one like they were the plague. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. What turned me around? Believe it or not Facebook did. Say what you will about this social media network being a huge waste of time and a banal wasteland of inane babble, Facebook allowed me to reconnect with my old classmates reminding me of just how great they really were. A few people in particular, like Christine Ruberto (Berensten, her married name), really got me off my duff to come back to the fold and see everyone once again. And I’m sure glad she did! It was held at the Kowloon Restaurant in Saugus Mass. on Sunday October 4, 2015. Though the weather outside was rainy, the atmosphere inside was...