When a genius misses an easy question

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  • Опубліковано 5 гру 2024

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  • @gordonweir5474
    @gordonweir5474 День тому +69

    The video and what I see in the comments make it seem as though Einstein was fooled by the question. And yet at 11:31 he correctly calculated that there was no time available for the trip down. I would say that he got it!

    • @juncheok8579
      @juncheok8579 День тому +8

      "Not until calculating did i notice..." implies he got tricked, even if it was for a few moments

    • @ThorfinnBus
      @ThorfinnBus День тому

      It means he was fully going calculation mode and wanted to subtract t trip-tascent. He was never tricked. He had the right method throughout​@@juncheok8579

    • @sonicwaveinfinitymiddwelle8555
      @sonicwaveinfinitymiddwelle8555 19 годин тому +1

      @@juncheok8579 yeah exactly, that's the human error everyone has when encountering a problem like 7 * 8 you have to calculate it in your head for a few moments

  • @timsmith8489
    @timsmith8489 День тому +52

    There's a story about someone giving John von Neumann this puzzle: Two trains 180 miles apart are on the same track going opposite directions toward each other, one traveling 10 miles/hour and the other 20 miles/hour. A fly starts on the front of one train and flies toward the other at 60 miles/hour. As soon as it reaches the other it turns around and flies back at that same speed to the first train. When it reaches that it reverses, and so on, until the fly finally is crushed when the two train collide. Question: how far does the fly fly?
    von Neumann instantly gives the correct answer. The person then said "Oh, you saw the trick! Most people just try to sum an infinite series!".
    von Neumann than said "I did sum the infinite series! There's a trick?"

    • @michaelz6555
      @michaelz6555 День тому +7

      Just so we're all on the same page, it's 360 miles, right?
      Of course I solved the answer in my head and I also summed the series. But the series was the sum of the two speeds giving me the relative speed between the trains (30mph), giving me a time to collision (6hr), and the total distance traveled by the fly (60mph x 6hr = 360miles).

    • @akuunreach
      @akuunreach День тому +5

      I did it by combining the speeds, 30mph, 180miles, 6hrs, then how far the fly can get at 60mph.
      After solving, I realized, I could have solve as follows.
      Combined the speed, observe that the fly is traveling at double the speed, and note that it would cover double the distance, and arrived at 360mi

    • @markbothum4338
      @markbothum4338 День тому +3

      Well, 180 miles covered at a combined speed of 30 mph takes 6 hours. Fly always travels at 60 mph during that time = 360 miles. Easy peasy.

    • @Nobody-tu5wt
      @Nobody-tu5wt 18 годин тому +2

      Harder question would be, how many times does the fly turns?

    • @akuunreach
      @akuunreach 18 годин тому +6

      @@Nobody-tu5wt As the 2 trains get closer and closer, the number of turns approach infinity if I'm not mistaken.

  • @nicholasharvey1232
    @nicholasharvey1232 День тому +70

    6:57 I've seen this one before. In order to average 30 mph for a 2 mile trip, the car has to make that trip in 4 minutes. But the car already took 4 minutes to travel the first mile, therefore the car would have to teleport the rest of the way!
    If you average a speed of x for the first half of any trip, it is impossible to average a speed of 2x for the full trip.

    • @Sonny_McMacsson
      @Sonny_McMacsson День тому +3

      Einstein was figuring out HOW to do it, considering he's gonna need a wormhole.

    • @AlbertTheGamer-gk7sn
      @AlbertTheGamer-gk7sn День тому

      @@Sonny_McMacsson And then, there has been rumors that Einstein's spirit got cloned by magical equation sheets, so when he was proclaimed dead, his clone spirit quantum materialized a clone body and teleported underground into a base, where he would then change his name to "Doc Brown", and then he would then suffer a blow to the head which will cause him to use his theory of relativity to figure out the way to create a flux capacitor to make wormholes, as well as a hyperinfinipotent liquid known as "Time Juice" to power it, and then created a DeLorean Time Machine to the future, where he then drank a potion of immortality.

    • @logx-ow1us
      @logx-ow1us День тому

      Oh that’s why I was so confused. I kept using d=rt while looking at he thumbnail

    • @stevehorne5536
      @stevehorne5536 День тому +2

      I've seen this before too, and my answer is that "average" is ambiguous for this - I'll stick with the arithmetic mean anyway, but if you average WRT distance instead of time you get that for the second mile the speed must have been 45mph. Remember - you can average anything WRT any variable you want. For what averaging speed WRT distance is (in the general case) that you integrate the (varying) speed WRT distance, then divide by total distance. When you're given averages for intervals that sum to the overall interval, that simplifies to a weighted average of those discrete intervals. When those smaller intervals are all equal, that simplifies to the sum-all-the-values-and-divide-by-the-number-of-values average - in this case (15+k)/2 = 30 which solves to k=45.
      Just because averaging WRT time is what you'd normally expect for problems involving speeds, doesn't mean it's the only possible option. People will say that speed is by definition an average given by distance per unit time, but they're wrong - speed is by definition the (calculus) derivative of distance WRT time, which can vary continuously, and while it's natural to average WRT time when using a derivative WRT time (giving you a convenient integral-is-the-inverse-of-derivative simplification), you can average WRT any variable you like.
      ["speed is by definition the (calculus) derivative of distance WRT time, which can vary continuously" is a slip-up, and unsurprisingly confusing. As mentioned in a much later comment, think in terms of a graph of speed WRT whatever - here, either time or distance, and averaging the height of the curve without caring what units are along the x-axis. The average is a speed irrespective - the units of the y-axis. The average WRT whatever based on integration is the integral of speed WRT whatever, divided by the total interval of whatever. The integral of speed WRT distance is in different units (distance squared per time) vs. the integral of speed WRT time (distance), but then you divide by the interval width along the x-axis in whatever units apply to that particular graph, and get back to speed either way. So WRT "but it's correct" below - well, no it wasn't (sigh) but that's an error in writing it out while half-asleep, not in the underlying principle.]
      It's not a popular answer, based on the last time I gave it, but it's correct - averages aren't even always arithmetic means (median, mode, geometric mean, harminic mean, many other kinds of mean) but, assuming the arithmetic mean, you can average over intervals of any kind you want, or you can even have averages of a list of numbers with no intervals specified (so assuming equal weight to each number) - again (15+45)/2 = 30. Personally, I'd consider my answer wrong normally (we generally know what is meant by "average speed" - ie. WRT time), but if someone asks an absurd question, I say exploit any ambiguity because ignoring conventional interpretation is the lesser absurdity.
      Averaging per distance travelled makes a lot more sense in reality when looking at fuel use - many road conditions vary with the interval of distance you're travelling on (others varying with time due to weather and traffic, others varying depending on the mood of the driver). Gallons per mile times miles = total gallons.

    • @nicholasharvey1232
      @nicholasharvey1232 День тому +2

      @@stevehorne5536 He explained why 45 is incorrect, you must go by total distance divided by total time to get average speed, even if the car drove 200 mph down the hill, the 4 minutes required for a 30 mph average speed are already "used up" so as additional seconds tick by, so the maximum possible average speed of the trip ticks down from that 30 mph target. After 8 minutes, it similarly becomes impossible to average 15 mph for the trip, because the required time threshold has already been passed. And as additional minutes pass from there, the maximum possible average speed gets lower and lower, no matter how fast the trip is completed.

  • @dinoeebastian
    @dinoeebastian 22 години тому +6

    I kept trying to do Einstein's question, getting to the divide by 0 part, and assuming I did something wrong and starting over for like an hour

  • @ovalteen4404
    @ovalteen4404 День тому +10

    The sum of dice property is used to great effect in table-top games such as D&D. For instance, when rolling a character's stats, you roll 3 6-sided dice and sum them. The probability creates a bell curve that makes the midpoint between 1 and 18 the most common, which works out well at making 10 and 11 the most common stat, with either extreme (3 or 18) the least likely. So just as the "geniuses" are least common in reality, the rolling of a genius stat is also the least likely.

    • @asdfqwerty14587
      @asdfqwerty14587 13 годин тому

      Just a correction there - it is not a bell curve. With 2 dice it's actually just an upside down V with no curves at all, just 2 straight lines. With 3 dice it's a bit more complicated, but still isn't a normal distribution.
      Also, the mid point with 3 dice is half way between 3 and 18, not 1 and 18.

    • @mrosskne
      @mrosskne 7 годин тому

      @@asdfqwerty14587 He was referring to 3 dice, not 2, and he didn't say it was a normal distribution. He said it was a bell curve, which it is. This is an impressive amount of being wrong and simultaneously not responding to what the comment you're replying to actually said.

    • @asdfqwerty14587
      @asdfqwerty14587 7 годин тому

      @@mrosskne A bell curve is the normal distribution. That is the dictionary definition of it. Google the definition of it and link on the front page will say that it refers to a normal distribution, including the one coming from a dictionary.

    • @mrosskne
      @mrosskne 3 години тому +1

      No, it's any curve shaped like a bell, sorry.

  • @plentyofpaper
    @plentyofpaper День тому +17

    The hill problem is something that I've often thought about as both a bicyclist and a runner.
    The problem is intuitive if you're talking about differences in speed over fixed amounts of time, but not distance.
    This is basically why dealing with hills, even on a round trip is more of a pain than just a level path.

    • @roberteltze4850
      @roberteltze4850 День тому

      When I was young I used to run such calculations while staring at my head unit on my bike. These days I just ride without caring much about the numbers.

    • @mrosskne
      @mrosskne 7 годин тому

      The trip problem has nothing at all to do with hills, that's basically a red herring. The result is the same if you're on flat ground.

    • @plentyofpaper
      @plentyofpaper 4 години тому

      @@mrosskne That would imply that the speed increase of going downhill is greater than the speed decrease of going uphill.
      Do you assert that to be true? I can't say it's wrong for sure, bit it strikes me as counterintuitive.

    • @mrosskne
      @mrosskne 3 години тому

      @@plentyofpaper It doesn't matter. The point of the problem is that you travel one speed for the first leg and a different speed for the second. It could be talking about a submarine or a spaceship. The problem's flavor is irrelevant.

  • @jcortese3300
    @jcortese3300 День тому +24

    Translation: "If I have to be at work by 8am, and I'm only halfway there when the clock strikes 8am, how fast do I have to drive to get to work on time?"
    YOU CAN'T. You will be late to work no matter how fast you go.

    • @Bigchickenburger
      @Bigchickenburger День тому

      If u go at infinite speed u can reach or just light speed

    • @Hunni125
      @Hunni125 День тому

      or it could still be 8am when you arrive.

    • @Yehan-xt7cw
      @Yehan-xt7cw 22 години тому +1

      What if the work place is in a timezone west of you? (could be as simple as a short drive crossing a border)

    • @tychozzyx9439
      @tychozzyx9439 18 годин тому +1

      You are not thinking with portals

    • @mrosskne
      @mrosskne 7 годин тому

      @@Hunni125 No, it could not.

  • @markofdistinction6094
    @markofdistinction6094 День тому +13

    I once thought that I made a mistake ... but I was wrong.

    • @c.l.4895
      @c.l.4895 17 годин тому

      As a middle aged white man on the internet, I’ve never been wrong.

  • @dache85
    @dache85 День тому +19

    7:59 i remember one video where you argued "half of two plus two" is 1/2 * 2 + 2 and not 1/2 * (2 + 2), because 1/2 (2 + 2) would be said as "half of *the sum* of two and two" or "half of *the quantity* two plus two" but look where we are now

    • @mrosskne
      @mrosskne 7 годин тому

      Words aren't precise, that's why we don't use them for math.
      You can avoid ambiguity by saying "one half, multiply, open bracket, two, add, two, close bracket". But then you might as well just use the symbols.

  • @solandri69
    @solandri69 День тому +20

    Averaging speeds over the same distance requires taking a harmonic mean.
    2/v_avg = 1/v1 + 1/v2
    The reason is that you've defined the problem as saying the two legs of the trip cover the same _distance._ So to calculate it, the _distance_ needs to be in the denominator (since they're the same distance), just like when you add two fractions they need to have the same denominator. Since miles/hr has distance in the numerator, you need to flip it to put distance in the denominator before calculating the average.
    If the problem had been the car spends 1 hour driving 15 mph, and 1 hour driving v2 mph, then the time is equal for both legs, so time needs to go in the denominator. Which it already is for mph, so you can solve _that_ as v_avg = (v1 + v2)/2. And v2 = 45 mph would be correct.
    Same issue crops up with fuel efficiency in the U.S. (which uses miles per gallon). If you've got a car which gets 20 mpg and another car which gets 40 mpg and you drive both cars the same distance over the year, then the average mpg is the harmonic mean. Resulting in an average mileage of 26.7 mpg.
    OTOH, if you put 15 gallons in the 20 mpg car, and 15 gallons in the 40 mpg car (same gallons, instead of same distance), and drive both until their tank is empty, then the average mileage will be 30 mpg.
    Since the vast majority of driving you do is based on distance, not how much fuel you have, the rest of the world uses "liters per 100 km" to avoid this inversion issue (puts distance in the denominator).

    • @Llortnerof
      @Llortnerof 14 годин тому

      ...and because they use metric instead of (Hamburger*Eagle)/Shotgun^Footballfields.

    • @mrosskne
      @mrosskne 7 годин тому

      None of this is necessary.
      If you want an average speed of 30 mph (~45 fps) over 2 miles (~10600 ft), the trip must take ~236 seconds.
      You traveled 5300 ft at 22.5 fps, so it took you 236 seconds. You have zero seconds to travel the remaining distance. If you want to reach an average speed of 30 mph, it will take you more than one mile of additional travel to reach it, no matter how fast you accelerate.

  • @andrewewart7166
    @andrewewart7166 День тому +5

    For the first puzzle, given the 2 results you can get a third result for r in terms of a and c only which comes to r = (a+c) + sqrt(2ac) or r = (a+c) - sqrt(2ac) (both values work as a,c > 0, so a+c > sqrt(2ac))

    • @Cassu1987
      @Cassu1987 11 годин тому

      However, for the second solution the side lengths of the rectangle are a - sqrt(2ac) and c - sqrt(2ac) and at least one of them is guaranteed to be negative, which we probably don't want to accept.

  • @malcolmtaylor1224
    @malcolmtaylor1224 День тому +31

    It isn't necessary to travel at an infinite speed for the trip down. Just travel at the speed of light and time stands still.

    • @Dysan72
      @Dysan72 День тому +7

      At that point you need to ask what clock you are going by. Because by the clocks of the rest of the universe it still takes you some time to travel that last bit, even at the speed of light.

    • @rogerkearns8094
      @rogerkearns8094 День тому +1

      Love pedantry. ;)
      Still, either way, the given problem has no practical solution..

    • @simpleminded1uk
      @simpleminded1uk 22 години тому +3

      The answer is C. Even though it isn't a multiple choice question.

    • @tezzerii
      @tezzerii 20 годин тому

      In an old car which can only manage 15mph up the hill.

    • @asdfqwerty14587
      @asdfqwerty14587 19 годин тому +1

      There are a few problems with this.
      1) If you're moving at/very close to the speed of light and you're talking about the frame of reference of the car, then the distance will not be 1 mile anymore. Relativity causes the lengths to change too, not just time. Even if you were talking about a wacky frame of reference the math would still work out the same and it would still be impossible. The only way you could come up with different answers is if you're talking about things like trying to calculate the speed of an object by taking the distance from 1 frame of reference and the time from a different frame of reference, which is a nonsense measurement which doesn't actually calculate anything useful (by that logic you could come up with literally any number, you could even say the car is travelling backwards if you wanted to).
      2) If you're talking about the frame of reference of the object itself, then "the car isn't moving at all" - there's no such thing as measuring the speed of an object from its own frame of reference, because obviously the car is always at the same position relative to itself.

  • @ashtonaughtband
    @ashtonaughtband День тому +4

    Technically with time dilation it is possible and you wouldn't need to hit the speed of light because there is also very very very slight time dilation on the ascent as well. So it would be like (4 -(10^-32)) mins for the accent and 1O^-32 mins for the descent.

    • @ericpaul4575
      @ericpaul4575 День тому

      So what speed is that on decent?

    • @tezzerii
      @tezzerii 20 годин тому

      @ashtonaughtband Except that you're in an old car that can only manage 15mph up the hill. =o)

    • @ashtonaughtband
      @ashtonaughtband 17 годин тому

      @@ericpaul4575 so I think you save 1.44 e-13 seconds on the ascent so I think you'd have to travel the equivalent of 6.944e12 miles per sec (without time dilation) I'm not sure how to convert that back to relative light speed (with time dilation) or I guess unwilling to figure it out.

    • @OhhCrapGuy
      @OhhCrapGuy 12 годин тому

      ​@@ashtonaughtbandyou just need to play with the Lorentz factor. I'll calculate it when I get up from my nap, if I remember

    • @mrosskne
      @mrosskne 7 годин тому

      Yes, that's why the simple arithmetic problem didn't mention time dilation. Because you were supposed to consider time dilation. Christ.

  • @TheRealMirCat
    @TheRealMirCat День тому +24

    Therefore, Officer, it was impossible for me to be speeding.

    • @scarletevans4474
      @scarletevans4474 12 годин тому

      I like how asking someone very bad at math could actually have them solve it immediately!
      Me: "I want you to solve this problem: [...]"
      Friend (bad at math): "Impossible!" (as impossible for him)
      Me: "That's the correct answer!"

  • @CatholicSatan
    @CatholicSatan День тому +12

    Hah! That Einstein problem... I was getting annoyed with myself because I was getting an infinite speed/zero time for the descent and thought I was calculating it wrong. And then I thought, nah, it's a trick question 🙂

    • @hrayz
      @hrayz День тому

      Like reverse psychology, it's a reverse trick question. Ie: Not the trick you're thinking of!! 🤣

  • @johng.1703
    @johng.1703 День тому +4

    looking at the car problem, to get a 30mph average, and you can only do 15mph for the 1st half of the trip you would have 0 time to do the 2nd mile, it takes the same amount of time to travel 2*D at 2*T as it does to travel 1*D at 1*T.
    this problem is deceptive in that it is really a time problem, not a speed problem.

    • @mrosskne
      @mrosskne 7 годин тому

      A speed problem is a time problem.

  • @danielbranscombe6662
    @danielbranscombe6662 День тому +7

    So Feynman's solution actually presents a restriction on viable values for a,b,c. If you instead use b for r in his equation and then solve for b you get that
    b=a+c-sqrt(2ac)
    so for any other value of b given a,c then the problem is unsolvable because the combination is invalid.
    For example if a=2,c=9 then we get b=17. If instead we are given instead b=19 then there is no possible rectangle with diagonal 19 such that to given quarter circle has the extra lengths a,c as given.

  • @planethedgehog2427
    @planethedgehog2427 7 годин тому +1

    5:15 "Imagine we roll one *dice."* Nope, I can't. But I can imagine rolling one *die.* 🎲

  • @reinisliepins6177
    @reinisliepins6177 День тому +25

    I feel smart when i instantly got the dice problem.

  • @acem82
    @acem82 День тому +1

    6:46 ...I "invented" this problem a few years ago, trying to figure out why if I could ride my bike at 20 mph on the flat, why it was so hard to do so on a hilly course, if you get back all the energy you gained by going up the hill. I realized, that if the first half of the trip was up a hill you could only go up at 10 mph, you'd need to teleport down the hill to average 20 mph, and that allowed me to realize why the 20 mph assumption was wrong!

  • @reddblackjack
    @reddblackjack 10 годин тому

    I must be better at math than I thought. I had the b = r almost immediately. I've played craps in Vegas after reading a book on how to do it and already know that 11 is twice as likely as 12. I thought that the last one was a trick right away, too. It just didn't register exactly how it was tricky until the math was done. Another great video Talwalker!

  • @mjorge0alves
    @mjorge0alves 21 годину тому

    I love your videos. They are beautifully designed and presented in an absolutely clear way. I'd just point out two mistakes:
    1. The symbol for hour is just (upright or roman) h
    2. Since time depends on the observer's perspective, going at light speed does solve the problem, assuming the one person interested in completing the trip on such average speed is the driver. From his perspective, going at light speed does take him to the 2-mile mark instantly, whereas an observer (e.g., someone who had an appointment with him) would be pissed due to him arrving a fraction if a second late.

    • @tezzerii
      @tezzerii 21 годину тому

      Here's the thing though - it's an old car and can't manage more than 15mph up the hill ! So I reckon light speed is literally out of the question. =o)

    • @mjorge0alves
      @mjorge0alves 17 годин тому

      @tezzerii that seems likely. Also, technically, a wheeled vehicle can only reach half light speed. This is because the highest speeds on a vehicle are those of the upper part of the wheels. If those where at light speed, their center would be at light speed divided by two.

    • @mrosskne
      @mrosskne 7 годин тому

      It's an arithmetic problem, not a relativity problem. Get a clue.

  • @kane_lives
    @kane_lives 23 години тому +2

    "Never try! Trying is the 1st step to failure!" -- Grandmaster Ben Finegold

  • @kenmore01
    @kenmore01 День тому +5

    Einstein got it right. Thats what the video said. Also, he had time left to make bagels!

  • @dhpbear2
    @dhpbear2 День тому +2

    "I was going 70 miles an hour and got stopped by a cop who said, "Do you know the speed limit is 55 miles per hour?" "Yes, officer, I know but I wasn't going to be out that long..."
    -- Stephen Wright

  • @tomekiriazi8736
    @tomekiriazi8736 День тому

    The "famous right triangle theorem" made me LOL 😂😂

  • @flamesintheattic
    @flamesintheattic 23 години тому

    The speed for the second mile increases exponentially with every second spent driving under 30mph and hits infinity at 4min. If the car spent even a tiny fraction of a second driving faster, then a correct speed could be calculated to solve the puzzle. For example 15.0627mph for the first mile would leave 1 second at a speed of 3600mph to average out to 30mph for the whole trip.

    • @tezzerii
      @tezzerii 20 годин тому

      In an old car that can only manage 15mph up the hill . . .

  • @SJrad
    @SJrad День тому

    well because the other diagonal would also be b, it would be a straight line going from the center to the edge of the quarter circle, which means b is the radius of the circle. as for a and c, idk lol maybe somehow would be able to compute it in terms of r and b using trig functions.

  • @killerjg
    @killerjg 3 години тому

    Last question depends on if you are the observer or not, if you are not the observer you just need to instantly travel to the bottom. You can go at the speed of light if you are the one in the car and get to the bottom instantly. (assuming the car is massless.)
    You don't need to go faster than the speed of light you just need to travel at the speed of light if you are not the Observer.

  • @Kualinar
    @Kualinar День тому +1

    Question in the thumbnail... I went directly to : How much time it take for the first part (4 minutes) and how much time do I have for the full trip (also 4 minutes) ?

  • @SiqueScarface
    @SiqueScarface День тому

    When looking at the radius problem, I didn't notice the r=b shortcut at first. But when I looked at the quadratic solution, I immediately saw the 2ac - a² - c², and in my head converted it to -(a-c)², and now I had 2b²-(a-c)² and thus b² + b²-(a-c)² = b² + (a+b-c)(a+b+c), and slowly, it dawned me, that I missed something.

  • @Vex-MTG
    @Vex-MTG День тому +1

    The first question felt so obvious that I was SURE I was doing it wrong, especially when you went into your explanation. Nope, turns out it was just obvious. ;)

    • @bobross7473
      @bobross7473 11 годин тому

      It’s a trick question. The diagram is not an accurate representation of a quarter circle so there can be no radius

    • @Vex-MTG
      @Vex-MTG 11 годин тому

      @bobross7473 diagrams in math questions are rarely to scale. That's not a trick, that's a convention

  • @Omnifarious0
    @Omnifarious0 День тому +1

    Thumbnail problem: Infinity. The car would have to instantly travel the remaining mile in order for it to average 30mph for the whole trip.
    Circle radius problem. The answer is just r = b. The two diagonals of a rectangle are of equal length. One diagonal is the radius. The other you've labeled b.

    • @bobross7473
      @bobross7473 11 годин тому

      Circle radius is a trick question, there is no quarter circle because the two radii are unequal

    • @Omnifarious0
      @Omnifarious0 11 годин тому

      @@bobross7473 - Perhaps. I've encountered other trick problems that are effectively "I purposefully drew this inaccurately in a misleading way.".

  • @angrytedtalks
    @angrytedtalks День тому

    I didn't overthink the first one, it seemed obvious using trig that r=b.
    The second one is deeply obvious unless you think 6+5 and 5+6 are different.
    The last one takes a moment to realise the average speed is already sucked up by the ascent time.
    Sometimes overthinking or expectation stops the otherwise obvious from being apparent.

  • @marvhollingworth663
    @marvhollingworth663 День тому

    I got the dice thing & I said the car would have to teleport instantaneously to the bottom. (I've heard a version of the last puzzle before, but I got the answer then too.) My answer to the 1st puzzle was a bit more complicated, I should have noticed r = b. I said r = sqrt (b^2- (r-a) ^2) +c & r = sqrt (b^2- (r-c) ^2) +a. This seems a valid answer to me, but what do you think?

  • @WhoStoleMyAlias
    @WhoStoleMyAlias 9 годин тому

    Haha! This was a dead giveaway to me but out of interest I subjected my family to this riddle and for sure my wife responded 45mph. Next my kid who is in second grade middle school gave the exact same answer, so I asked him if he could calculate what the resulting times for both distances would be for the given average speeds. For sure he did calculate it was 4 minutes for both but due to the nature of the question he then concluded that the additional mile had to be run in less than a minute and ended up answering 60mph. So next I asked him if he could use seconds instead of minutes and the big question mark started rising above his head - ehm 3600mph? Granted I don't really know if he already learned the concept of infinity slash division by zero, I think back then I already had it in first grade, but I believe he really did get it when I gave him the answer.

  • @paulnieuwkamp8067
    @paulnieuwkamp8067 23 години тому

    Just look at the hill from a physics perspective instead of a math perspective. Due to significant figures you might make it if you go REALLY fast (for a car) on the descent: if the distances are 0.96 and 1.96 miles and the averages are 15.4 and 29.6 mph, but all written down with two significant figures, you would make it if you drove 2.6E+2 mph average, or accelerate with 1.6G if we don't account for stopping at the end (if I did all that correctly. Knowing my prowess with math, I probably made an error or two :P ).
    On the other hand, you could also be out of time before you even get to the top. Your mileage may vary...

  • @antonvanopstal
    @antonvanopstal 20 годин тому

    I've seen this riddle before and had hoped for a relativistic approach to the solution

  • @hookahkid
    @hookahkid 4 години тому +1

    If he travels at the speed of light, then no time passes for him, so the answer is approx 670,600,000 mph.

  • @mrosskne
    @mrosskne 8 годин тому

    If you want an average speed of 30 mph (~45 fps) over 2 miles (~10600 ft), the trip must take ~236 seconds.
    You traveled 5300 ft at 22.5 fps, so it took you 236 seconds. You have zero seconds to travel the remaining distance. If you want to reach an average speed of 30 mph, it will take you more than one mile of additional travel to reach it, no matter how fast you accelerate.

  • @marcelluswallace6240
    @marcelluswallace6240 14 годин тому

    There are several lines of thought to immediately get the answer to the Einstein puzzle. One of them is: If you you have a certain speed for a given distance and you want double the speed on double the distance then of course the time has to be exactly the same. This is true for any non-relativistic speed and any non-relativistic distance.
    If it's easier for you to calculate with certain numbers. Just imagine the first part of the hill to be exactly 15 retard units. Then the ascent takes 1 hour. The total distance would be 30 retard units and hence you also have 1 hour for the full distance to get the desired average speed. Which is of course impossible unless you are a massless particle...

  • @empmachine
    @empmachine День тому +2

    so: (a+c+b^2)/2 == b ??? I solved the 1st by saying a+(b^2)+c covers 2r, and then just divided.. am I wrong? (besides being overly complicated?)

  • @victorfinberg8595
    @victorfinberg8595 20 годин тому

    6:35
    mark antony disagrees:
    "the evil men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones"

  • @Raven-Creations
    @Raven-Creations 15 годин тому

    For the thumbnail question, no calculation is needed. If you cover double the distance in the same time, you've doubled the average speed. Therefore, you have to cover the second half in zero time, which means you need an infinite speed. This is conceivably possible if there's a wormhole between the top of the hill and the bottom, but it's otherwise impossible.

  • @andyespinozam
    @andyespinozam День тому

    Damn; you had me with the last one.

  • @DrAndyShick
    @DrAndyShick 6 годин тому

    ultimately, the equation becomes 1/30 = 1/30 + 1/(2v). In this, 1/(2v) must equal zero, which is not possible

  • @robertdubard7959
    @robertdubard7959 День тому +1

    Every one of these is trivially easy, IF you look at them a certain way.

  • @amethystjean1744
    @amethystjean1744 5 годин тому

    15 mph is 4 min mile. An average of 30 mph is 2 min mile or 4 min for 2 miles. So there is no answer that can work as we have already used 4 min in the first half of the trip.

  • @WillRennar
    @WillRennar День тому

    I refer to it as "a 5th-gear brain working on a 2nd-gear problem." If you think of the brain as a car engine, you can think of working on higher-end problems as being in a higher gear. Solving a simple problem with your brain in low gear is like trying to drive at a slow speed in a low gear; the engine handles it just fine. Trying to drive slow in a high gear, however, causes so few RPMs that the engine stalls and dies out, so it can't do it. ...A bit of a weird analogy, I admit, but it seems to get the point across.

  • @gonzalotapia1250
    @gonzalotapia1250 18 годин тому

    The first one... if you draw the diagonal in the other direction then you get the radius is....B.
    The second one: Nope. Theres 1 way to get 12 and 2 ways of getting 11. (5-6) and (6,5)

    • @Stubbari
      @Stubbari 17 годин тому

      Wrong.
      There are 2 ways of getting 11: 5+6 and 6+5

    • @Raven-Creations
      @Raven-Creations 15 годин тому

      @@Stubbari He said there were two ways. There was just a typo putting a hyphen instead of a comma. It was perfectly obvious what he meant.

    • @Stubbari
      @Stubbari 15 годин тому

      @@Raven-Creations Yep, I see he edited the mistake.

  • @UncleKennysPlace
    @UncleKennysPlace День тому +2

    My father showed us the first one, a half-century back.

  • @d007ization
    @d007ization День тому

    I vaguely knew about the Einstein riddle but I never figured out why it truly was the case.
    Of course, students might have an easier time understanding it by considering that a single B on their record means they'll never have true straight As.

  • @johnyoung9649
    @johnyoung9649 День тому

    If I do the second half of the trip at the speed of light, then time would stop for me.

  • @robertjarman3703
    @robertjarman3703 День тому

    You know, I actually thought about it using the second method you were talking about, with the idea of 4 minutes. I am not the best at math in my head for equations like this, but I did notice that it seemed like there wasn't enough time remaining to go that fast although I wasn't sure exactly why.

  • @jdlessl
    @jdlessl 13 годин тому

    Oh thank goodness. I clued in on r=b immediately, but thought I must have missed something.

  • @SarahAbramova
    @SarahAbramova День тому

    Thank you for this video!

  • @banibratamanna5446
    @banibratamanna5446 День тому

    for the last riddle actually we have to solve for x in 30=2/(1/15+1/x) ......it has the solution x=∞ which is not practical....

  • @krzysztofmazurkiewicz5270
    @krzysztofmazurkiewicz5270 День тому

    Now im curious, if you add relativity to the car puzzle, would it be possible that going up the hill time is little less then 4 minutes and then it goes to light speed with whatever time is left? ;)

  • @user-co9ge6vc3c
    @user-co9ge6vc3c 20 годин тому

    It's highly doubtful whether these geniuses were really involved in these, or whether these were just apocryphal anecdotes that get passed down because they make for good stories!

  • @panyachunnanonda6274
    @panyachunnanonda6274 21 годину тому

    Wow , so amazing technique of puzzle #1.

  • @richhughes5784
    @richhughes5784 День тому +6

    Dice is the plural of die. You don't say "one dice", you say "one die".

    • @davidloveday8473
      @davidloveday8473 14 годин тому +2

      Most people have said dice instead of die in the singular for decades now. I think dice for both singular and plural has long been fine.

    • @richhughes5784
      @richhughes5784 14 годин тому +4

      @@davidloveday8473 I wouldn't say most unless you have some stats to back that up, I would say many people may say it. But a lot of people user poor grammar a lot of the time. It still doesn't make it correct. Just like people using apostrophes for pluralizing words.

    • @mrosskne
      @mrosskne 7 годин тому

      Usage is meaning :)

  • @samuelgionet529
    @samuelgionet529 День тому

    My intuition said 60 mph, because if we go half the speed in the ascent, then we must double the speed in the descent. Alas, calculating it gave an overall speed of 24 mph. Very interesting problem!

  • @datapro007
    @datapro007 15 годин тому

    First, I don't believe that any of the geniuses mentioned were fooled by these trivial problems. It's a fable. Second, Presh always finds a way to complicate the solution. For example let's look at the last riddle. My solution: 60 mph = 1 mile per minute. 15 mph for a mile therefore takes 4 minutes. 30 mph for 2 miles take 4 minutes. Hence you can't average 30 mph. Duhhhhh.

  • @chinareds54
    @chinareds54 День тому

    Clearly Leibniz never played Settlers of Catan. The probabilities (out of 36) are printed as dots on the hex numbers. :p

  • @TheADDTinkerer
    @TheADDTinkerer День тому

    The first one doesn't seem right.
    C and A are supposedly different values which would indicate that it is not a quarter circle. Because of that the diagonal B can never be R.
    Unless C and A are equal of course, then B would be R.

    • @Stubbari
      @Stubbari День тому

      Yes, a≠c. b is always r.

    • @tezzerii
      @tezzerii 20 годин тому

      @TheADDTinkerer It is a quarter circle. It is possible to place a rectangle of any proportions in a quarter circle. And so long as the one corner is at the circle's centre, and the opposite corner meets the arc, then the diagonal = the radius.

    • @TheADDTinkerer
      @TheADDTinkerer 15 годин тому

      @@tezzerii how can it be a quarter circle if side C and A are different lengths?

    • @Stubbari
      @Stubbari 15 годин тому

      @@TheADDTinkerer Why couldn't it be?

    • @TheADDTinkerer
      @TheADDTinkerer 15 годин тому +1

      ​@@Stubbarisorry sorry. I mistakenly changed rectangle in to a square. Which had me confused.

  • @orionfacts
    @orionfacts 21 годину тому

    I am still surprised as to how I could get that question but Richard Feyman couldn't

  • @rgmolpus
    @rgmolpus День тому

    If the back side of the hill is a cliff, then the car can make the trip in the required time - 1 mile down won't take that long.

  • @kevinmcknight5000
    @kevinmcknight5000 День тому

    Due to time dialiation, I think the car only needs to go the speed of light (with reference to whoever observes it go an average of 15 mph for the first half) to make it down the hill with an average of 30 mph.

    • @tezzerii
      @tezzerii 21 годину тому

      Light speed in an old car that can only manage 15mph up the hill ?

  • @lidarman2
    @lidarman2 День тому

    No wonder Einstein got it wrong. :P But if you were in the car, I bet it would feel like only 4 minutes.

  • @quigonkenny
    @quigonkenny День тому

    But from whose point of reference are we observing the car going up and down the hill? If that observer is moving fast enough, its quite easy to only take 4 min for the entire trip...

  • @dinoeebastian
    @dinoeebastian 23 години тому

    I got Leibniz's question right, and then I changed my answer to them being equal, and now I'm mad

  • @Crypt4l
    @Crypt4l День тому

    You want to drive 1mile in 4mins and 2 miles in 4mins, so the 2nd mile has inf speed

  • @aditya0710
    @aditya0710 День тому

    R=b was the 1st thing I saw until Presh went crazy 😛

  • @ErikBongers
    @ErikBongers День тому

    I also came up with the same answer as Feinman, so yeah, we geniuses make mistakes.

  • @Santrix125
    @Santrix125 День тому +153

    Stop reuploading your old videos, this is a reupload of a 5 year old video, smh.

  • @OrbitTheSun
    @OrbitTheSun День тому +5

    Einstein would have answered the question correctly if he had named the speed of descent as the speed of light. Because of time dilation, a photon does not need any (internal) time to travel downhill and this would mean an average speed of 30 mph for the entire route, from the traveler's perspective.

    • @akuunreach
      @akuunreach День тому +1

      This is a mathematical problem, even light would take 5.368 microseconds, and thus skew the total time taken, even if it was fractional.
      You would need to descend the hill instantaneously, which is simply not possible.

    • @artjackson8360
      @artjackson8360 День тому

      @@akuunreachIt depends on your reference frame. From the perspective of the driver of the car, the trip would take exactly 4 minutes even though the first half of the trip took all of that time. The second half, from the reference frame of the driver, takes zero time because traveling at the speed of light is instantaneous in that frame. From a stationary reference frame, it would take e a finite amount of time.

    • @akuunreach
      @akuunreach День тому

      @@artjackson8360 Well of course from the reference frame of the driver.
      As soon as they hit 4 mins, they die.
      You can not go from 15mph to 670,600,000,000mph and not be turned into a fine paste and incinerated from all the g-force and wind resistance.

  • @NinjaMelon21
    @NinjaMelon21 20 годин тому

    i will literally confuse my friends with this question before our math exam saying that this is in our syllabus xdxd

  • @ManjeetRani-v5n
    @ManjeetRani-v5n День тому

    hey presh! um.. sorry to ask this way but can you please guide me about how you got into stanford and how should i apply as an international student.

  • @DavidVonR
    @DavidVonR 19 годин тому

    I got it right!! You have to travel at an infinite rate of speed to get this to work.

  • @vcvartak7111
    @vcvartak7111 День тому

    First two problems are trivial, only in the third problem more person make mistakes

  • @robertrisk93
    @robertrisk93 День тому

    The answer is simple.
    Just reach the speed that allows you to run the next mile in no time. And there you have it, you have just averaged 30 miles per hour.

  • @dumbsamalam
    @dumbsamalam День тому +1

    If I record the vehicle's speed every 10 ft traveled, then the average of the data set could conceivably reach 30 mph

    • @mrosskne
      @mrosskne 7 годин тому

      No it couldn't.

  • @GamingDreamer
    @GamingDreamer 23 години тому

    6:32 thanks, i needvto hear that

  • @richardl6751
    @richardl6751 22 години тому

    Even at the speed of light it would take 4.00000008947 minutes giving 29.9975845 mph average.

  • @Cen_t1369
    @Cen_t1369 23 години тому +1

    Only legends know this is a reupload

  • @geirmyrvagnes8718
    @geirmyrvagnes8718 20 годин тому

    Should you not be able to simplify the expression to get r=b?

  • @killerjg
    @killerjg 3 години тому

    infinitely fast does not mean always faster than the speed of light.

  • @mathmannix
    @mathmannix 13 годин тому

    So for the first problem, I got both solutions on my own, but how are they the same? What is missing to simplify the complicated expression from the quadratic formula to just come out to be b?

  • @n085fs
    @n085fs День тому

    In the Order of Operations, PEMDAS, where do square roots go? Why aren't we ever taught that?

    • @dumbsamalam
      @dumbsamalam День тому +1

      Pretty sure square root goes with exponents... but also putting an expression under the radical is a shortcut for parentheses, I guess

  • @richardhole8429
    @richardhole8429 День тому

    It took me about 1 second to see r=b.
    The hill problem. I calculated 4 minutes for the first mile in my head. Then I calculated the total time for 2 miles also as 4 minutes. Second mile is 1/0 minutes, impossible.

  • @tomq6491
    @tomq6491 День тому

    Am I the only one that kept trying the second one and thinking I was doing something wrong as it kept giving an infinite speed?

  • @bubblecast
    @bubblecast 18 годин тому

    Special relativity saves us again. We can even reverse time and make gains on the 4 minutes already gone by.

  • @jeffeloso
    @jeffeloso День тому

    So you can replace r in the first answer, by b, and get a relationship between a, b and c. It looks very messy.

  • @rohanraj777
    @rohanraj777 День тому

    I feel "deja vu" or it's more like 'nostalgia'.🤔

  • @ironshoes1720
    @ironshoes1720 День тому

    Next time, it would be nice if you could spend more time showing all the steps you took to come up with the equation r = ...
    It's harder for us older folks who haven't touch those equations in forever to figure out all that's going on during the simplification phase.
    Yeah, I know, I'm slowing the group, sorry. 🤷🏼‍♂️😞

  • @vitico1630
    @vitico1630 9 годин тому

    I did the math, cuz I was suspicious…cuz Einstein got it wrong…but even then I thought 45 💀. What he can do is say C and just round down, there is only one significant figure so…😬😬

  • @drakkondarkspell
    @drakkondarkspell День тому

    Actually, time dilation indicates that the proper answer to the Einstein riddle is C. When an object moves at the speed of light, time stops, and the journey down the hill will take exactly 0s. Mathematically, this is the correct answer, and now we simply need to wait for engineering to catch up and figure out how to make the car travel at the speed of light.

    • @drakkondarkspell
      @drakkondarkspell День тому

      I'll be accepting my Nobel Prize in Physics for this, thank you.

    • @tezzerii
      @tezzerii 20 годин тому

      By which time that old car which can barely manage 15mph up the hill will be scrap. =o)

  • @birchy8305
    @birchy8305 21 годину тому

    On the 1st one, where does a^2 + c^2 - b^2 = 2 come from?

  • @bikerrick
    @bikerrick День тому

    You add a time to the problem that was not part of the question.

    • @Stubbari
      @Stubbari День тому

      What question?

    • @bikerrick
      @bikerrick 10 годин тому

      @@Stubbari duh

    • @Stubbari
      @Stubbari 9 годин тому

      @@bikerrick If you mean the last, time was part of the question, duh

  • @daveincognito
    @daveincognito День тому

    I remember the car riddle from an old Encyclopedia Brown book.