Engineers need to know physics in order to build things. The history of time keeping is called horology. Time keeping became more accurate over the years. A big breakthrough was pendulum clocks invented in the mid seventeenth century by Christiaan Huygens. His invention dramatically improved accuracy, reducing daily errors to under a minute.
Early longcase clocks are known today as grandfather clocks. The popular term “grandfather clock” comes from the 1876 song My Grandfather’s Clock by Henry Clay Work. The song, about a clock that “stopped, short, never to go again when the old man died,” was a big hit.
The grandfather clock uses a pendulum to keep time.
With this background, here’s this week’s Micro Softy.
Burt’s grandfather’s clock was running too fast, and he wasn’t sure how to fix it. Burt worked at NASA, and one evening during a gathering at his house, he cornered four scientists and asked for advice on how to slow the clock a bit. Here’s what they suggested:
- “At the end of the pendulum, there’s a weight. Tape something to it to make it heavier. That should slow the clock.”
- “The pendulum is too short. Lengthen it, and the clock will run slower.”
- “Make the pendulum swing through a wider arc — just a few more degrees. That’ll slow the swing and the clock.”
- One scientist joked: “Easy fix. Put the whole clock on the Moon. Gravity’s weaker there, so it’ll run slower.”
And so, here’s this week’s Micro Softy: study the list, and decide which of these suggestions are right and which are wrong.
Solution to Micro Softy 74: The Cretan Paradox & Logical Illusions
Here’s the solution to last week’s Micro Softy:
Epimenides the Liar always lies. Honest Thomas always tells the truth. They’re identical twins—completely indistinguishable. On his way to Corinth, Paul comes to a fork in the road. Both brothers know which of the two paths leads to Corinth, but Paul doesn’t know which twin is which.
He asks one of them a single question:
“If I asked your brother which road leads to Corinth, what would he say?”
For either brother, the answer to this question is the same and tells Paul which road to take. Let’s unpack the responses which, interestingly, will be the same:
- Suppose Paul speaks to Epimenides the Liar. The liar knows his truthful brother would point to the correct road – but being a liar, Epimenides gives the opposite answer and points to the wrong road.
- If Paul speaks to Honest Thomas, he truthfully reports the answer his lying brother would give – which would also be the wrong road.
In both cases, the brother points to the wrong road. So, Paul simply takes the opposite road—and confidently heads to Corinth.
The Monday Micro Softy is a weekly feature of Mind Matters News. Here are the links to all the puzzles and answers to date:
Monday Micro Softy 74: The Cretan Paradox and Logical Illusions was about optical illusions and auditory illusions. Last week’s Micro Softy concerns logical illusions. You can find puzzles 55 through 74 here as well
Monday Micro Softy 73: The ups and downs of escalator design was about a single escalator that takes you up to the Skylink train. There are two down escalators for those exiting the train. So, why are there two down escalators but only a single up escalator for Skylink? You can find puzzles 55 through 73 here as well
Monday Micro Softy 72: Necklace Cutting required knowledge of binary numbers. Keep this in mind to work out the minimum number of cuts that allows Sally to give the landlord one bead a day for a month. You can find puzzles 55 through 72 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 71: Strange Economics required you to grasp the deeper meaning of overheard conversations between a customer named Bill and a store clerk in a hardware depot. The question is: What was Bill buying? You can find puzzles 55 through 71 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 70: The light above your stairs involved the Switching Theory and how a two-way switch works. If the stair light is on, flip the downstairs switch and the light goes on/off. A flip of the upstairs switch does the same thing. If the light is off, flipping either switch turns the light on. What’s a simple circuit that does this? You can find puzzles 55 through 70 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 69: A Bunch of Switches involved knowledge of Switching Theory. Last week, Frenchy and the other prisoners at Pokey Nook Prison flipped a switch each day for 101 days, On the 102nd day, Frenchy announced with certainty the 101st prisoner had arrived. How did he know? You can find puzzles 55 through 69 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 68: An Overcrowded Prison featured Frenchy and the other prisoners at Pokey Nook Prison, who flipped a switch each day for 101 days. On the 102nd day, Frenchy announced with certainty the 101st prisoner had arrived. How did he know? You can find puzzles 55 through 68 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 67: Three Switches and a Song was about switching theory. Wide Clyde wants to go upstairs to cook some Top Raman noodles. To do that, he needs to identify which of three switches controls the hot plate upstairs. The hot plate is plugged in but currently off. The other two switches turn outside lights off and on. Wide Clyde can’t see outside, so he can’t determine which switches control the lights. How can Wide Clyde determine which switch controls the hot plate with just one trip upstairs? You can find puzzles 55 through 67 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 66: Reducing Repetitive Repetition requires being BFF’s with numbers, and last week’s Micro Softy was tough and mathy. You can find puzzles 55 through 66 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 65: Fathers and sons was about two fathers and their two sons who walked into a Bass Pro Shop in Memphis, Tennessee. Each man bought an AK47 rifle with ammunition and a 75-round drum magazine. But all together, only three AK47’s were sold. How could this be? You can find puzzles 55 through 65 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 64: Old Time Phishing was about an investment banker, Geardown Geko, who received anonymous tips forecasting the outcome of future events starting in 1948. The solution is: The winner of Tipper’s phishing lottery. It was a type of phishing where in the end there was a single winner participant, Geko. Someone had to win. Everyone else who bet on the predictions eventually was a loser. You can find puzzles 55 through 64 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 63: A Beggar’s Tale. Exceptional nerds are psychologists who see through surface actions. Such a skill is required to solve this Micro Softy. You can find puzzles 55 through 63 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 62: The Ordeal of Sisyphus Fats. The best computer programmers and engineers must be good at scheduling. Last week’s Micro Softy tests this ability and the solution is that Sisyphus Fats took 98 minutes to push the large bowing ball to the top of the 100-foot hill. You can find puzzles 55 through 62 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 61: Micro Softy Take Five was more of a trivia question than it was a puzzle. To solve Micro Softy 61, the answer is the theme for the Mission Impossible movie franchise starring Tom Cruz. You can find puzzles 55 through 61 here as well.
Monday Micro Softy 60: Here’s a puzzle from Gunsmoke Told to “get out of Dodge”after a shooting, a gunslinger does so at a nearly inexplicable time. Can you solve the puzzle?
To solve Microsofty 59, recall that direction of air flow is due to pressure — not size. Which tire is under more pressure? You can find puzzles 56 through 59 here as well.
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 pedalling? 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!