Brain Teasers for Smart Engineers

Description

Here are some brain teasers designed to challenge the minds of engineers:

### 1. **The Two Eggs Problem**
You are given two identical eggs and access to a building with 100 floors. You need to determine the highest floor from which you can drop an egg without it breaking. You can drop the eggs as many times as needed, but you want to minimize the number of drops. How do you do this?

**Hint:** Start with a higher floor and reduce the number of floors you go up as you drop the eggs. What’s the strategy?

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### 2. **The Bridge Crossing Problem**
Four people need to cross a bridge at night. They have only one flashlight and the bridge can only hold two people at a time. The four people have different walking speeds: one can cross in 1 minute, another in 2 minutes, the third in 5 minutes, and the slowest takes 10 minutes. When two people cross together, they must go at the slower person’s pace. What’s the fastest way to get all four people across the bridge?

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### 3. **The Light Bulb Puzzle**
You have three light bulbs in a room and three switches outside the room, each controlling one of the light bulbs. You are allowed to turn the switches on and off as much as you like, but you can only enter the room once. How do you figure out which switch controls which bulb?

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### 4. **The 100 Coins Problem**
You have 100 coins placed in a line. 10 of them are heads up, and the rest are tails up. You are blindfolded and must divide them into two groups with an equal number of heads-up coins. How do you do this?

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### 5. **The Water Jug Problem**
You have a 5-gallon jug and a 3-gallon jug, and you need to measure exactly 4 gallons of water. How can you do this using only these two jugs?

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### 6. **The Tower of Hanoi**
You have three pegs and a number of disks of different sizes. The objective is to move all the disks from one peg to another, following these rules:
– Only one disk may be moved at a time.
– A disk can only be placed on top of a larger disk or on an empty peg.
– You can use an auxiliary peg to help with the moves.

How do you solve this puzzle with the minimum number of moves? What is the minimum number of moves required for \( n \) disks?

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### 7. **The Infinite Paradox**
A plane travels from point A to point B, a distance of 1,000 miles. The plane first travels halfway, then half of the remaining distance, and so on, continually halving the remaining distance. How can the plane ever reach point B?

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### 8. **The Missing Dollar Riddle**
Three friends check into a hotel room that costs $30. They each contribute $10, for a total of $30. Later, the hotel manager realizes that the room was only $25, so the manager gives $5 to the bellboy and asks him to return it to the three friends. The bellboy, not knowing how to split $5 between three people, gives each of the three friends $1 and keeps $2 for himself. Now, each friend has paid $9, totaling $27, and the bellboy has $2. But where is the missing dollar?

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### 9. **The Counterfeit Coin**
You have 12 coins, and one of them is counterfeit. The counterfeit coin is either heavier or lighter than the others, but you don’t know which. You have a balance scale and can use it only three times. How do you find the counterfeit coin?

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### 10. **The Chessboard and Dominoes**
You have a standard 8×8 chessboard. Two opposite corners of the chessboard are removed. Can you cover the remaining 62 squares with 31 dominoes, where each domino covers exactly two squares?

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These brain teasers involve logical thinking, problem-solving, and sometimes a bit of creativity. They are great for engineers to flex their problem-solving muscles!