Physics Puzzle: the Bulbs and the Students

Here’s a nice puzzle to challenge your understanding of simple electricity.

Two students live in adjacent houses in the dorms (ignore the dodgy art, I can only draw as well as Microsoft Word lets me … and yes, the weird beings are the students, courtesy of the Office Clipart). The lightbulbs in their rooms are connected in […]

Physics Puzzle: Changing an Oscillator’s Spring

Here’s a nice physics puzzle I was asked a while ago.
Suppose you had a harmonic oscillator - a very simple one, with no friction or driving force. Suppose your oscillator’s oscillating with an amplitude A and that the spring constant is k. Now suppose you slowly change k from its initial value to some final […]

Mathematics Puzzle: Climbing up a Staircase

Here’s a short little puzzle I was asked at a job interview some time ago.
Suppose you have a staircase with n steps. You wish to climb up the staircase. At each point you either climb up one step, or make a small leap and jump up two steps - just like a normal human being […]