Friday, January 27, 2006

How smart, patient, and risk-tolerant are you?

Professor Shane Frederick of MIT can tell you with the results of three simple questions:
1) A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

2) If it takes five machines five minutes to make five widgets, how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?

3) In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the patch to cover half the lake?

For the answers, and more about smarts, patience, & risk, check out this NY Times article.