Spring has sprung... but...

Health and Safety is a funny thing in the UK. We don't define an upper limit for the office temperature. Instead we crowd source and use Thermal Comfort as an indicator. This basically means that as long as under 20% of the population are moaning, nobody gives a crap. However, paraphrasing from the HSE website:

• People working in uncomfortably hot and cold environments are more likely to behave unsafely;
• The workers' ability to concentrate on a given task may start to drop off and increases the risk of errors occurring;
• The problems [with adapting to the thermal environment] arise when this choice (to remove jacket, or move away from heat source) is removed, and people are no longer able to adapt.

Does Santa exist?

 Ok, a good Christmas related question for getting into the Christmas spirit. Lets tackle the facts.

Global warming, icebergs meting?

I was asked this a while ago, and then again today. Basically the question is "If global warming is causing the icebergs to melt, and 95% of an iceberg is below the water already, then how can this cause sea levels to rise so much?"

The local area

Everyone knows that if you have a square with sides each of 2cm, the area is 4cm², or is it?

Everyone knows that if you have a shape, its area does not change. if you make a shape out of shapes, then the bigger shapes area does not change either... no matter how you re-arrange the bits...

Justifying this another way... If you have a large area, and cut it into smaller parts, the area you get when you put it

Which gender is more evil?

I used to operate an ask me a question policy a few years ago and I had a few good suggestions. I published the results on an old blog that no longer exists for many, many fine reasons, but I thought I'd republish some of the better questions on this blog.

So, on to today's topic, more logic you cannot fault. Boy this is going to cause some friction.

Better than the times crossword.

So, not something you can work out over your Shreddies, a brian teaser to end all brian teasers - or your money back.

There is a street with 5 houses in it. Each house has a different colour front door, an owner with a different nationality, having a different favourite drink, smoking a different brand of cigarette and having a different type of pet. Just for clarity, no colour, nationality, type of pet, cigarette or drink appear twice in the street.

The missing pound...

After a good meal, the last thing you want to do is think hard, but beware, there could be foul play afoot.

Three friends go to dinner. At the end of the dinner the bill arrives and it is £30 (sterling) :) Each friend puts in a tenner and the waiter goes back to the till... looking at the bill the waiter realises he has made a mistake and it was only £25, as the till is low on change and there is only 3 of them, the waiter gives each man a pound back, and pockets the other £2.

Each man has paid £9, thats £27, plus the £2 the waiter took, thats £29...

What happened to the other £1

Maths gone crazy

Ever wondered why you always end up with one odd sock after you wash them? well, maybe science and mathematics have the answer (and by answer I mean proof that the world is a very complicated and confusing place).