Problem Solving Interview Questions!

Hamish

Hamish

Hamish

Soldato
Joined
14 Apr 2003
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Got these two questions in an interview today and I can't get the answers! They are the "think outside the box" type and unfortunatly I have to research the answers by any means nessesary, i.e. Google/you lot. Google has drawn a blank so I don't spose anyone knows the answers to these questions do they? :D


1) Why when nothing travels faster than light can we see back to the dawn of the universe?


2) How many car alarms are going off right now?

I tried the 0 answer as in I can't hear any, apparently it's wrong. I don't think they are looking for a statistic, more like some crafty answer.
 
Hamish said:
1) Why when nothing travels faster than light can we see back to the dawn of the universe?
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Isn't this to do with radiation?
I seem to remember something about radiation left over from "the big bang", which is partly why you get fuzz/snow/static when you detune your TV.
 
Hamish said:
2) How many car alarms are going off right now?
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The number of car alarms going off right now is equal to the number of cars with alarms that are currently being stolen + the ones being accidentally set off.

:shrug:
stupid question :confused:
 
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Hamish said:
1) Why when nothing travels faster than light can we see back to the dawn of the universe?
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Because we're seeing it as it was 13billion (or so) years ago, not as it is now.


Hamish said:
2) How many car alarms are going off right now?
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Where? In earshot, in England, in Great Britain, in the World or in the entire Universe?
 
Re: the car one you need to speculate on the number of cars owned in the UK, take the statistics for faulty car alarms and average UK theft rates per day and arrive at a figure. Simple.

The 1st question is gay - the fact that nothing else travels faster than the speed of light has nothing to do with the fact that we can see light from stars that started out when the universe was formed.
 
Hamish said:
1) Why when nothing travels faster than light can we see back to the dawn of the universe?
Click to expand...
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/482
http://universe.nasa.gov/program/vision.html

Hamish said:
2) How many car alarms are going off right now?
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http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1537 so less than 531 million?

You could find out how many cars in the uk, work out the probility of a car's alarm going off based on how long you've had your car and how long it spent with the alarm sounding, then multiply?
 
I've got a better way of wording the faster than light thing:

The further away something is in space, the older it appears to us. We see the moon as it was about a second and a half ago. When you look up at the sun, we see it as it was about 8 minutes ago. Find the galaxy andromeda (2 million light years away), and yep, you're looking at that galaxy exactly as it appeared 2 million years ago. It could explode now, and we wouldn't see the bang for 2 million years.

So, if, theoretically we build a telescope big enough to find the stars that are furthest away and we discover there's nothing further, we'd be looking at those stars as they were X billion trillion years ago - and we'd actually be looking at those stars as they appeared at the dawn of the universe. Sort of visual time travel.
 
In most of these questions they're not that interested in the answer you come up with (within reason) but are trying to get an idea of your analytical skills. I'd just talk through what I was thinking.

Alternatively, they may well be just trying to mess with you. Not particularly professional, but my mate interviews for his company and tells me he often just throws in stupid questions to brighten his day a bit.
 
JIM_BOB7813 said:
What sort of job was the interview for?


surely these questions are just designed to see how you can think/come to any answer? There is no real answer?
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Junior IT Consultant.

I'm not sure, some of them definatly have answers e.g.
Why are manhole covers usually round?
Manhole covers are round so that they cannot fall through the circular opening as can happen with other shapes such as rectangular or triangular covers.
 
Ever since the company I work for has started the same HR balls with questions like that, it's been one idiot employeed after another.

The question I'd like to ask these HR numpties is what qualifications they have.
 
Hamish said:
Junior IT Consultant.

I'm not sure, some of them definatly have answers e.g.
Why are manhole covers usually round?
Manhole covers are round so that they cannot fall through the circular opening as can happen with other shapes such as rectangular or triangular covers.
Click to expand...
A rectangular manhole cover bigger than the hole wouldn't fall in, and may well be cheaper to manufacture.
 
I got asked this on friday


You walk into a room, Romeo and Juliet are dead on the floor... theres broken glass and water on the floor- and a window with a breeze coming through


what happened?
 
Volcs said:
A rectangular manhole cover bigger than the hole wouldn't fall in, and may well be cheaper to manufacture.
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A rectangle could fall in, unless it was massively bigger than the hole it covered.

ArmyofHarmony said:
I got asked this on friday


You walk into a room, Romeo and Juliet are dead on the floor... theres broken glass and water on the floor- and a window with a breeze coming through


what happened?
Click to expand...

Someone threw a massive block of ice through the window and it ******* them?
 
Mohinder said:
A rectangle could fall in, unless it was massively bigger than the hole it covered.
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I don't see how this rectangle could ever get into this hole, and it's not much bigger than the hole..?

1187029700.gif


I should expect it's round to allow attachments? You know like those massive pumping vehicles? Would be much easier to invent a round attachment than a square one, surely... Like a twisting one.

edit; meh, they're round because it's pretty :p
 
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