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These sorts of questions are psychological, not logical. They require the person being asked to make the same assumptions about the ambiguities and open questio

These sorts of questions are psychological, not logical. They require the person being asked to make the same assumptions about the ambiguities and open questions as the person asking. As such, they have nothing to do with reasoning ability. The "correct" answer is often completely wrong, like the claim that access hole covers are round "so they don't fall in", which misses the important point entirely. A circle is the minimum size cover that can't be dropped into the hole it covers. Make the cover twice as big as the hole and you have no problem. It is only under the common but special case of resource constraints that round covers are compelling. There was also that ridiculous one about "how do you put an elephant in a refrigerator" where the "correct" answer depended on not knowing the difference between the definite and indefinite articles. The next question was "How do you put a giraffe in a refrigerator" and the "correct" answer was "You open the refrigerator, take out the elephant, and put in the giraffe". No one who was actually conversant with English could pass the test.

wmt 12y ago
There was also that ridiculous one about "how do you put an elephant in a refrigerator" Don't tell me someone has used that as an interview question? That's a silly kids joke, after which you'd laugh childishly. There even was a follow up question, if an elephant and a giraffe would race, who'd win to give the other guy a chance to redeem himself. The joke works a lot better with languages without definite and indefinite versions of nouns, like Finnish, and you mess up the joke with english where using the definite preposition would ruin the joke, and the indefinite form is not honest.
joncrocks 12y ago
You might be interested in this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuleaux_triangle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuleaux_triangle There is in fact a class of shapes that have the property that they can't fall into the hole which they cover (presuming a lip). In addition to the above reason about it being the most efficient way to cover a hole, a round cover is also easy to move if heavy (you can roll it), very useful for something that likely has to be sturdy but also move-able.

wmt 12y ago

There was also that ridiculous one about "how do you put an elephant in a refrigerator" Don't tell me someone has used that as an interview question? That's a silly kids joke, after which you'd laugh childishly. There even was a follow up question, if an elephant and a giraffe would race, who'd win to give the other guy a chance to redeem himself. The joke works a lot better with languages without definite and indefinite versions of nouns, like Finnish, and you mess up the joke with english where using the definite preposition would ruin the joke, and the indefinite form is not honest.

joncrocks 12y ago

You might be interested in this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuleaux_triangle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuleaux_triangle There is in fact a class of shapes that have the property that they can't fall into the hole which they cover (presuming a lip). In addition to the above reason about it being the most efficient way to cover a hole, a round cover is also easy to move if heavy (you can roll it), very useful for something that likely has to be sturdy but also move-able.