Publications
Partners
In Mind Games 10, we get a little bit obsessive about breakfast, and then focus our attention on an unusual game of basketball.
28. Hard-boiled
You are a butler with a very discerning master, who insists on having his breakfast egg boiled for EXACTLY nine minutes. If it’s over- or under-cooked by mere seconds, he’ll notice and become enraged.
Your master takes you with him on a holiday to a remote island where there are no clocks, watches, or any other way of telling the time – except for two old hourglasses. One hourglass takes four minutes for the sand to run through it, the other takes seven minutes.
You also have a pot of water, a stove and of course an egg. Using only this equipment, how will you manage to cook the egg to your master’s satisfaction?
29. Eye on the ball
This is a test of visual cognition and attention. In this short video, you’ll see two teams – one dressed in black, one in white – playing basketball. Your task is to count the number of times the WHITE-shirted team passes the ball. Concentrate!
Do you have a great brain teaser? Please send it in; we'll choose the best for inclusion in future Mind Games.
- Olivia Rose-Innes and Senora Sine Thirteen, Health24, August 2011
References:
Mack, A.; Rock, I. (1998) Inattentional blindness
Simons, D.J.; Chabris, C.F. (1999). "Gorillas in our midst: sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events". Perception 28 (9)
Simons Lab
