OFF-CENTER WHEEL

Lolinsan looked at the piece of wood before him. It is a 10” diameter round, flat piece he wanted to use as a “wheel” in his art lesson homework. Alas! While drilling the center hole (1” diameter) , he sneezed, and the hole is way off-center (although, luckily, still within the “wheel” – the center of the hole is 3” away from the center of the wheel).

And then, revelation! Willy cuts the wheel into two parts, glued them again, and got a perfectly centered hole in the wheel. How did he do it?

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Note: assume lolinsan has in his possession a magical cutter that cuts with zero width, and magic glue that can glue pieces with zero distance between them.

MATCH EQUATIONS

In each of the following three configurations of matches, move a single match to form valid equations. The = and + are composed of two matches each.

1. \/|+|=\/
2. \/|+|=\/|
3. \/|+|=|||

HOTEL INFINITY

So, an eccentric entrepreneur by the name of Alphonse Null has sent out a press release about his new, mind-blowing hotel: The Hotel Infinity. Null informs the world that this hotel has an infinite number of rooms (specifically, an infinity equal to the cardinality of the integers). A quick tour puts skeptics' claims to rest; as far as anyone can tell, this hotel has infinite rooms. The consequences are mind-boggling, and Null sets up a press conference to answer questions...

"So, Mr. Null, how will patrons get to their room, if their room number has, say, more digits than protons in the universe?"

"The elevators have an ingenious formula device instead of buttons... simply input the formula for your room number, with Ackermann numbers or somesuch... your room formula can be picked up at the front desk. There's not even any need to know what the formula means!"

"How do you produce the power and water for this hotel?"

"I have infinite generators and wells, of course. This IS an infinite hotel, you know! *chuckle*"

"What about costs? How much will it cost to stay here?"

"That's the beauty of it! Since there are as many positive even integers as there are integers, I can change the same price to only every other room and still make the same profit! I could charge only every millionth room... each guest has a one-in-a-million chance of not getting a free room, and I still get paid the same! I love the properties of infinite sets, especially when it comes to profit!"

"But, Mr. Null... I think you've made a severe mistake in your assumptions regarding profit..."

"Oh?"

The reporter then mentioned something which made Mr. Null's face turn white.

"Oh... oh goodness... THIS PRESS CONFERENCE IS OVER!" Then he ran out.

Assuming that everything Null said about the hotel is true: it really is infinite; it really is easy to get to your room; it really can generate infinite power for the guests; the cardinality of the set of multiples of a million, is the same as the cardinality of the integers...

So with what simple assumption did Mr. Null go wrong?

FRYING FOOD

The boiling point of olive oil is higher than the melting point of tin. If Italian skillets are made of tinned copper, how can they be used to fry food in olive oil?