How much effort and innovation can a band put into producing their music videos? When it comes to the American rock-band OK GO, the answer is A LOT. Becoming a notable YouTube presence around 2010 with their famous “Treadmill Dance”, OK GO keep pushing the boundaries of creativity in each consecutive video they make. Check out this amazing optical illusion video by these so talented guys, and if you enjoy it, make sure to see their other projects as well. Truly brilliant!
Leonid Mochalov is a Russian puzzle writer and inventor, who has published several brain teaser books and patented numerous mechanical puzzle toys. We decided to invite him for an interview at Puzzle Prime and learn about his passions, habits, and views on Pokemon GO. You can see all of Leonid’s puzzles on his personal website.
Interview
Q. Hello Leonid. When did you discover your passion about puzzles? Was it influenced somehow by your education or occupation at that time?
A. It happened during my school years. I published my first puzzle when I was 13 years old. Education and occupation had nothing to do with it.
Q. What drives you to make all these puzzles?
A. Ambitions. When I was young I decided to become a famous puzzle creator, such as the great Henry Dudeney or Sam Loyd.
Q. You have invented many mechanical puzzles. Do you ask professionals to build them based on your concepts, or you do it yourself?
A. I post the blueprints of my puzzles and their descriptions on my website for free. After that, various puzzle collectors and companies make physical copies of them.
Leonid’s puzzle blueprints
Q. Designing 3-dimensional puzzles seems incredibly challenging. Can you describe how the process of creating one goes?
A. I have a very well developed 3D imagination. First, I think of a geometric object of an unusual shape, and divide it into smaller pieces. Then the pieces are glued together and the brute-force method comes. Another possible approach is to come up with a single piece which locks the entire structure.
Q. Which is your favorite physical puzzle of all time?
Q. And which is your favorite puzzle you have invented?
A. The “Pyramid” – it is an analogue of the “Soma Cube”.
By the way, despite the abundance of mechanical puzzles in stores, the real (classical) ones are not more than 100. These two can be classified as such.
Q. Do you like more mechanical puzzles or pen and paper problems?
A. I lost my interest in pen and paper problems in the early 90s, and then I focused my interest on mechanical puzzles. I believe a good mechanical puzzle is worth a lot more than any pen and paper problem.
Place the numbers from 1 to 9 in the squared so that all the equations are accurate.
Q. Where can people buy your puzzles from?
A. Many of my mechanical puzzles are sold in specialized web-stores.
Q. It looks like the new generations do not appreciate problem-solving as much. Do you think there is still appreciation for puzzles nowadays?
A. Not that much in our country. The pick of the interest was in the last quarter of 20th century. After that computerization and shooting games came into play. The contemporary epidemic is “Tank Wars” and “Pokemon Go”.
Q. Do you keep in touch with other inventors, maybe collaborate on projects together?
A. Not quite, I tend to work mostly alone.
Q. Some people find listening to music during work quite helpful. What about you – do you listen to anything while designing your puzzles?
A. I don’t listen to music when I work, because I find it distracting. However, I listen to disco style songs of 60-70s in my spare time.
Q. You seem a bit old-school. Do you work often on computer, play video games, watch movies? What are your hobbies overall?
A. I do non-professional photo and video shooting, so sometimes it is necessary to work with materials on my computer. Other activities I practice are following news, downloading movies and programs, watching Sci-Fi’s and thrillers. I don’t play video games however. I also used to play card games like “Preference” before retirement.
Leonid fishing
Q. You look in good shape; we know you enjoy fishing. Do you do any other sports?
A. I don’t actually. I used to jog, but then gave it up.
Q. Do you think puzzle solving is beneficial for people, especially younger children and teenagers?
A. It is very necessary for development of young generations. Puzzle solving is educational and distracts from drugs and alcohol.
Q. Tell us a funny science joke or an anecdote.
A. Something I find amusing is related to Einstein’s had 2 cats. It is common in the West people to have an opening in the door for their pets. However, Einstein had two openings – one for the big cat and the other for the small cat. It wouldn’t be like that in case of a normal person since the small cat can go through the big hole too.
Q. Thank you for the interview Leonid, wish you all the best in your endeavors.
Who says science jokes are not funny? Below you can see some of the best Math jokes we know, along with short explanations to the more obscure of them.
Do you know any funny Math jokes yourself? Let us know in the comment section below.
“Why did you divide sin by tan?” “Just cos.”
Explanation When you divide sinus (sin) by tangent (tan), you get cosine (cos).
Let epsilon be smaller than zero…
Explanation Rather silly math joke, based on the fact that the variable epsilon is always chosen to be a small positive number.
“What does the ‘B’ in Benoit B Mandelbrot stand for?” “Benoit B Mandelbrot.”
Explanation Benoit B Mandelbrot is a famous Mathematician, who was interested in fractals. Fractals are natural sets which exhibit repeating patterns. If you keep replacing the middle “B” in the name with “Benoit B Mandelbrot”, you will get a fractal.
A biologist, an engineer, and a mathematician were observing an empty building. They noted two people entering the building and sometime later observed three coming out. The biologist remarked, “Oh they must have reproduced.” The engineer said, “Our initial count must have been incorrect.” The mathematician stated, “Now if one more person goes into the building it will be completely empty.”
At a party for functions, eˣ is at the bar, looking despondent. The barman says: “Why don’t you go and integrate?” eˣ replies: “It would not make any difference.”
Explanation If you integrate the function eˣ, you get again eˣ, i.e. it doesn’t change.
“Why can’t atheists solve non-linear equations?” “Because they don’t believe in higher powers.”
Explanation Non-linear equation contain high powers of the variables.
“Why did the chicken cross the Mobius strip?” “To get to the same side.”
Explanation The Mobius strip is a non-orientable surface which has only side. You can make a Mobius strip by taking a strip of paper, twisting it 180 degrees and gluing its opposite ends.
There are 10 types of people in this world. Those who understand binary and those who don’t.
Explanation The number 2 is written as “10” in binary system.
Three logicians walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Do you all want something to drink?” The first logician says, “I don’t know.” The second logician says, “I don’t know.” The third logician says, “Yes.”
Explanation Even though all three of them want to drink, none of the logicians can reply “yes” unless he is sure that his friends also want to drink. Since the first two replied with “I don’t know”, the third one already knows that all of them are thirsty and says “Yes”.
There are two types of people in the world. Those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.
Explanation “To extrapolate” means to deduce information from incomplete data.
A logician’s wife is having a baby. The doctor immediately hands the newborn to the dad. His wife asks impatiently, “So, is it a boy or a girl?” The logician replies, “Yes.”
Explanation Since the baby is either a boy or a girl, the answer to the question (regarded as a logic inquiry) is in both cases “Yes”.
An infinite amount of mathematicians walk into a bar. “I’ll have a pint,” says the first one. “Half a pint for me please,” says the second one. “Quarter of a pint please barkeep,” says the third one. After 5 minutes of ordering, the barman interrupts the mathematicians: “Look, here you are 2 pints of beer, you figure it out yourselves.”
Explanation The amounts of beer the mathematicians order forms an infinite arithmetic progression – 1, 0.5, 0.25, etc., which has a total sum 2.
Three foreigners – a businessman, a physicist, and a mathematician, are talking about the country they are all visiting for the first time. Suddenly, the businessman points out the window in surprise. “Look at that! The sheep in Scotland are black,” he says. Amused at how readily his new friend jumps to conclusions, the physicist corrects him: “No, all we can be certain of is that some of the sheep in Scotland are black.” The mathematician looks out the window himself, and corrects both of them: “We know there exists a sheep in Scotland which is black at least on one side.”
Two random variables were talking in a bar. They thought they were being discrete but I heard their chatter continuously.
Explanation Wordplay with the two types of random variables in probability theory – discrete and continuous.
There was a statistician who drowned crossing a river… The river was 3 feet deep on average.
“Why did the chicken cross the road?” “The answer to the question is trivial and is left to the reader as an exercise.”
Explanation Many times a professor who can’t remember or doesn’t want to prove some more technical result in class, leaves it as an “exercise” for the students.
A physicist and a mathematician are sitting in a faculty lounge. Suddenly, the coffee machine catches on fire. The physicist grabs a bucket and leap towards the sink, filled the bucket with water and puts out the fire. The second day, the same two sit in the same lounge. Again, the coffee machine catches on fire. This time, the mathematician stands up, got a bucket, hands the bucket to the physicist, thus reducing the problem to a previously solved one.
Explanation One common approach for solving mathematical problems is reducing them to other, already solved problems, then making a reference to them.
When a statistician passes the airport security check, they discover a bomb in his bag. He explains. “Statistics shows that the probability of a bomb being on an airplane is 1/1000. However, the chance that there are two bombs at one plane is 1/1000000. So, I am much safer…”
Explanation Even though the statement is correct, the statistician is not taking in account conditional probability. Obviously, his chances for safe flight are not changing by bringing a bomb.
An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician are staying in a hotel. The engineer wakes up in the middle of the night and smells smoke. He goes out into the hallway and sees fire, then goes back to the room, fills a trash can with water, and douses it. Later, the physicist wakes up and smells smoke. He opens his door and sees a fire in the hallway. He walks down the hall to a fire hose and after calculating the flame velocity, distance, water pressure, trajectory, etc. extinguishes the fire with the minimum amount of water and energy needed. Later, the mathematician wakes up and smells smoke. He goes to the hallway, sees the fire and then the fire hose. He thinks for a moment and then exclaims, “Ah, a solution exists!”, then goes back to bed.
Explanation In many mathematical problems, all you need to do is just prove that a solution, without finding it specifically.
A chemist, a physicist, and a mathematician are stranded on an island when a can of food rolls ashore. The chemist and the physicist come up with many ingenious ways to open the can. Then suddenly the mathematician gets a bright idea: “Assume we have a can opener…”
Explanation Many mathematical proofs are based on various assumptions, which can be sometimes way too strong.
A physicist and an engineer are in a hot-air balloon. Soon, they find themselves lost in a canyon somewhere. They yell out for help: “Hellooooo! Where are we?” Fifteen minutes later, they hear an echoing voice: “Hellooooo! You are in a hot-air balloon!” The physicist says, “That must have been a mathematician.” The engineer asks, “Why do you say that?” The physicist replies: “The answer was absolutely correct, and it was utterly useless.”
Explanation Many people consider mathematics to be very exact, but useless for real life.
“Why don’t you see quaternions ride the bus?” “Because they do not commute!”
Explanation Quaternions are a number system, extension of the complex numbers. Quaternions do not possess the commutative property, i.e. xy may not equal yx.
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