Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/27/can-you-solve-this-riddle-elon-musk-asks-job-applicants.html
…
2 Likes
I hate interview questions like this. They have nothing to do with the job at hand and only exist to make the interviewer seem clever.
33 Likes
That’s… really a pretty easy one.
You start on either of the poles, right?
13 Likes
As an aside, the gif in this post really sucks.
28 Likes
You’re at a pole, you fucking idiot. Get back to me when you graduate to Bloch spheres.
Not that clever. I think there were trickier questions on the ASVAB.
19 Likes
“Also you see a polar bear. What color is it? No wait I fucked that up let me start over.”
44 Likes
“WRONG! You’re in the new SpaceX omnidirectional treadmill simulation chamber! NEXT!”
30 Likes
That’s why I said “seem” clever. It’s pure intellectual masturbation. Just what I would expect from Musk since intellectual masturbation seems to be his forté.
27 Likes
Like most interview puzzles or a membership in MENSA, it’s not clear whether this is supposed to demonstrate intelligence or smug self-satisfaction.
18 Likes
It’s right there in the question: standing on the surface of the Earth.
21 Likes
I don’t think you can go south from the south pole, so that pole shouldn’t be an option.
24 Likes
Then the applicant asks Elon “What have I got in my pocket ?” and Elon bolts for his hidden island, looking for his ring of narcissism with an empty tummy and character assassination on his mind.
30 Likes
That was my takeaway.
2 Likes
True. The second solution is certainly more interesting (I cheated):
The other answer is somewhere close to the South Pole where, if you walk one mile south, the circumference of the Earth becomes one mile.
16 Likes
But… if you’re at the South Pole… how do you walk south? Like I get if you’re at the North Pole, move south, west, north, end up where you started.
But if you start at the South Pole… where is south? Wouldn’t any direction initially be North? Hence the answer would only work from the North Pole?
3 Likes
It’s like what you might hear on Bourbon St:
“I bet I can tell you where you got your shoes…on your feet, on Bourbon St.”
10 Likes
I said a pole, as in polar coordinates.
On Earth or any other rotating sphere of sufficient size the second answer is:
4 Likes
You start one mile + 1/(2*pi) of a mile north of the South Pole. When you walk a mile south, walking west a mile you will walk a mile in circumference around the South Pole. Then walking north a mile gets you back where you started.
Also, there are far more than two solutions, because you can make many circles around the pole this can apply to, as the circumference merely needs to be 1 mile / any whole number. Telling Musk that would probably get you labelled a pedophile, though…
15 Likes
Was just there 2 weeks ago and yes, the same scam is still being tried.
3 Likes
I dunno but thanks for telling me I can walk on water! 
(I first read this ‘riddle’ in some sort of ‘boy’s own’ annual over fifty years ago. The set-up included shooting a bear and the question was what colour is the bear. At that time you could do it by walking. These days, probably needs more swimming.)
6 Likes
