Mechanical puzzles

This Thursday is Pi Day, the one day of the year devoted to a mathematical constant (it also happens to be Einstein’s birthday). We all learned as kids about how special pi is and have since accepted its cultural status as a geeky totem and a number worth celebrating. But perhaps we should revisit pi through the jaded lens of adulthood. The circumference of a circle is always 3.14… times its diameter. Big whoop! The perimeter of a square is four times its side length, but we don’t assign special significance to the number…

Alicia and Bruno are each given a different natural number in secret (1 is the smallest natural number, 2 is the second smallest, and so on). They are then tasked with guessing which of them has the larger number. The following conversation ensues:Alicia: I don’t know who has the bigger number.Bruno: I don’t know either.Alicia: Upon further reflection, I remain ignorant.Bruno: Alas, I’m still unsure too.Alicia: Now that you say that, I actually know which of us has the bigger number!Bruno: Cool! In that case, I know what…

Image: Photo: Shutterstock Graphics: GizmodoHere’s a mind-blowing geography fact: The northernmost part of Brazil is closer to Canada than it is to the southernmost part of Brazil. Facts like this partly speak to truly unusual geographical features of Earth (like Brazil’s massive land area) but also to how warped our perception can be of our own home. We’ve grown so accustomed to seeing 2D rectangular maps in classrooms, on Risk boards, and on Sporcle quizzes, that we sometimes forget how disfigured they are. We live on a…

The WOWCube has 24 separate touchscreens, and the ability to twist it on multiple axis introduces some mind-bending interactions.Gif: Kyle Barr/GizmodoIf you’re the kind of person who spins Rubik’s Cubes not to solve them, but just to feel the satisfying click-clack as you rotate their sides, then the WOWCube may be a more engaging way to fulfillyour fidgety tendencies, as long as you’re willing to pay for it.I was able to get a short hands on with the WOWCube at CES. It’s a cube with six sides, but with eight individual…