Quote: Original post by kSquared
Q: "How many gas stations would you say there are in the United States?"

No no no
The right answer is "Hang on, lemme check google." :)

Quote: Original post by OBeH

Quote: Original post by kSquared
Q: "How many gas stations would you say there are in the United States?"

No no no
The right answer is "Hang on, lemme check google." :)

[lol][lol]

Interesting interview though, what job are you applying for exactly?

Were you given any time to think about the answers, or did you have to answer right away?

Q: "You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?"

Move (swim) to the middle. The blades of the blender will generate a vortex/whirlpool, of which the calmest portion is the center - where there are also no blades.


Q: "How would you find out if a machine's stack grows up or down in memory?"

Data segment magic/voodoo. You want to declare two data segments and assign them to the same address, then instantiate local variables in each of them and compare their addresses.

msn12b posted something similar in General Programming that had been used at Bungie to test if a pointer was of a specific sort, or something like that.


Q: "How many gas stations would you say there are in the United States?"

I would probably have estimated geographically rather than by population. For instance, your estimate doesn't factor in multiple-car individuals. I believe there are more cars in the US than drivers, though, of course, not all of them need to be fueled at the same time.

Good job, though.

Quote: Original post by Oluseyi
Q: "You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?"

Move (swim) to the middle. The blades of the blender will generate a vortex/whirlpool, of which the calmest portion is the center - where there are also no blades.

The blender was empty. =X

Quote: Original post by Salsa

Quote: Original post by Oluseyi
Q: "You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?"

Move (swim) to the middle. The blades of the blender will generate a vortex/whirlpool, of which the calmest portion is the center - where there are also no blades.

The blender was empty. =X

Wouldn't there still be a "tornado-tunnel effect" (for the lack of a better description) from the air, though? That would be lessened in the "eye".

Looking at my blender, I don't see any feasible way of scaling the blade mechanism and getting into the axis. I think I would just hang from one of the blades for dear life and enjoy the ride before splatting into the glass.

Being technical, you'd instantly die. How you die depends on how your mass is reduced.

If they simply remove actual molecules and atoms from your body, then you would be the height of a Jefferson nickel, 2.1cm. A person 6 feet in height is 1.8288m, or 182.88cm. Your size and mass would be reduced by a factor of 87.0857, let's just say 87. So the amount of blood that pumps through your veins is based on the surface area of your veins, or the hollow part of your veins to be exact. So the amount of blood being pumped is reduced by a factor of 87, but the surface area of the veins is reduced by a factor of 7569, so I am predicting your circulatory system would just cease to function properly. Every system in the body would have to be linearly scalable. Not to mention the fact that you just lost most of the neurons in your brain.

If your mass was simply minaturized somehow, as in you are made of smaller electrons than we are now, you would probably disappear and enter a parallel universe. You wouldn't interact with the rest of the universe in the same way. Your eletro-magnetic forces that keep you fram falling from the floor might not be strong enough and you could be sucked by gravity into the center of the earth. You would probabaly not be able to breath because your smaller lungs couldn't react with the big oxygen molecules. You may go blind if your eyes no longer reacted or detected light the same. A host of things could go wrong in this scenario when looked at from the chemical/atomic level.


Also, how would you make a rope from your clothes to hurl yourself out? What would you attach the rope to? And I don't think you could get a rop long enough to reach the top of the blender.

Quote: Original post by Oluseyi
Q: "How many gas stations would you say there are in the United States?"

I would probably have estimated geographically rather than by population. For instance, your estimate doesn't factor in multiple-car individuals. I believe there are more cars in the US than drivers, though, of course, not all of them need to be fueled at the same time.

Interesting responses -- I really wish I could have given the "there is no escape -- I die" answer to the blender one, but I'm not sure that would have gone over well. I did mention this sentence though:

Quote: that the number of people who own more than one car is negligibly small relative to the total American population.

Bah, I don't think merely staying alive in the blender is the way to go. You have no idea when or if the blender will ever be turned off. In fact, the fact that you've been placed in a blender in the first place implies that there is a malicious entity involved, someone who wants to see you minced.

So you definitely have to try to escape. Since the blades create a lot of windflow, there must be some drafts that could pull you up- I think the way they would work is that the air comes down the center of the blender area, and up the sides. So you could try to hug one of the side walls and see if the wind will push you to the top?

Either that or you could do a funny dance, in the hopes that your malicious captor will find you entertaining and choose to spare you.