Job candidate baffled by tricky brainteaser in interview – see if you can solve it

A job candidate has taken to social media to share the brainteaser they were presented with in an interview - as they admit they're still struggling to solve it days later

A job seeker has been left scratching their head after being presented with a brainteaser in an interview.

Admitting they couldn't figure out the answer on the spot - or even after the interview ended - they took to social media to ask users for their help solving it.

They explained how they were interviewing for a position as a mechanical engineer but didn't expect to be asked such a confusing question on the big day. They said: "During an interview was asked this brainteaser I couldn’t answer correctly, was wondering if anyone could help me out.

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"You have two identical pucks that are slid across a frictionless surface at the same starting velocity. They have to cross a finish line at the same distance from the starting line. However, when puck A is slid, it slides across a 'dip' in the table, but returns to the original height after the dip.

Interview physics brain teaser
byu/computertest123 inAskPhysics

"Puck B slides across a completely level surface. Which reaches the finish line first?" While some users agreed the pucks would arrive at the same time, others believed puck A could make it across first. One user said: "Both reach at the same time. Since the horizontal distance and initial velocities are the same, the time taken should be the same too - by the kinematic equation: distance (in x) equals velocity(in x) *time."

Another user added: "Make the dip a flat horizontal down, a flat level at the bottom, and then an equal, flat horizontal back up. The horizontal component of the movement has an acceleration and then a deceleration the cos of the angle." A third user said: "From what I understand from my analysis and others on here (I was wrong at first).

"Puck A arrives first because it accelerates on the way down the dip, and on the way up can only decelerate back to initial velocity, due to the 'rotational' deceleration being the only change in its velocity. So essentially puck A is speeding up for a bit then going back to normal, like temporarily accelerating in a vehicle, which negates friction with energy input into the system."

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