

How to survive a job interview with Elon Musk - sandeepmzr
http://mashable.com/2015/05/13/elon-musk-job-interview/

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josefresco
Light on content but had a neat riddle (I actually "solved" or guessed it
_pats self on back_ )

"You're standing on the surface of the Earth," Musk begins, according to the
book. "You walk one mile south, one mile west, and one mile north. You end up
exactly where you started. Where are you?"

Answer in the article.

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kbart
This riddle doesn't look hard at all (solved it nearly instantly after reading
it), but I'm not sure I could provide an instant answer during such stressful
conditions as mentioned in the article.

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josefresco
That's what I thought when I first read it (how easy) but then realized that
under stress, expecting an impossible mind teaser, a nervous applicant might
mess it up.

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yaeger
>Musk is known to work more than 20 hours a day

Sorry but no matter how high I value his contributions to technology do I
believe statements like that. Just think about it. How would these 4 hours
downtime be divided? One would think all goes towards sleep. But can you
really close your laptop, instantly jump into bed and sleep? No showers?
Brushing teeth? Eating something? And what about in the morning? Alarm clock
goes of, jump out of bed and instantly open the laptop and start working?

Again, I like the guy enough but I wish they would stop to publish these
obviously fake fluff factoids. You can still be a genius when working
reasonable hours.

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ollysb
The first answer to the riddle is pretty obvious but I don't see how the
second answer can be correct.

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Rhapso
ok, so haversine distance is a thing on a sphere:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great-
circle_distance](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great-circle_distance)

You are a bit over a mile from the south pole (how much a of bit requires math
i don't feel like doing, but is very important) You walk towards the pole,
turn and walk west in an exactly 1 mile circumference circle around the pole
(this is why the "bit" was important) and you walk back north to where you
started.

There is only one valid point on the northern hemisphere (the north pole) and
a ring of points at the south pole.

found the math I need!
[https://www.astro.virginia.edu/class/whittle/astr553/Topic16...](https://www.astro.virginia.edu/class/whittle/astr553/Topic16/t16_circumference.html)

C = R sin(r/R) R = radius of earth aprox( 3,959) C = 1 mile solution is r+1
distance from the south pole

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ukoki
Aren't there multiple rings for the South Pole solution? There's the solution
where you head south, circle the pole once, and head back north; then there's
also the one (starting slightly further south) where you head south, circle
the pole twice and go back... and so on.

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Rhapso
yep! I missed that, infinitely many concentric rings.

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hyperliner
I would attempt to throw him off by asking "you mean true north, geographic
north, or grid north?"

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ionwake
is geographic != true north? I think you missed out magnetic north, unless I
have my definitions mixed up =]

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hyperliner
Yes, that is the "throw off" part!

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ionwake
No dude, you are misunderstanding me, your definition is wrong, your label of
geographic north == true north.

