h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Bu**er. that's a shame. I wanted to know.

Given: The rate of change of the temperature dT/dt , is (by Newton's Law of Cooling) proportional to the difference between the temperature of the tea T(t) and the ambient temperature Ta.
Thus: if you add the milk first you immediately reduce the initial temperature of the cup of tea but the difference between the temperature of the tea and the room temperature will be less. Thus the rate of decrease in the temperature of the tea will be slower than the tea without the milk.
If the tea is left ‘neat’ it will cool faster than with the milk in it. When you return from the meeting and add the milk, you immediately reduce the temperature (of the cooled tea) by the same amount that you would have done if you had added it before the meeting.

Assuming that that wasn't a complete load of c--p:

A writer with an audience of millions insisted that he was never to be interrupted while writing. After the day when he actually was interrupted, he never wrote again. Why?

I agree with your reasoning, but I don't think you actually gave the answer: is it better to add the milk or not?


Geggs

Add the milk first. The cooler tea will cool more slowly.

Correct: add the milk first.
I'll get back to you later on your question.

The interrupted writer is easy. The interruption that he got gave him a (fatal) heart-attack, 'cos he was not expecting to be interrupted. He couldn't write after that, 'cos he was dead.

Well - that's not the answer I had in mind and begs the question why he insisted that he wasn't interrupted. I find it unlikely that you could foresee a heart attack in such a way!

I find myself thinking of Porlock. But I'm sure Colleridge wrote again after that.


Geggs

Apologies for being a lateral thinker. I don't think foreseeing a heart-attack was the reason he asked not to be interrupted, I just think that he had gotten his request for so long that the fright of not getting his 'way' caused the heart-attack. Btw, what was the original answer?

Clue to all lateral thinkers (who should have seen it already) - he had an audience as opposed to readership. It is actually in the original question.

I did see, but couldn't immediately make sense of it. Would it be possible to fit millions into a conference hall? I doubt it. The writer would only be able to address an audience of millions through mass media, like TV, Radio of the web.


Geggs

"or the web", that is, not "of the web"


Geggs

Not right. Thgink laterally - you are thinking linearly.

It's a haunted house. The person is dead and is 'writing' on a ouija board. The writer is interrupted when the house is exorcised.

Way off - look up.

Was the writer a sign writer? Was he high up on a ladder? The ladder was disturbed, and he fell to his death.

'Thateral linking' he wasn't 'on' anything.

If it's a puzzle truly in the spirit of lateral thinking then you have to accept that there is more than one correct answer. If any answer is plausible then it IS correct.

Was he writing in the sky? In an airplane in smoke?
If so, I don't quite know how he was disturbed (other than an exteme form of disturbance, by someone crashing in to his plane).