Here’s another trivia question I liked… in that it made me feel stupid
I’m making grilled cheese. I have a pan that can only fit 2 grilled cheese at a time, and each grilled cheese needs to be cooked for 30 seconds on each side. How can I make 3 grilled cheese in 1 and a half minutes?
Difficulty Rating: 5
1A and 2A, 30 s
1B and 3A, 30 s
2B and 3B, 30 s
Time to figure out that anwswer,
Given sandwiches A, B, and C:
First, put A and B in the pan and grill them each on one side:
Time elapsed: 30 seconds
Sandwiches grilled: A: 0.5, B: 0.5, C: 0.0
Next, flip A, remove B, and replace it with C, and leave them in for 30 seconds again:
Time elapsed: 60 seconds
Sandwiches grilled: A: 1.0, B: 0.5, C: 0.5
Finally, remove A (completed), flip C, and put B back in on the ungrilled side:
Time elapsed: 90 seconds
Sandwiches grilled: A: 1.0, B: 1.0, C: 1.0
Alternate solution: work more efficiently so that you don’t need to worry about that lost 30 seconds.
The first two take a minute (30 sec. each side) and the last one you cook both sides at the same time (open face grilled cheese).
Let’s label the sandwiches that we are cooking sandwich 1, 2, and 3. And we’ll divide the time into 3 30 second increments…
First 30 second: Cook 1 and 2.
Next 30 seconds: Cook 2 and 3.
Last 30 seconds: Cook 3 and 1.
Now eat your delicious tasty treats. I suggest chocolate milk, since that always goes down smooth with grill-a-ma-cheese.
make the third grilled cheese open-faced and assemble it after it is cooked.
1st 30 seconds: 1a and 2a
2nd: 2b and 3a
3rd: 1b and 3b
You do one side of 2 of the sandwiches.
30 sec pass.
Remove one of the sandwiches. Add fresh one in place.
Flip the other sandwich.
30 sec pass.
(now you have 1 sandwich that’s done and two have 1 side cooked each)
Remove cooked sandwich, flip other sandwich, put the sandwich you removed earlier that’s half done on the grill. After another 30 seconds both the sandwiches will finish, and you will have 3 grilled cheese.
Just a note that open-faced grilled cheeses taste awful.