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        riddles >> microsoft >> Mouse Smells Cheese
        
(Message started by: william wu on Nov 15^th, 2003, 7:33pm)

Title: Mouse Smells Cheese
Post by william wu on Nov 15^th, 2003, 7:33pm

Imagine a room with a large floor. Somewhere on the floor there is a piece of cheese, and somewhere else, there is a mouse.

1. Can a mouse smell the direction of the cheese? The mouse cannot move from his location, but it can rotate its body.

2. What if the mouse can't even rotate its body?

Source: Tom Cover

Title: Re: Mouse Smells Cheese
Post by towr on Nov 16^th, 2003, 7:40am

::[hide]Certainly when it rotates, since there is a chemical gradient of cheese odour, and by moving its nose through it it can smell in which direction the gradient goes up and where it goes down.
When it can't move, it would depend on how its nose works. If the nostrils each registrate the smell seprately (and not at the same location inside the nasal cavity), the direction could, I think, be worked out from the difference in concentration, and knowledge of the world.
Of course if you can't move, who cares where the cheese is..[/hide]::

Title: Re: Mouse Smells Cheese
Post by Speaker on Nov 18^th, 2003, 6:54pm

Is it one of those scroll mice?
Is it an optical travel wheel mouse?
These things don't have any sense of smell. Maybe if the cheese was really pungent, then some of its odor might attach itself to the mouse, then if you picked up the mouse and gave it a sniff, it would smell.

It would smell cheesy. :P