So, You Think You're Clever?: Taking on The Oxford and Cambridge Questions

by John Farndon

Overview

From the ever-curious mind that brought you the bestselling Do You Think You're Clever? comes a brand-new trip to the far reaches of the intellectual universe, courtesy of even more notoriously provocative Oxbridge interview questions.

How would you poison someone without the police finding out? (Medicine, Cambridge)
What makes a strong woman? (Theology, Oxford)
Instead of politicians, why don't we let the managers of IKEA run the country? (Social and Political Sciences, Cambridge)
How do you organise a successful revolution? (History, Oxford)


Whether you're interested in going to Oxbridge or just want to give your brain a workout, join polymath John Farndon on another exhilarating journey through the twists and turns of thought, and explore just what it means to be genuinely clever - rather than just smart.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781848319325
Publisher:	Amberley Publishing
Publication date:	11/05/2015
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

John Farndon is the author of numerous bestsellers on science, ideas and the natural environment, as well as being a playwright, composer and poet.

He has been shortlisted a record five times for the Royal Society Junior Science Book Prize. Do You Think You're Clever? was shortlisted for the Society of Authors Education Award. Canada's Globe and Mail named his Atlas of Oceans as a 2011 top ten science book. He is currently writing The Omnipaedia for Square Peg.

Table of Contents

Introduction: So, You Think You're Clever? 1

How would you poison someone without the police finding out? 7

Will this bag ever be empty? 13

How would you market a rock band? 18

Is Wittgenstein always right? 25

How small can you make a computer? 30

How do you organise a successful revolution? 37

If there were three beautiful, naked women standing in front of you, which one would you pick? And does this have any relevance to economics? 44

Do you believe that statues can move, and how might this belief be justified? 50

Why do human beings have two eyes? 57

Was Shakespeare a rebel? 64

Would Ovid's chat-up line work? 71

Instead of politicians, why don't we let the managers of IKEA run the country? 76

Here is a piece of bark, please talk about it 82

My little girl says she knows she's going to get a brother when my wife gives birth in seven months' time. Is she right? 86

If a wife had expressed distaste for it previously, would her husband's habit of putting marmalade in his egg at breakfast be grounds for divorce? 91

Which way is the Earth spinning? 97

Should we have laws for the use of light bulbs? 104

What do you think of teleport machines? 109

How many molecules are there in a glass of water? 114

How is it possible that a sailing boat can go faster than the wind? 118

Why does a tennis ball spin? 122

Would Mussolini have been interested in archaeology? 126

Should poetry be difficult to understand? 131

What is the square root of -1? 140

Imagine we had no records of the past at all, except everything to do with sport - how much of the past could we find out about? 144

How do you see through glass? 149

Can a thermostat think? 153

Why might erosion make mountain ranges higher? 159

Should a Walmart store be opened in the middle of Oxford? 164

Is the moon made of green cheese? 170

What makes a strong woman? 175

Why did Henry VII call his son Arthur? 181

How would you compare Henry VIII and Stalin? 185

Why do you think Charlotte Bronte detested Jane Austen? 192

If you are in a boat in a lake and throw a stone out of the boat, what happens to the level of the water? 197

Are Fairtrade bananas really fair? 201

How does geography relate to A Midsummer Night's Dream? 207