US blog site Business Insider has elicited crazy questions asked to candidates who’ve interviewed at Google. Separately, readers of the site have sent in suggested answers.

As many of the questions are similar, if not identical, to the more obtuse questions favoured by investment banks, we’ve published a few of them, and the suggested responses, below. Let us know if you’d answer differently.

How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?

“I figure a standard school bus is about 8ft wide by 6ft high by 20 feet long – this is just a guess based on the thousands of hours I have been trapped behind school buses while traffic in all directions is stopped.

That means 960 cubic feet and since there are 1728 cubic inches in a cubit foot, that means about 1.6 million cubic inches.

I calculate the volume of a golf ball to be about 2.5 cubic inches (4/3 * pi * .85) as .85 inches is the radius of a golf ball.

Divide that 2.5 cubic inches into 1.6 million and you come up with 660,000 golf balls. However, since there are seats and crap in there taking up space and also since the spherical shape of a golf ball means there will be considerable empty space between them when stacked, I’ll round down to 500,000 golf balls.”

In a country in which people only want boys every family continues to have children until they have a boy. If they have a girl, they have another child. If they have a boy, they stop. What is the proportion of boys to girls in the country?

“Imagine you have 10 couples who have 10 babies. 5 will be girls. 5 will be boys. (Total babies made: 10, with 5 boys and 5 girls)

The 5 couples who had girls will have 5 babies. Half (2.5) will be girls. Half (2.5) will be boys. Add 2.5 boys to the 5 already born and 2.5 girls to the 5 already born. (Total babies made: 15, with 7.5 boys and 7.5 girls.)

The 2.5 couples that had girls will have 2.5 babies. Half (1.25) will be boys and half (1.25) will be girls. Add 1.25 boys to the 7.5 boys already born and 1.25 girls to the 7.5 already born. (Total babies: 17.5 with 8.75 boys and 8.75 girls).

And so on, maintaining a 50/50 population.”

Why are manhole covers round? [This is a banking favourite]

“So they don’t fall through the manhole.”

How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?

“However many the market dictates. If pianos need tuning once a week, and it takes an hour to tune a piano and a piano tuner works 8 hours a day for 5 days a week 40 pianos need tuning each week. We’d answer one for every 40 pianos.”

How many times a day does [sic] a clock’s hands overlap?

“22 times:

12:00

1:05

2:11

3:16

4:22

5:27

6:33

7:38

8:44

9:49

10:55

PM

12:00

1:05

2:11

3:16

4:22

5:27

6:33

7:38

8:44

9:49

10:55

You’re the captain of a pirate ship and your crew gets to vote on how the gold is divided up. If fewer than half of the pirates agree with you, you die. How do you recommend apportioning the gold in such a way that you get a good share of the booty, but still survive?

“You divide the booty evenly between the top 51% of the crew. “

You have eight balls all of the same size. 7 of them weigh the same, and one of them weighs slightly more. How can you find the ball that is heavier by using a balance and only two weighings?

“Take 6 of the 8 balls and put 3 on each side of the scale. If the heavy ball isn’t in the group of 6, you know it’s one of the remaining 2 and so you put those two in the scale and determine which one. If the heavy ball is in the 6, you have narrowed it down to 3. Of those 3, pick any 2 and put them on the scale. If the heavy ball is in that group of 2, you know which one it is. If both balls are of equal weight, then the heavy ball is the one left behind.”