Richard Mason Answers Life’s Persistent Questions

1. • If you leave a light bulb on, does it use more or less electricity than if you turn it off and on?
   

2. • Can the radiation from illicit nuclear warheads be detected from space?
   

3. • What’s the difference between a 2-stroke engine and a 4-stroke engine?
   

4. • If I'm in an elevator and the mechanisms fail causing the car to plunge at terrifying speed, if I jump at the very last second before the car crashes into the ground will I be okay?
   

5. • Does it make sense to power high-altitude aircraft from the ground with laser beams?
   

6. • In the movie Blade Runner, is Deckard a replicant?
   

7. • What did you think of the movie I, Robot?
   

8. • Should academic tenure be abolished?
   

9. • Why don’t explosions hurt your ears more?
   

10. • Why can’t I sell myself into slavery?
    

11. • What is the market for robot fish?
    

12. • Is biotechnology the best route to nanotechnology?
    

13. • Is homosexuality associated with a green beard effect?
    

14. • Could Captain Kirk’s Enterprise whip Darth Vader’s Imperial Star Destroyer?
    

15. • Will we ever find a way to unlock 100% of the energy available in a mass?
    

16. • How can micropayments work?
    

17. • Do they use money on Star Trek or not?
    

18. • Is it effeminate to check a mall directory?
    

19. • If I get in a helicopter and go straight up and just hover there for 12 hours will I come down on the other side of the world?
    

20. • Should redundant overvotes be counted?
    

21. • Why would you want a company to pay dividends instead of retaining earnings or buying back shares?
    

22. • Should you bet everything on a wager with infinite expected return?
    

23. • Why does my garage door get heavier when the weather is cold?
    

24. • Why do diesel engines deliver more torque than gasoline engines?
    

25. • Do you believe in Efficient Market Theory (EMT)?
    

26. • How light would I have to be to walk on water?
    

27. • Do IVF births always end up in the ICU?
    

28. • Why does light reflect off a silvered surface but scatter off a painted wall?
    

29. • Why is there a national helium stockpile?
    

30. • Is the airline industry peculiarly vulnerable to price wars?
    

31. • Could you build a robotic baseball outfielder?
    

32. • Why aren’t there sports teams named after the Athenians?
    

33. • Should Australia become the 51st State?
    

34. • Why would a rich person want to live in an egalitarian society?
    

35. • How do you change the Region on a Daewoo DVG-3000N DVD player?
    

36. • How do you beat the first boss in Sketchfighter Alpha 4000?
    

37. • If you could buy a ticket for a lottery for $1 and you had a 99,999 in 100,000 chance of winning $1,000, but a 1 in 100,000 chance of being killed, would you take the gamble?
    

38. • In case the parking brake fails, is it best to place a concrete block under the back tire or the front tire?
    

39. • Will nanotechnology be viable within the next fifty years?
    

40. • Will nanotechnologists accidentally or deliberately create a “gray goo” which will devour us all?
    

41. • Is it really risking anything to bet money already won from the house?
    

42. • Isn't it painful to see “they” used in the singular?
    

43. • Why is morning light so hard and cold and evening light so warm and soft?
    

44. • Is the Judeo-Christian tradition particularly suitable for scientific progress?
    

45. • On Jeopardy, are you blocked from ringing in until the question has been completely given or can you ring in as soon as you know the answer?
    

46. • What is good acting?
    

47. • Which superheroes are circumcised?
    

48. • Why isn’t The Lord of the Rings as controversial as Harry Potter?
    

49. • What are P and NP?
    

50. • What does the third derivative signify?
    

51. • Why is there an X in Xmas?
    

52. • Why don’t I need a satellite dish for my satellite radio? Why do I need one for satellite TV?
    

53. • What is Gresham’s Law?
    

54. • Why do people buy books instead of borrowing them from a library?
    

55. • What causes a “hot hand” feeling in basketball?
    

56. • Why do the media ignore the threat from asteroid impacts?
    

57. • Why do you only lose one sock?
    

58. • Would a libertarian society be much different from the world of powerful national governments we live in today?
    

59. • Why doesn't Caltech have the reputation of MIT among the public despite being on the same level of academic excellence?
    

60. • What are some of your favorite quotes?