Can you solve it? Do you have the brain of an engineer?
Alex Bellos presents a series of engineering puzzles in his Monday column, drawing from the book 'How to Keep a Plane in the Sky.' The challenges cover topics ranging from cranberry sorting and child-proof bottle caps to Golden Gate Bridge handrails and aircraft pressure testing. The article also announces that Bellos has won the 2026 Christopher Zeeman Medal for mathematics communication.
- ▪The puzzles are adapted from Alex Davies's book 'How to Keep a Plane in the Sky,' which focuses on test engineering.
- ▪One puzzle asks why medicine bottle caps are only designed to be secure against 85% of children under five.
- ▪Another puzzle discusses the unintended consequences of replacing the Golden Gate Bridge handrail with thin vertical slats to reduce wind resistance.
- ▪Alex Bellos won the 2026 Christopher Zeeman Medal, the UK's most prestigious honour for mathematics communication.
- ▪The column has been running on alternate Mondays since 2015.
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| Original publisher | The Guardian — Science |
| Canonical URL | https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/sep/14/can-you-solve-it-do-you-have-the-brain-of-an-engineer |
| Publication time | Mon, 14 Sep 2026 06:10:24 GMT |
| Retrieval time | 2026-09-14T06:31:51.687Z |
| Last seen | 2026-09-14T06:31:51.687Z |
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| Cluster | rzJ-4ikF0U4V · 1 stories |
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Photograph: Bert Folsom/AlamyView image in fullscreen Photograph: Bert Folsom/AlamyAlex Bellos's Monday puzzleMathematicsCan you solve it? Do you have the brain of an engineer?Hacks from the hidden world of test engineeringAlex BellosMon 14 Sep 2026 02.10 EDTLast modified on Mon 14 Sep 2026 02.11 EDTSharePrefer the Guardian on GoogleToday’s puzzles test your engineering smarts.The cranberriesIn a cranberry sorting facility, thousands of cranberries are dropped every minute onto a board.
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