Identifying Expertise

A newly appointed supervisor came up with a clever test to distinguish between engineers and mathematicians. First, he placed a table, a chair, and a stove in a room.

The first part of the test involved placing a pot of cold water on the chair and asking them how to make it hot. The result was that they all put the pot on the stove, and they all passed the first round.

For the second part of the test, using the same setup, he placed the pot of cold water on the table and asked them the same question: how to make the cold water hot. The engineers put the pot back on the stove, while the mathematician moved the pot onto the chair and said, "Now we're back to the first problem that I've already solved."