Our Micro Softies puzzles derive from the puzzles Microsoft used to put to prospective employees, to test their thinking skills. A creative computer coder must be able to think geometrically. So here’s a geometric Micro Softy about cutting cornbread.

Yuri Glossclossnovitch invited his children and grandchildren over for a light lunch. Yuri prepared a pot of pinto beans in which he mixed two cups of small ham cubes.  He also had a rectangular block of cornbread to eat with the beans.  There were eight people, so he had to cut the cornbread into eight equal pieces.

Then Yuri’s grandson, Yuri Glossclossnovitch III, challenged his grandfather to divide the cornbread into eight identical servings using only three straight slices through the block. Yuri thought a moment and then did it. So this week’s question is, how did he do it? How did Yuri Senior cut the cornbread into eight identical portions using only three straight cuts?

Solution to Monday Micro Softy 49:  Mirror Mirror On the Wall

Last week’s Micro Softy was about optics. Old Lou Zegusi examined his face using a small wall-mounted mirror. Even after moving from from six feet to just one foot away, his reflection in the mirror remained unchanged — showing his face from the top of his head to the tip of his chin.

What kind of mirror was Lou Segusi using?

The answer is that Lou was using a regular mirror. As you look at yourself in a regular small mirror, the framing of your face in the mirror stays the same no matter how close you are to the mirror. Try it.

The Monday Micro Softy is a weekly feature of Mind Matters News. Here are the links to all the puzzles and answers to date:

Monday Micro Softy 49: Mirror Mirror On the Wall… A man is rather surprised to discover that he is the owner of a rather strange sort of mirror. To answer Micro Softy 48, consider: How might Freddy be moving his car from place to place without exerting much physical energy at all?

Monday Micro Softy 48: Why is Freddy pushing his car around town? And, despite being a heavy smoker, he doesn’t get winded… The answer to Microsofty 47 lies in considering whether it is an advantage for the outfielder to catch the ball, given the rules of the game.

Monday Micro Softy 47: Baseball: Is This an “Intentional” Error? Why? This is an incident that merits a Micro Softy; it has happened more than once in major league baseball. The solution to last week’s Micro Softy turns on the difference it makes that one train leaves two minutes after than the other.

Monday Micro Softy 46: Three loving brothers in New York State. Why did Mario, who was just trying to economize on Uber trips, end up visiting Luigi five times as often as he visited Bob? A hint for solving Micro Softy 45: Average speed is independent of the distance to the store.

Monday Micro Softy 45: Can Tony beat the fast-food curfew? An early curfew on fast food service motivated a boy to exercise more vigorously. But how fast was he pedaling? To solve Micro Softy 44, recall that Tony doesn’t need to take the individual pills each day, only the prescribed amount of each. You will find links here to Micros Softies 41 through 44 as well.

Monday Micro Softy 40: The fate of a false prophet. He wasn’t actually fired for being a false prophet but for something that his prophecy unintentionally revealed. The solution to Micro Softy 39 lies in considering an alternative possible meaning of a word commonly used in sports. You will also find links to Micro Softies 30 through 39 and their answers here as well.

Monday Micro Softy 29: A funeral lament in four lines. The funeral director was puzzled by Dan’s description of his relationship to the deceased but there was no question that his grief was sincere Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 22 through 29.

Monday Micro Softy 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills. Here, you will also find links to Microsofties 11 through 20 as well.

Monday Micro Softy 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar? Here you will find links to the first ten Micro Softies. Have fun!