The Watch Riddle

Last updated on: 24 Oct 2012
watch

If you’ve met me, you know that I like to use analogies and parables to explain complex ideas so that they can be easily understood by people from various backgrounds.

Most of the time, my analogies are not geological. This is because when I start explaining structural geology, people’s eyes start to glaze over, so I need to get them to think of something much simpler first, but at the same time challenge them in a way that can be related back to geological concepts.

Believe it or not, the following riddle is related to what we do at Orefind for a living – a combination of structural geology and geological modelling. I think it teaches us a fundamental concept about geological modelling and is worth sharing with you before I discuss more complex geological ideas in future posts.

The figure below shows a pair of women’s watches that feature a large curved face. The watch follows the contours of the wearer’s wrist, thus making it more like a fashionable bracelet than a normal flat-faced watch.

But if you have a keen eye, you may notice something odd about these watches.

Can you spot it?
(No, it’s not that holes are lacking in the band.)

The answer will be revealed in a future blog, where I will also explain why understanding this riddle helps you understand one of the most overlooked features of geological models that are constructed for various purposes in the mining and exploration industry.

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