An engineer and a mathematician are being interviewed for a job position. As a test of solving problems in a crisis, the engineer is lead into a room with a table, a chair, a pitcher of water on the table and a trash can with its contents on fire sitting on the floor. The engineer immediately pours the water into the trash can, extinguishing the fire.
The mathematician is led into a similar room, but where the burning trash can is sitting on the chair. He immediately moves the trash can to the floor, thereby reducing the problem to one previously solved.