This thread is for those of us who appreciate the computational logic of math. (*Ahem* Mac *Ahem*) ...as well as those of us who are simply just baffled by all that mathe-magic. You can post a puzzle if you want. Like this one, from Notch himself (tweeted 2/20):

Assume spherical earth. Strap a belt around the equator. Make it six meters longer. How far above the surface does it rise?

Then whoever has ideas about this puzzle may just express them below.
_{Since math is a rather objective topic, steering away from opinion is encouraged. ...unless it's logical}

The answer is about 1 meter.
40,075km is about the circumference of the world.
Multiply by 1000 to convert to meters, so 40,075,000 meters, Divide this by Pi to get about 12756268.6.
Add 6 the circumference.
40,075,006. Divide by Pi to get the diameter.
About 12756270.6.
The diameter is increased by about 2. However, we need the radius to find how much it's stretched out in ANY direction. The radius is half the diameter, half both of those numbers to find that it is 1 meter. (Which is also half of 2, so you can do it that way if you want).
Tada, math!

I'm a bit lazy, so I'm won't show the numbers after you divide them by 2, so here's an easy example: 4-2 = 2. Okay.
4/2 =2
2/2 =1
2-1 =1
Same principle applies with all numbers, including the two I was working with above.

C=2*pi*r
Rearranging: r = C / (2*pi)
If r and C have the same units, then add 6 to C and rearrange:
r = (C+6) / (2*pi) = C/(2*pi) + 6/(2*pi)
The radius increases by 6/(2*pi) using any unit, for any circle of radius r. If we said pi is about 3, then 2*pi is 6, the radius increases by about 1.

Three things,
1. Sorry for not making my explanation as simple as yours, and
2. I showed my brother this problem after you posted it, and he got mad because he thought there was no way it was 1 meter. So he took my calculator and divided by (10^pi) twice, and claimed that was the real answer, so he wouldn't look stupid in front of my parents...
3. Since doing this problem I memorize the circumference and radius of the earth