A rich earl has become the owner of a piece of land, which to his dissatisfaction turned out to be nothing more than a big swamp. The earl wants to get rid of the swamp. A salesman advises him to use his fast-growing plants which can cover the swamp very quickly. "This plant doubles every day, tomorrow you will have two, the day after tomorrow four, etc. In 80 days, your swamp will be completely covered." The earl reacts: "80 days? This takes far too much time. Then just give me eight of these plants."

Question 1: What did the earl think?
Question 2: And what do you think?

If you multiply me by 2, subtract 1, and read the reverse the result you'll find me. Which numbers can I be?

A soccer team just became first in the national league. The players which were on the field just after the referee blew the final signal wanted to congratulate each other by shaking hands. Assuming that each player shook hands with every other player only once, how many time were the hands shaken in total? (There are of course 11 players in a soccer team)