Eric has a perfect spherical shaped apple. With a cilindrically shaped drill bit he removes the core of the apple. A cilindrically shaped hole remains, the center of this hole is exactly at the center of the apple. Eric measures the length of the hole with a piece of rope. It turns out to be exactly 8 cm. What is the volume of the remaining apple?

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

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?