Corporate culture questions

[DaveJ]

I noticed an article on wsj.com about interview questions asked a Google and other top tier megacorporations, and was wondering about their purpose. The article did not clue me in very well. The article seems to indicate that they are "cultural", but to me they seemed more based on intelligence and thinking outside the box. Here are a couple:

"You're in a car with a helium balloon on a string that is tied to the floor. The windows are closed. When you step on the gas pedal, what happens to the balloon—does it move forward, move backward, or stay put?"

"You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and thrown into a blender. Your mass is reduced so that your density is the same as usual. The blades start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?"

I work at a small business and was clueless what the answers to these questions were, until I heard the answers they were like head slapping obvious. The guy I work with, who makes more money than me, was not able to answer them either. Does this mean I don't have what it takes to work at a corporation? My wife has a good corporate job, and she answered both these questions right, like, without the slightest hesitation.

Now I don't know why they are described as cultural, maybe they are. Are these questions about culture or intelligence? Is there any way I can improve my ability to answer questions like these, or is my brain just not good enough? Even if being able to answers these questions shows some heightened level of thinking, I'm not sure how they negate years of hard work, ability to work as a team, open mindedness, and all that traditional stuff. I'd like to know more about what's going on with these questions.