Last night Robert H. Frank, the author of 'The Economic Naturalist' and a professor of Economics from Cornell University, spoke at the University Bookstore about his new book 'The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas. You may, if you are widely-blog-read, recognize his name from recent excerpts posted to the Freakonomics blog.

The Economic Naturalist purports to examine the world's quandries using economic principles by analogy to field biology. The challenge is finding the interesting questions. And Frank has fifteen years worth of class assignments from students asked to come up with interesting questions to work with.

Without further ado:

Why are there braille numbers on the buttons of drive-up ATMs?
Why do brides spend hundreds of dollars on a dress they will wear once, while grooms spend $70 renting a tuxedo they might wear many more times?
Why are people required to put children in safety seats in cars but in airplanes babies can sit on your lap?
Why is it cheaper to buy round-trip airfare from Kansas City to Honolulu than from Honolulu to Kansas City?
Why do female models earn more than male models?
Why do last minute seats on Broadway shows go for a discount, but last-minute seats on airplanes sell for a premium?
Why did kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

There are Braille numbers on drive-up ATMs because it's more cost-effective to make one set of buttons and use them on all the machines. For the rest of the answers, you'll have to read the book.