What is a paper clip?

I work in the software industry and interview lots of candidates for software engineering posts. I have a section on Google Reader which on a pretty much weekly basis argues the pros and cons of asking programmer-type questions for programmers during interviews. I'm pretty much of the view that you should ask these types of questions, albeit in my case in a standardised form which allows for direct comparison and doesn't penalise syntactic errors.
Anyway, many more intelligent people than me have debated this subject to death and this is not entirely my point.

What I wanted to mention briefly here is a question that I was asked many years ago, and I often wish that I had kept my answer just to see how I got on.

After finishing a degree in Physics, I drifted for some time, not knowing which way to turn, but at least grateful that I had options. One of the options was to become a "technical patent attorney". This would basically have involved protecting the intellectual property of engineering developments. Maybe it would have been interesting, maybe not - fate took me elsewhere. However, I will never forget being asked the following question, with an A4 sheet of paper placed in front of me for the answer:

"Describe a paper clip"

If I asked this question of most people with simply a pencil and paper in front of them, they would be an amazing range of answers - some just completely missing the point altogether. If you have some time, don't try it and don't expect me to be trying it either.

However, with an internet connection and a basic knowledge of search syntax (i.e. the ability to type "paper clip" into a search box, every possible detail, most of which you have no desire to know about, will be available to you...

This is great, but long live pen, paper, scientific analysis and imagination! And paper-clips.