Selected Puzzles



Q:

You travel 100 km north, 100 km east, and then 100 km south. You are at the same point that you started from. Where are you?


A: At the South Pole. This is the famous polar bear problem
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Q:

There are 3 cards: one is all red, one is all blue, and the third is blue on one side and red on the other. The cards are shuffled. You pick one at random and it is blue on the side facing you. What is the probability that it is also blue on the other side?


A: Now that you know that one side of the card is blue it is either a blue-blue card or blue-red card. Probability that other side is blue is ½. Use the concept of conditional probability to solve this problem.
 

Q:

In a far away land, there is an unusual tribe of 300 perfectly logical and perfectly intelligent people. Each member has a visible spot on the back of his or her head, some are red and some are black. Nobody knows the color of their own spot, but they do know the color of everyone else's. If a tribesman ever realizes the color of his own spot it is strict custom that he publicly commits suicide the following morning, so they never mention spot colors, and have no mirrors. But then one day an American tourist visits this land and announces to the entire tribe: "I can see that at least one of you has a red spot." The tourist leaves and returns a year later. What has happened?


A: They are all dead. If only one had red he knows it must be him. After he dies the others know that he must have seen only black spots, so then they all die. If two have red, they see only one other red. None of them commit suicide. Next day they know that there must be two reds. (If there were only 1 red, he would have committed suicide) So both of them commit suicide. Others know they must have black and commit suicide  
 

Q:

You are shipwrecked on an island. There is a fork in the path to the other side, one way leads to a safe village, the other leads to hungry cannibals. There are twin brothers who both know which path is which, but one of the brothers is honest, and the other always lies. You may ask one of them a single question. What should it be? What question would you ask if there is just one person who is honest or lies but you don't know which?


A: "Which path would your brother tell me leads to the cannibals?" then go that way
 


Selected Puzzles