Selected Puzzles



Q:

There are 50 red marbles in one jar and 50 blue marbles in another jar. You need to rearrange them in such a manner that the probability of picking a red marble will be the highest. How will you do that?


A: Keep 1 red marble in 1 jar and put the other 49 marbles into the other jar. Probability of red ball = ½ * 1 + ½ * 49/99
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Q:

A shopkeeper sells a pen for 12Rs. The customer gives him a 20Rs note. The shopkeeper does not have change. So he goes to a nearby shp, gets the change and gives 8Rs back to the customer. After sometime the other shopkeeper comes and tells him that the 20Rs note is fake. How much does the shopkeeper loose?


A: 20Rs. He is left with a fake 20Rs note.
 

Q:

Two trains enter a tunnel 200 miles long (yeah, its a big tunnel) travelling at 100 mph at the same time from opposite directions. As soon as they enter the tunnel a supersonic bee flying at 1000 mph starts from one train and heads toward the other one. As soon as it reaches the other one it turns around and heads back toward the first, going back and forth between the trains until the trains collide in a fiery explosion in the middle of the tunnel (the bee survives). How far did the bee travel?


A: 1, 3, 9, and 27.
The tunnel is 200 miles long. The trains meet in the middle traveling at 100 mph, so it takes them an hour to reach the middle. The bee is traveling 1000 mph for an hour (since its flying the whole time the trains are racing toward one another) - so basically the bee goes 1000 miles
 
 

Q:

You have 100 doors in a row that are all initially closed. You make 100 passes by the doors starting with the first door every time. The first time through you visit every door and toggle the door (if the door is closed, you open it, if its open, you close it). The second time you only visit every 2nd door (door #2, #4, #6). The third time, every 3rd door (door #3, #6, #9), etc, until you only visit the 100th door. What state are the doors in after the last pass? Which are open which are closed?


A: 4
You can figure out that for any given door, say door #42, you will visit it for every divisor it has. So 42 has 1 & 42, 2 & 21, 3 & 14, 6 & 7. so on pass 1 i will open the door, pass 2 i will close it, pass 3 open, pass 6 close, pass 7 open, pass 14 close, pass 21 open, pass 42 close. For every pair of divisors the door will just end up back in its initial state. so you might think that every door will end up closed? Well what about door #9. 9 has the divisors 1 & 9, 3 & 3. But 3 is repeated because 9 is a perfect square, so you will only visit door #9, on pass 1, 3, and 9… leaving it open at the end. Only perfect square doors will be open at the end
 


Selected Puzzles