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CDC 101

THINK
TANK
“ A Curated Collection of
Probability Problems & Puzzles ”
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INDEX
I. Probability
1. Basic Questions 1-20
2. Bayes Theorem 21-24
3. Expectation 25-52
4. Strategy 53-62
5. Geometrical 63-84
6. Distribution 85-94
7. Pigeon Hole Principle 95-106
8. Random Walk 107-117
9. Miscellaneous 118-124

II. Puzzles
1. Basic Puzzles 125-157
2. Mathematics 158-187
3. Strategy 188-215
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BASIC
PUZZLES
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1. The Sock Drawer

A drawer contains red socks and black socks.

When two socks are drawn at random, the
probability that both are red is 1/2.

(a) How small can the number of socks in the

drawer be?

(b) How small if the number of black socks is

even?

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Answer : 4, 21
Solution :

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Solution :

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Solution :

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2. Coin in square
In a common carnival game a player tosses
a penny from a distance of about 5 feet
onto the surface of a table ruled in 1-inch
squares. If the penny (3/4 inch in
diameter) falls entirely inside a square, the
player receives 5 cents but does not get his
penny back; otherwise he loses his penny.
If the penny lands on the table, what is his
chance to win?

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Answer : 1/16

Solution :

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3. Perfect Bridge Hand

We often read of someone who has been
dealt 13 spades at a bridge. With a well
shuffled pack of cards, what is the chance
that you are dealt a perfect hand(13 of
one suit)? (Bridge is played with an
ordinary pack of 52 cards, 13 in each of 4
suits, and each of 4 players is dealt 13.)

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Answer :
Solution :

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4. Rolling The Bullet

Two bullets are loaded into a gun's
round barrel consecutively. The barrel
has a capacity of 6. The gun is fired
once, but no bullet is shot. Does rolling
the barrel (shuffling) before next shot
increase the probability of firing a bullet?

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Answer : YES
Solution :

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5. All Girls World

In a world where everyone wants a
girl child, each family continues
having babies till they have a girl.
What do you think will the boy-to-
girl ratio be eventually?

Assuming probability of having a boy

or a girl is the same and there is no
other gender at the time of birth.

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Answer : 1:1
Solution :

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6. Half Time
The probability of having accidents
on a road in one hour is ¾. What
is the probability of accidents in
half an hour?

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Answer : 1/2

Solution :

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7. Craps
The game of craps, played with two dice, is one
of America’s fastest and most popular gambling
games. Calculating the odds associated with it is
an instructive exercise.
The rules are as follows: Only the totals for the
two dice count. The player throws the dice and:
Wins immediately if the total for the first throw
is 7 or 11.
Loses immediately if the total is 2, 3, or 12.
Any other total becomes the player’s “point.” If
the first throw results in a point, the player
continues to throw the dice repeatedly until one
of the following occurs:
The player wins by throwing the point again.
The player loses by throwing a 7.
What is the player’s chance to win?

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Answer : 3/9
Solution :

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Solution :

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Solution :

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Solution :

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Solution :

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BAYES
THEOREM
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8. Father of Lies
A father claims about snowfall last night.
First daughter tells that the probability of
snowfall on a particular night is 1/8.
Second daughter tells that 5 out of 6
times the father is lying! What is the
probability that there actually was a
snowfall?

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Answer : 1/36
Solution :

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9. 50 marbles

Given two boxes, B1 and B2, one

containing 50 red marbles and the other
containing 50 blue marbles, a ball is
selected randomly from either box. The
task is to maximize the probability of
selecting a red ball by reshuffling the
marbles between both boxes.

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Answer : 0.75
Solution :

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EXPECTATION
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10. Expected number of

tosses until getting
consecutive heads or tails.

Suppose that we have a fair coin and we

toss it until we have two consecutive
heads (H) or tails (T). What is the
expected number of tosses until the game
stops?

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Answer : 4

Solution :

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11: Trials until first success.

On the average, how many times must a

die be thrown until one gets a 6?

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Answer : 6
Solution :

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12. Chuck a Luck

In this gambling game, a player can buy
a ticket for Rs 1 on any number from 1 to
6. Three identical and unfair dice are
rolled. If the booked number appears on
0, 1, 2, or 3 dice, the player wins Rs 0, 1,
2, or 3 respectively, without returning
the original Rs 1. What is the expected
money you can win after buying a ticket
for Rs 1?

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Answer : 0.5
Solution :

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13. Second Chance

Roll a die, and you get paid what the
dice shows. But if you want, you can
request a second chance & roll the die
again; get paid what the second roll
shows instead of the first. What is the
expected value?

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Answer : 4.25
Solution :

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14. All Girls World

In a world where everyone wants a girl
child, each family continues having babies
till they have a girl. What do you think
the girl-to-boy ratio will be eventually?

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Answer : 1:1
Solution :

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15. You have a train to

catch
Spiderman has two close friends, Mary Jane &
Gwen Stacy. After every mission, he rushes to the
central subway. One line heads towards Mary's
place, and another towards Stacy. Trains from each
line leave every 10 minutes. Spiderman, being
impartial, always boards the first train that leaves.
However, he observes that he ends up visiting Mary
Jane nine times more often than Gwen Stacy. Can
you decipher why?

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Answer : The gap from MM to GG is 1 minute, and

the gap from GG to MM is 9 minutes

Solution :

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Solution(Conti) :

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16. n+1 and n coins

Two persons A and B have respectively n + 1 and
n coins, which they toss simultaneously. Then the
probability that A will have more heads than B is:
A) 0.5
B) > 0.5
C) < 0.5
D) None of these

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Answer : 0.5
Solution :

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Solution(Conti) :

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17. Innocent Monkey

A very innocent monkey throws a fair
die. The monkey will eat as many
bananas as are shown on the die, from 1
to 5. But if the die shows ’6’, the
monkey will eat 5 bananas and throw
the die again. This process may continue
indefinitely. What is the expected
number of bananas the monkey will eat?

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Answer : 4
Solution :

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Solution :

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18. No of Double Heads

A coin is tossed 10 times, and the result
is recorded as a string of heads (H) and
tails (T). What is the expected number
of occurrences of ”HH” (two consecutive
heads) in the string?
Note: In the string ”HHH”, the number
of occurrences of ”HH” is 2. (For
example, the expected number of ”HH”
in 2 tosses is 0.25, and in 3 tosses, it is
0.5.)

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Answer : 2.25
Solution :

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Solution :

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19. Collecting Coupons

Coupons in cereal boxes are numbered
from 1 to 5, and a complete set of one of
each coupon is required to claim a prize.
With one coupon per box, how many
boxes on average are required to collect
a complete set?

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Answer : 11.42
Solution :

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Solution :

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20. The Theatre Row

Eight eligible bachelors and seven
beautiful models happen to have
purchased single seats in the same 15-
seat row of a theater. On average, how
many pairs of adjacent seats are ticketed
for marriageable couples?

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Answer : 7.47
Solution :

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STRATEGY
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21. The Three-

Cornered Duel
A, B, and C are to fight a three-cornered
pistol duel. All know that A’s chance of
hitting his target is 0.3, C’s is 0.5, and B
never misses. They are to fire at their
choice of target in succession in the order
A, B, C, cyclically (but a hit man loses
further turns and is no longer shot at)
until only one man is left un-hit. What
should A's strategy be?

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Solution :

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Solution :

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22. Should you

sample with or
without
replacement?
Two urns contain red and black balls, all alike
except for color. Urn 4 has 2 reds and 1 black,
and Urn B has 101 reds and 100 blacks. An urn
is chosen at random, and you win a prize if you
correctly name the urn on the basis of the
evidence of two balls drawn from it. After the
first ball is drawn and its color reported, you can
decide whether or not the ball shall be replaced
before the second drawing. How do you order the
second drawing, and how do you decide on the
urn?

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Solution :

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23. Guess The Toss

A and B are in a team called AB, playing
against C. If AB team wins they win Rs
3, nothing otherwise.
The Game: A and B are placed in 2
separate rooms far away. A will toss a
coin and B will also toss a coin; A will
have to guess the outcome of B's toss and
B will guess A's. If both guesses are
right, team AB wins Rs 3, nothing
otherwise. Should they play the game, by
paying Rs 1 at the start?

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Solution :

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24. Monty Hall

Problem
Suppose you're on a game show, and
you're given the choice of three doors:
Behind one door is a car; behind the
others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1,
and the host, who knows what's behind
the doors, opens another door, say No. 3,
which has a goat. Now, do you want to
pick door No. 2? What is the probability
to win the car if you switch?

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Solution :

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Solution :

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GEOMETRY
AND INTEGRAL
PUZZLES
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25. The Hurried

Duelers
Duels in the town of Discretion are rarely
fatal. There, each contestant comes at a
random moment between 5 AM. and 6
A.M. on the appointed day and leaves
exactly 5 minutes later, honor served,
unless his opponent arrives within the
time interval and then they fight. What
fraction of duels lead to violence?

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Solution :

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26. The Little

End of the Stick
(a) If a stick is broken in two at random,
what is the average length of the smaller
piece?

(b) (For calculus students) What is the

average ratio of the smaller length to the
larger?

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Solution :

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27. The Broken

Bar
A bar is broken at random in two places.
Find the average size of the smallest, of
the middle-sized, and of the largest
pieces.

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Solution :

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Solution :

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Solution :

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Solution :

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Solution :

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28.Random Ratio
p and q are two points chosen at
random between 0 and 1. What
is the probability that the ratio p/q
lies between 1 and 2?

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Answer : 1/4
Solution :

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29. Probability the three

points on a circle will be on
the same semi-circle
Three points are chosen at random on
a circle. What is the probability that
they are on the same semi circle?

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Answer : 3/4
Solution :

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Solution :

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30. Stick to Triangle

A stick is broken into 3 parts by
choosing 2 points randomly along its
length.
With what probability can it form a
triangle?

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Answer : 1/4
Solution :

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31. Witches at the

coffee shop
Two witches make a nightly visit to an
all-night coffee shop. Each arrives
at a random time between 0:00 and 1:00.
Each one of them stays for exactly 30
minutes. On any one given night, what is
the probability that the witches will
meet at the coffee shop?

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Answer : 3/4
Solution :

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Solution :

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32. Random Chords

The probability that the length of a

randomly chosen chord of a circle lies
between ⅔ and ⅚ of its diameter is ?

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Answer : 1/4
Solution :

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DISTRIBUTIONS
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33. Waiting for a Truck

On a given highway, trucks arrive at the station
according to a Poisson process with
λ = 0.1/minute. This means that after a truck has
just passed, the time for the next truck to arrive is
an exponential random number with an average
arrival time of 10 minutes. Your car just broke on
this highway, and you are waiting for the next truck
for hitchhiking, what is your expected waiting time?
On average how many minutes ago the last truck
left?

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Answer : 10
Solution :

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34. Sklar's problem

What is P(X>0∣X+Y>0) given
that X,Y are i.i.d standard normal?

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Answer : 3/4
Solution :

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Solution :

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35. Catching the Greedy

Counterfeiter

The king’s minter boxes his coins n to a box.

Each box contains m false coins. The king
suspects the minter and randomly draws 1
coin from each of n boxes and has these
tested. What is the chance that the sample of
n coins contains exactly r false ones?

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Solution :

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36.Correlated Variables

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Solution :

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Solution :

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PIGEONHOLE
PRINCIPLE
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37. hemisphere lemma

Given any 5 distinct points on the surface of
a sphere, show that we can find a closed
hemisphere which contains at least 4 of
them.

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Solution :

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38. Tiling Problem

Given a “2 x n” board and tiles of size “2 x
1”, count the number of ways to tile the
given board using the 2 x 1 tiles. A tile can
either be placed horizontally i.e., as a 1 x 2
tile or vertically i.e., as 2 x 1 tile.

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Solution :
Let “count(n)” be the count of ways to place
tiles on a “2 x n” grid, we have following
two ways to place first tile.
1) If we place first tile vertically, the
problem reduces to “count(n-1)”
2) If we place first tile horizontally, we have
to place second tile also horizontally. So the
problem reduces to “count(n-2)”
Therefore, count(n) can be written as below.
count(n) = n if n = 1 or n = 2
count(n) = count(n-1) + count(n-2)
The above recurrence is nothing but
Fibonacci Number expression.

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39. Birthday Pairings

What is the least number of persons required
if the probability exceeds 1/2
that two or more of them have the same
birthday? (Year of birth need not match)

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Solution :

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Solution :

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Solution :

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40. Finding Your

Birthmate

You want to find someone whose birthday

matches yours. What is the least
number of strangers whose birthdays you
need to ask about to have a 50-50
chance?

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Answer : 253
Solution :

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Solution :

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Solution :

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RANDOM
WALK
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41. The Cliff-Hanger

A drunkard takes a forward step with a

probability of 0.4 and a backward step
with a probability of 0.6. What is the
probability they will be one step away
from the origin after 11 steps?

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Answer : 1
Solution :

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Solution :

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42. Drunkard
Problem

A drunkard takes a forward step with a

probability of 0.4 and a backward step
with a probability of 0.6. What is the
probability they will be one step away
from the origin after 11 steps?

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43. Gambler’s Ruin

Player M has $1, and Player N has $2.

Each play gives one of the players $1
from the other. Player M is enough better
than Player N that he wins 2/3 of the
plays. They play until one is bankrupt.
What is the chance that Player M wins?

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Solution :

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Solution :

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44. Bold Play vs.

Cautious Play
At Las Vegas, a man with $20 needs
$40, but he is too embarrassed to wire his
wife for more money. He decides to invest
in roulette (which he doesn’t enjoy
playing) and is considering two
strategies: bet the $20 on “evens” all at
once and quit if he wins or loses, or bet on
“evens” one dollar at a time until he has
won or lost $20. Compare the merits of
the strategies.

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Solution :

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Solution :

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45. Amoeba Problem

A population of amoebas starts with 1.

After 1 period that amoeba can divide
into 1, 2, 3, or 0 (it can die) with equal
probability. What is the probability that
the entire population dies out eventually?

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MISCELLANEOUS
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46. Twin Knights

Suppose King Arthur holds a jousting tournament
where the jousts are in pairs as in a tennis
tournament (see diagram below for the tournament
ladder).
The 8 knights in the tournament are evenly
matched, and they include the twin knights Balin
and Balan.
FIRST SECOND
FINALS
ROUND ROUND

WINNER

(a) What is the chance that the twins meet in a

match during the tournament?
(b) Replace 8 by 2^n in the above problem. Now
what is the chance that they meet?

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Solution :

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47. The Ballot Box

In an election, two candidates ,Albert and
Benjamin , have i an ballot box a and b votes
respectively , a>b, for example ,3 and 2 .If
ballots are randomly drawn and tallied ,what is
the chance that at least once after the first tally
the candidates have the same number of tallies?

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Solution :

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Solution :

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48. Drunk Passenger

A line of 100 airline passengers is waiting to
board a plane. They each hold a ticket to one of
the 100 seats on that flight. For convenience,
let's say that the nthnth passenger in line has a
ticket for seat number 'n'. Being drunk, the first
person in line picks a random seat (equally likely
for each seat). All of the other passengers are
sober, and will go to their assigned seats unless it
is already occupied; If it is occupied, they will
then find a free seat to sit in, at random. What is
the probability that the last (100th) person to
board the plane will sit in their own seat (#100)?

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Solution :

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II . PUZZLES
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GENERAL
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1. Burning Cords
You are given two cords that both burn in exactly
one hour, not necessarily at a uniform rate. How
should you light the cords to determine a time
interval of exactly 15 minutes?

FOLLOW-UP QUESTION:
Instead of having two cords, what if you only had
one cord, how would you measure 15 minutes?

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Solution :
First, let's try to measure thirty minutes. To do that, we can
burn both ends of a cord.
Even if it burns non-uniformly, it will still finish in exactly 30
minutes.
To measure 15 minutes, burn the first cord at one end and
the second cord at both ends. Half an hour later, when the
second cord finishes burning, the first cord has exactly 30
minutes of length left.
Now we can burn the other end of the first cord, and it shall
finish in exactly 15 minutes.

FOLLOW-UP ANSWER:

Break the cord into approximately half, and burn these two
cords from both of their ends. If both these cords finish
burning together, that means exactly 15 minutes have
passed. If any one of these cords finishes first, break the
other cords from approximately the middle, and further burn
all ends of these little cords. Continuing this way theoretically
leads to exactly 15 minutes!

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2. Dark Room Deck

In a dark room, there is a deck of 52 cards, with
exactly 10 cards facing up, rest facing down. You
need to split this into two decks with an equal
number of cards facing up!

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Solution :
Create a deck of k cards randomly from the original 52-
card deck, (k=10 here) and then turn over the k-card
deck. Goal is achieved!

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3. Eight Balls
You are given eight balls. They appear identical,
but one is heavier than the rest. You have a pair
of balancing scales. How do you find the heavy
ball?

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Solution:

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Solution:

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4. Find the fastest 3 horses

There are 25 horses among which you need to find out the
fastest 3 horses. You can conduct a race among at most 5 to
find out their relative speed. At no point, you can find out the
actual speed of the horse in a race. Find out the minimum no.
of races which are required to get the top 3 horses.

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Solution:
First, we group the horses into groups of 5 and race each group
on the race course. This gives us 5 races (see image below).

In the image, each row represents one race of 5 horses. For

convenience, let us name the horses using the row and column
index. Therefore, the first race(row 1) was contested between
the horses R1C1, R1C2, R1C3, R1C4 and R1C5. The second
race (row 2) was contested between the horses R2C1, R2C2
and so on. Let us assume that the fifth member of each row
won the race (R1C5 won the first race, R2C5 won the second
race and so on), the fourth member of each row came second
(R1C4 came second in the first race, R2C4 came second in the
second race and so on) and the third member of each group
came third (R1C3 came third in the first race, R2C3 came
third in the second race and so on).

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Next, we race the 5 level 1 winners (R1C5, R2C5, R3C5,

R4C5 and R5C5). Let’s say R1C5 wins this race, R2C5 comes
second and R3C5 comes third.

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The winner of this race (R1C5) is the fastest horse of the

entire group. Now, the horse which is second in the entire
group can either be R2C5 or R1C4. The horse which is third
in the entire group can either be R3C5, R2C4 or R1C3.
Therefore, we race these 5 horses.

Therefore, the horse R1C5 is the fastest horse. The horses

which come first and second in the last race are the horses which
are second and third in the entire group respectively. in this
way, the minimum number of races required to determine the
first, second and third horses in the entire group is 7.

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5. Mislabelled Jars
There are 3 jars, namely, A, B, C. All of
them are mislabeled. Following are the
labels of each of the jars:
A: Candies
B: Sweets
C: Candies and Sweets (mixed in a
random proportion)
You can put your hand in a jar and pick
only one eatable at a time. Tell the
minimum number of eatable(s) that
has/have to be picked in order to label the
jars correctly.

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Answer : 1 pick of an eatable is

required to correctly
label the Jars.

Solution :

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Solution :

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6. 12 Marbles
You are given a set of scales and 12 marbles. The
scales are of the old balance variety. That is, a
small dish hangs from each end of a rod that is
balanced in the middle. The device enables you to
conclude either that the contents of the dishes
weigh the same or that the dish that falls lower has
heavier contents than the other. The 12 marbles
appear to be identical. In fact, all of them are
identical, and one is of a different weight. Your
task is to identify the unusual marble and discard
it. You are allowed to use the scales three times if
you wish, but no more. Note that the unusual
marble may be heavier than the others, or it may
be lighter; you do not know which. You are asked
to both identify it and determine whether it is
heavy or light.

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Solution :

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7. Which Switch

There is a light bulb inside a room and

three switches outside. All switches are
currently in off state and only one switch
controls the light bulb. You may turn any
number of switches on or off any number
of times you want. How many times do
you need to go into the room to figure out
which switch controls the light bulb?

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Solution :

The Bulb gets hot slowly when turned on.

Turn on the switch #1 for 10 minutes,
turn it off and turn on the switch #2 and
get into the room. There are 3 possible
cases:
If the bulb is on, then switch #2
controls the bulb.
If the bulb is off but hot, then switch
#1 controls the bulb.
If the bulb is off and cool, then switch
#3 controls the bulb.
Thus, we can infer the switch that
controls the bulb in one entry.

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8. Shooting in
Circles
1024 pirates stand in a circle. They start
shooting alternately in a cycle such that
the 1st pirate shoots the 2nd, the 3rd
shoots the 4th, and so on. The pirates
who got shot are eliminated from the
game. They continue in circles, shooting
the next standing pirate, until only one
pirate is left. Which position should
someone stand to survive?

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Solution :

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9. Chocolate Bar

There is a 6x8 rectangular chocolate bar

made up of small 1x1 bits. We want to
break it into 48 bits. We can break one
piece of chocolate horizontally or
vertically, but cannot break two pieces
together! What is the minimum number
of breaks required?

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Solution :
For a chocolate of size mxn, we need
mn - 1 steps. By breaking an existing
piece horizontally or vertically, we merely
increase the total number of pieces by
one. Starting from 1 piece, we need mn -
1 steps to get to mn pieces. Another way
to reach the same conclusion is to focus
on "bottom left corners of squares": Keep
the chocolate rectangle in front of you and
start drawing lines corresponding to cuts.
Each cut "exposes" one new bottom left
corner of some square. Initially, only one
square's bottom left corner is exposed. In
the end, all mn squares have their bottom
left corners exposed.

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10 .Clock's Perfect
Alignment

What is the first time after 3pm

when an hour and minute hands of a
clock are exactly on top of each
other?

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Solution :

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11. Tower of Hanoi

In front of you there are three poles. One pole is
stacked with 64 rings ranging in weight from
one ounce (at the top) to 64 ounces (at the
bottom). Your task is to move all the rings to one
of the other two poles so that they end up in
same order. The rules are that you can move
only ring at a time, you can move a ring only
from one pole to another, and you cannot even
temporarily place a ring on top of a lighter ring.

What is the minimum number of moves you need

to make to achieve the task?

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Solution :

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Solution :

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12. Cheating Husbands

A certain town comprises of 100 married couples. Some
husbands secretly cheat on their wives. All wives know
about the nature of every husband except their own.
When a wife concludes that her husband cheated, she
kicks her husband into the street at midnight. All
husbands remain silent about their secret. One day, the
mayor of the town announces to the whole town that
there is at least 1 cheating husband in the town. After
announcement, no one talks, waiting for someone to get
kicked. Till 9th night from announcement, no husband
was kicked, but on the 10th night, some husbands got
kicked out simultaneously. How many are they?

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Solution :

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13. Gold Bar Problem

you hire a man to work in your yard for
seven days. you wish to pay him in gold. you
have one gold bar with seven parts - like a
chocolate bar. you wish to pay him one gold
part per day. but you may snap the bar in
only two places. Where do you snap the bar
so that you may pay him at the end of each
day, and on successive days he may use
what you paid him previously to make
change?

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Answer : Size of 1, 2 and 4 units

Solution :

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14. Newpapers Puzzle

A newspaper made of 16 large sheets of
paper folded in half. The newspaper has
64 pages altogether. The first sheet
contains pages 1, 2, 63, 64. If we pick
up a sheet containing page number 45.
What are the other pages that this sheet
contains?

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Solution :

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MATHS
PUZZLES
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15. Water and Wine

We have two jars, each containing an equal volume V of

liquid. One jar contains water and the other contains wine.
First, we transfer an amount x of water from the water
jar to the wine jar. After mixing, we transfer the same
amount x of the mixture (now consisting of both water and
wine) back into the water jar. The question is: Is there
now more water in the wine jar or more wine in
the water jar?

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Answer : Equal
Solution :

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Solution :

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16. Rabbit on the

Staircase

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Answer : Fibonacci Number

Solution :

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17.

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Solution :

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Solution :

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18. 2 Equations & 3

Unknowns

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Solution :

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19. Dead Men Walking

Assume 100 zombies are walking on a
straight line, all moving with the same
speed. Some are moving towards left, and
some towards right. If a collision occurs
between two zombies, they both reverse
their direction. Initially all zombies are
standing at 1 unit intervals. For every
zombie, you can see whether it moves left or
right, can you predict the number of
collisions?

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Solution :

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Solution :

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20.Primes
Why it is that if p is a prime
number greater than 3, then p^2
- 1 is always divisible by 24 with
no remainder.

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Solution :

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21. Sharing Wood

A. B & C live together and share everything
equally. One day A brings home 5 logs of wood, B
brings 3 logs and C brings none. Then they use
the wood to cook together and share the food.
Since C did not bring any wood, he gives $8
instead. How much to A and how much to B?

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Answer : Out of the 8 dollars, A gets 7 and

B gets 1

Solution :

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22. Multilingual
A group has 70 members. For any two
members X and Y .There is a
language that X speaks but Y does not,
and there is a language that Y speaks
but X does not. At least how many
different languages are spoken by this
group?

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Answer : 8
Solution :

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Solution :

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23. Relative
Distance
Two trains are on same track and they are
coming toward each other. The speed of the
first train is 50 km/h and the speed of the
second train is 70 km/h. A bee starts flying
between the trains when the distance
between two trains is 100 km. The bee first
flies from first train to second train. Once it
reaches the second train, it immediately flies
back to the first train … and so on until
trains collide. Calculate the total distance
travelled by the bee. Speed of bee is 80
km/h.

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Answer : 66.7 KM
Solution :

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24. Lighthouse Problem

Suppose there is a straight coastline and a

lighthouse that is L=3 miles away from the coast.
The light revolves at one revolution per minute.
How fast is the beam of light traveling along the
coastline? When the beam is 3L away from the
coastal point closest to the light, how fast is the
light traveling along the coast?

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Answer :
Solution :

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Solution:

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Solution:

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25. Derangement

Supposing 4 letters are placed in 4 different

envelopes. In how many ways can they be taken out
from their original envelopes and distributed among
the 4 different envelopes so that no letter remains
in its original envelope?

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Answer : 9
Solution :

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Solution :

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26. Domino Covering

An 8x8 chessboard can be entirely
covered by 32 dominoes of size 2x1.
Suppose we cut off two opposite corners
of chess (i.e. two white blocks or two
black blocks). Prove that now it is
impossible to cover the remaining
chessboard with 31 dominoes.

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Solution :

The two diagonally opposite corners are of the

same color. A domino covers adjacent faces &
hence a domino always covers 1 black and 1
white square. The 31 dominoes will cover 31
blacks and 31 whites. The chess has 30 & 32
square instead. Hence this can't be done.

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STRATEGY
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Pirates and the Treasure

Five pirates need to divide 100 Gold Coins. Pirates
have a hierarchy, from Level 1 to level 5. The
highest level pirate is the leader. The leader proposes
a plan to distribute the gold and all the pirates vote
on it (including the leader). If at least 50% of the
pirates agree on the plan, the gold is split according
to the proposal. If not, level-5 pirate is kicked from
the ship, and the level-4 pirate now proposes a new
plan. This process continues until a proposal is
accepted. All pirates are extremely smart and
extremely greedy. How does level-5 Pirate divide the
treasure?

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Answer : (98, 0, 1, 0, 1)
Solution :

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Two Eggs
An Egg breaks only if dropped from above a
threshold floor, within a 100-story building.
Every time you drop an egg, it is counted as an
attempt. You are given 2 eggs to deduce the
threshold floor, with a minimum number of
attempts in the worst case!

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Answer : 14
Solution :

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31: Tigers & The Sheep

Hundred tigers and one sheep are put on a
magic island that only has grass. Tigers can
live on grass, but they want to eat sheep. If a
Tiger bites the Sheep then it will become a
sheep itself. If 2 tigers attack a sheep, only the
first tiger to bite converts into a sheep. Tigers
don’t mind being a sheep, but they have a risk
of getting eaten by another tiger. All tigers
are intelligent and want to survive. Will the
sheep survive?

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Answer : Survives

Solution :
If there is 1 tiger, then it will eat the sheep because
he does not need to worry about being eaten. Sheep
will not survive. If there are 2 tigers, both of them
knows that if one eats the Sheep, the other tiger will
eat him. So, the sheep will survive.
If there are 3 tigers, then they each of them knows
that if one tiger eats up the sheep, then Iceland will
be left with 1 sheep and 2 tigers and as shown in the
previous case, the sheep will survive. Hence each
tiger will try to eat up the sheep. The sheep will not
survive.
If there are 4 tigers, then the sheep will survive.
And so on….
So, If there are even number of tigers the sheep will
survive, else it will die. Hence, if there are 100
tigers the sheep will survive.

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32:Duck & Fox

A duck is sitting at the center of a circular lake. A
fox is waiting at the shore, not able to swim, wishing
to eat the duck. The Fox can move around the whole
lake at a speed four times the speed at which the
duck can swim. The duck can fly, but only once it
reaches the shore of the lake, it can't fly from the
water directly. Can the duck always reach the shore
without being eaten by the fox?
Note: This is an old duck, and cannot take a flight
while swimming. The duck cannot submerge in the
water.

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Answer : Yes
Solution :
This is a classic problem involving geometry and relative speed, often referred
to as the "Duck and Fox Problem". Here's the approach:

1. Swim in Circles: The duck begins by swimming in a circle with a radius of

r<R/4r<R/4 where RR is the radius of the lake. The center of this circle is
the same as that of the lake. The fox is four times as fast as the duck. By
swimming in a small circle, the duck can start creating an angular
separation between itself and the fox.
2. Force the Fox to Run: Since the fox is trying to chase the duck, it will
continue to run around, trying to move to the point nearest to the duck but
on the shore. As the duck goes around slightly faster, the fox lags behind.
Eventually, the duck will be at a point where the fox is directly across the
lake from it.

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Solution contd. :
3. Wait for the Right Moment: The duck continues
swimming in its smaller circle until the fox is straight
across the lake from it. At this point, the duck and fox
are separated by half the circumference of the lake, a
distance that the fox has to cover to reach the duck if
it heads straight for the shore.

4. Head for the Shore: While standing directly

opposite, the duck can now swim straight to the shore.
Duck has to travel around R⋅3/4 distance, while the
fox has to travel πR. Given the ratio of their speeds, it
will take 3R and 3.14⋅R units of time respectively.
Hence the duck will have a few extra moments to start
the flight.

5. Escape: Reaching moments before the fox, the duck

can now fly away to safety.

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34: Poisonous wine

So there's this king. Someone breaks into his wine
cellar where he stores 1000 bottles of wine. This
person proceeds to poison one of the 1000 bottles,
but gets away too quickly for the king's guard to see
which one he poisoned or to catch him.
The king needs the remaining 999 safe bottles for
his party in 4 weeks. The king has 10 prisoners who
deserve execution. The poison takes about 3 weeks
to take effect, and any amount of it will kill whoever
drinks it. How can he figure out which bottle was
poisoned in time for the party?

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Solution :

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Solution :

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35:King's Salary
After the revolution, each of the 66 citizens of a
certain city, including the king, has a salary of 1.
King cannot vote, but has the power to suggest
changes - namely, redistribution of salaries. Each
person's salary must be a whole number of dollars,
and the salaries must sum to 66. He suggests a new
salary plan for every person including himself in
front of the city. Citizens are greedy, and vote yes if
their salary is raised, no if decreased, and don't vote
otherwise. The suggested plan will be implemented if
the number of "yes" votes are more than "no" votes.
The king is both, selfish and clever. He proposes a
series of such plans. What is the maximum salary he
can obtain for himself?

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Answer : $6
Solution :
The king begins by proposing that 33 citizens have
their salaries doubled to $2, at the expense of the
remaining 33 (himself included). Next, he increases
the salaries of 17 of the 33 salaried voters (to $3 or
$4) while reducing the remaining 16 to $0. In
successive turns, the number of salaried voters falls
to 9, 5,
3, and 2. Finally, the king bribes three paupers with
$1 each to help him turn over the two big salaries
to himself, thus finishing with a royal salary of $63.
It is not difficult to see that the king can do no better
at any stage than to reduce the number of
salaried voters to just over half the previous number;
in particular, he can never achieve a unique salaried
voter. Thus, he can do no better than $6

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33: Prisoner's Hat

One hundred prisoners are lined up, facing one
direction and assigned a random hat, either red or
blue. Each prisoner can see the hats in front of them
but not behind. Starting with the prisoner at the
back of the line and moving forward, they must each,
in turn, say only one word which must be "red" or
"blue". If the word matches their hat color they are
released, if not, they are kept imprisoned. They can
hear each others' answers, no matter how far they
are on the line, but they do not hear the verdict
(whether the answer was correct). A friendly guard
warns them one night before, giving them enough
time to come up with a strategy. How many
prisoners can be freed using the best strategy?
Assume that there is an unknown number of red &
blue hats.

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Answer : 99
Solution :
We can number prisoners from 100 to 1, with 100
being the last person in the line. Prisoners agree that
if the 100th100th person will say "red" if there are
an even number of "red" hats visible on the prisoners
1 to 99, and blue otherwise. This way, prisoner
number 99 can look ahead and count the red hats. if
they add up to an even number and the number 100
said “red”, then 99 must be wearing a blue hat. if
they add up to an even number and number 100 said
“blue”, signaling an odd number of red hats, number
99 must also be wearing a red hat.
Similarly, number 98 knows that 99 said the correct
hat, and so uses that information along with the 97
hats in the front to figure out their own hat's color.
This can continue till the first prisoner.
This strategy will free 99 prisoners. But the
100th100th prisoner has to rely on luck and has a
50:50 chance of being right.

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36. Apple-Truck problem

(1.10-Heard on the street)

There are two cities, A and B, 1,000 miles apart.

You have 3,000 apples at City A, and you want to
deliver as many as possible of them to City B. The
only delivery method available is a truck. There
are, however, two problems. The truck can hold at
most only 1,000 apples, and if there are any apples
at all in the truck, the hungry dishonest driver will
steal and eat one apple for every mile he drives.
What is the maximum number of apples you can
deliver from City A to City B? Note that you are
welcome to stop partway, dump off some apples,
and then come back and pick them up later.

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Answer : 833
Solution :

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Solution:

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Solution(Conti) :

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37. (1.16-Heard on the

street)
You and I are playing a competitive game. We shall
take turns to call out for integers and the first one
to call out 50 wins.
Rules :
The player who starts must call out in the
range of 1 to 10 inclusive.
A new number called out by the next player
must be in the range of n+1 to n+10 inclusive,
where n is the previous player's called-out
number.
What would be the strategy you would use to win
the game?

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Solution :

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Solution :

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Solution:

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38. (1.26-Heard on the

street)
Three men and Hats
Inside of a dark closet are five hats: three blue and
two red. Knowing this, three smart men go into the
closet, and each selects a hat in the dark and places
it unseen upon his head.

Once outside the closet, no man can see his own

hat. The first man looks at the other two, thinks,
and says, "I cannot tell what color my hat is." The
second man hears this, looks at the other two, and
says, "I cannot tell what color my hat is either."
The third man is blind. The blind man says, "Well,
I know what color my hat is." What color is his
hat?

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Answer : Blue
Solution :

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39.
Kings Conundrum

This is an absolute classic. A king demands a tax of

1,000 gold sovereigns from each of the 10 regions
of his nation. The tax collectors for each region
bring him the requested bag of gold coins at year's
end. An informant tells the king that one tax
collector is cheating and giving coins that are
consistently 10% lighter than they should be, but
he does not know which collector is cheating. The
king knows that each coin should weigh exactly one
ounce. How can the king identify the cheat by using
a weighing device exactly once?

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Solution :

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