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PUZZLES FROM BRAINVISTA
Compiled by Raji

Sam and Appu are intelligent mathematicians. Both of them have two prime numbers written on
their foreheads and are told that any three of them form the sides of a triangle with prime
perimeter. They take turns stating whether they can deduce the numbers on their own foreheads.

Sam sees 13 and 17 on Appu's forehead and each of them has stated "Don't know" on each of
their first two turns.
It is now Sam's third turn. What are the numbers on Sam's forehead?
Answer
The numbers on Sam's forhead are 13 and 17.
Corresponding to 13 and 17 on Appu's head, there are just 3 combinations which satisfy
prime perimeter triangle condition: (7, 17), (11, 13) and (13, 17)
If Sam had 7 and 17, Appu would have guessed 13 and 17 in his first guess as that is the only
possible solution.

If Sam had 11 and 13, Appu had one of the 2 choices to make (5, 13) and (13, 17). But Appu
being an intelligent mathematician would never had chosen (5, 13) because if that was the
case, his counterpart would have guessed (11, 13) in his first guess. But since Sam passed
on his first attempt, Appu knows it cannot be (5, 13). Incidentally Appu is not able to guess it
in the second turn also so even (11, 13) as an option is ruled out.

The last option is (13, 17) which like before has 3 possibilities. Since both pass first two times
only that option remains and Sam guesses it right in his third attempt.
Hence, the numbers on Sam's forhead are (13, 17).

Santa and Banta are in charge of counting the people who get on and off the elevator in a hotel. They take turns riding to the top floor and back down, counting as they go. After two such trips each morning, two around noon and two in the evening, there is an average taken.

The hotel manager wants to know today's average.
1. On Banta's noon trip there were 32 fewer people than in his morning count.
2. Santa counted a total of 122 in the morning and noon counts, just one higher than his

evening count, but 24 more than Banta's evening count.
3. Santa's morning count is the same as Banta's average.
4. Santa's evening count was 37 more than Banta's morning count.

Answer
A=1, T=2, S=3, U=4, H=5, Y=6, O=7, R=8, E=9

Following can be deduced from the given cryptogram:
1) S = T + 1
2) E + A = 9 or 10
3) Y + H >= 10
4) 1 <= T <= 4 ... From (1) & (3)
5) 2 <= S <= 5 ... From (1) & (4)

Y E A H
6 9 1 5
T H A T S
2 5 1 2 3
+
O U R
+
7 4 8
-------------------
-------------------
S T O R Y
3 2 7 8 6
You have 3 baskets, & each one contains exactly 4 balls, each of which is of the same size. Each
ball is either red, black, white, or purple, & there is one of each color in each basket.

If you were blindfolded, & lightly shook each basket so that the balls would be randomly
distributed, & then took 1 ball from each basket, what chance is there that you would have exactly
2 red balls?

Answer
There are 64 different possible outcomes, & in 9 of these, exactly 2 of the balls will be red.
There is thus a slightly better than 14% chance [(9/64)*100] that exactly 2 balls will be red.
A much faster way to solve the problem is to look at it this way. There are 3 scenarios where
exactly 3 balls are red:
1 2 3
-----------
R R X
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03 / 13 / 2010This doucment made it onto the Rising List!
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