Week 9 Solutions

Problem 1:
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. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No. 2?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?

Answer
The solution presented by vos Savant in Parade (vos Savant 1990b) shows the three possible arrangements of one car and two goats behind three doors and the result of staying or switching after initially picking door 1 in each case: behind door 1 Car Goat Goat behind door 2 Goat Car Goat behind door 3 Goat Goat Car result if staying at door #1 Car Goat Goat result if switching to the door offered Goat Car Car

A player who stays with the initial choice wins in only one out of three of these equally likely possibilities, while a player who switches wins in two out of three. The probability of winning by staying with the initial choice is therefore 1/3, while the probability of winning by switching is 2/3. Thanks to wikipedia for a very comprehensive page

Problem 2:
In a prison camp, the jailer offers all the 100 prisoners an opportunity to escape. He will randomly assign 100 hats, either Red or Blue and lines up the prisoners in a straight line. The man at the back of the line must declare the colour of his own hat by saying o nly Red or Blue. If he is correct, he is allowed to escape, but if he is wrong, he remains locked up. No prisoner can see the colour of his own hat, but can see all the other prisoners in front of him, and can hear all the answers behind him. With random declarations, 50% of the men will escape, but can you advise them how to do better?

Answer:
The first person has a 50% chance of survival, but you can save all the rest. This person at the back of the line chooses Blue if he can see an odd number of blue hats in front of him, and Red if he can see an even number of blue hats. Each of the people can therefore identify by looking ahead as to what their hat colour should be.

Problem 3:
On a fictional island, all inhabitants are either knights, who always tell the truth, or knaves, who always lie. The puzzles involve a visitor to the island who meets small groups of inhabitants. John and Bill are residents of the island of knights and knaves. Question 1 John says: We are both knaves. Who is what? Question 2 John: We are the same kind. Bill: We are of different kinds. Who is who?

Solution to Question 1
John is a knave and Bill is a knight. John's statement can't be true because nobody can admit to being a knave, the liars paradox. Since John is a knave this means he must have been lying about them both being knaves, and so Bill is a knight.

Solution for Question 2

John is a knave and Bill is a knight. In this scenario they are making contradictory statements and so one must be a knight and one must be a knave. Since that is exactly what Bill said, Bill must be the knight, and John is the knave.

Problem 4:
Albert Einstein once posed a brain teaser that he predicted only 2% of the worlds population would be able to solve. FACTS: 1. There are 5 houses in 5 different colours.

2. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. 3. These 5 owners drink a certain beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigarette and keep a certain pet. 4. No owners have the same pet, brand of cigaratte, or drink. CLUES: 1. The Brit lives in a red house 2. The Swede keeps a dog 3. The Dane drinks tea 4. The green house is on the left of the white house. 5. The green house owner drinks coffee. 6. The person who smokes Pall Mall keeps birds. 7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill. 8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk 9. The Norwegian lives in the first house. 10. The man who smokes Blend lives next to the one who keeps cats 11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill 12. The owner who smokes Camel drinks beer 13. The German smokes Marlborough. 14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house 15. The man who smokes Blend has a neighbour who drinks water. The question is, who keeps the fish?

Answer:
1st House Norwegian Yellow Dunhill Water Cats 2nd House Dane Blue Blend Tea Horses 3rd House Brit Red Pallmall Milk Birds 4th House German Green Marlborough Coffee Fish 5th House Swede White Camel Beer Dog