PUZZLES CRASHER

Nitin Gandhi
Ashutosh Gadodia
 Breaking A Rod
• I have a rod of length L
• I break it randomly at any
point and I take the longer
part.
• Then I break it again and
take the shorter part.
• I keep on going like this
for five times.
• What is the expected
length of the rod after 5
trials
 Dodge the Bullet
• There is a sixgun with two
bullets in consecutive
chambers pointed at your
head.
• The bad guy spins it, then
pulls the trigger. It clicks on
an empty chamber.
• He then tells you that you
have a choice: he pulls the
trigger again or spins it first
before pulling the trigger.
• Which to choose?
 Balls of Steel
• 12 steel balls are given.
• All but one are of equal weight.
• You do not know whether the
defective ball is lighter or
heavier than the normal balls.
• You are given a comparison
balance.
• You can use the balance only 3
times.
• How would you find out which
is the defective ball? Is it
heavier or lighter?
 The 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. The car and the
goats were placed randomly behind the doors before the show.
• The rules of the game show are as follows:
– After you have chosen a door, the door remains closed for the time being.
– The game show host, Monty Hall, who knows what is behind the doors, now
has to open one of the two remaining doors, and the door he opens must
have a goat behind it. If both remaining doors have goats behind them, he
chooses one randomly.
– After Monty Hall opens a door with a goat, he will ask you to decide whether
you want to stay with your first choice or to switch to the last remaining door.
– Imagine that you chose Door 1 and the host opens Door 3, which has a goat.
He then asks you "Do you want to switch to Door Number 2?"
• Is it to your advantage to change your choice?
 The Fastest Horses
• Mr Malaya of IB group
owns a race track in
Kolkata having five lanes
and 25 fine horses
• He wishes to know which
are the three fastest
• What is the least number
of races needed to be run
to find the answer?
 Calendar Dice
• If you have two dice (so
each has 6 sides), with 1
digit on each side and
you want to be able to
form all numbers
between 01 and 31 (for
the days of the month),
what digits would be on
each dice?
 Eye Can See You
• A group of people with assorted eye colors live on an island. They are all perfect
logicians -- if a conclusion can be logically deduced, they will do it instantly.
• No one knows the color of their eyes.
• Every night at midnight, a ferry stops at the island. Any islanders who have figured
out the color of their own eyes then leave the island, and the rest stay.
• Everyone can see everyone else at all times (during the day) and keeps a count of
the number of people they see with each eye color (excluding themselves), but
they cannot otherwise communicate. Everyone on the island knows all the rules in
this paragraph.
• On this island there are 100 blue-eyed people, 100 brown-eyed people, and the
Guru (she happens to have green eyes). So any given blue-eyed person can see
100 people with brown eyes and 99 people with blue eyes (and one with green),
but that does not tell him his own eye color; as far as he knows the totals could be
101 brown and 99 blue. Or 100 brown, 99 blue, and he could have red eyes.
• The Guru is allowed to speak once (let's say at noon), on one day in all their
endless years on the island. Standing before the islanders, she says the following:
"I can see someone who has blue eyes.”
• Who leaves the island, and on what night?
 Guesstimates (Consults)

• Number of Credit cards

in circulation in India

• Number of ping pong

balls that can fit Boeing
747
 Guesstimates (Marketing)

• Number of handheld
play stations at IIM C

• Number of mobile
recharges done at IIM C
 5 Pirates
• 5 pirates of different ages have a treasure of 100 gold coins.
• On their ship, they decide to split the coins using this
scheme:
– The oldest pirate proposes how to share the coins, and all
pirates remaining will vote for or against it.
– If more than 50% of the pirates vote for it, then the coins will
be shared that way.
– Otherwise, the pirate proposing the scheme will be thrown
overboard, and the process is repeated with the pirates that
remain.
• Assuming that all 5 pirates are intelligent, rational, greedy,
and do not wish to die, (and are rather good at math for
pirates) what will happen?
 Black Hat, White Hat
• Cannibals ambush a safari in the jungle and capture three men. The
cannibals give the men a single chance to escape uneaten.
• The captives are lined up in order of height, and are tied to stakes. The
man in the rear can see the backs of his two friends, the man in the
middle can see the back the man in front, and the man in front cannot see
anyone. The cannibals show the men five hats. Three of the hats are black
and two of the hats are white.
• Blindfolds are then placed over each man's eyes and a hat is placed on
each man's head. The two hats left over are hidden. The blindfolds are
then removed and it is said to the men that if one of them can guess what
color hat he is wearing they can all leave unharmed.
• The man in the rear who can see both of his friends' hats but not his own
says, "I don't know". The middle man who can see the hat of the man in
front, but not his own says, "I don't know". The front man who cannot see
anybody’s hat says "I know!“
 Circular Lake Escape
• You are in a boat in the exact center of a perfectly
circular lake.
• There is a goblin on the shore of the lake. The
goblin wants to kill you.
• The goblin can't swim and doesn't have a boat.
Provided that you can make it to shore and the
goblin isn't there to grab you, you can always
outrun him on land and get away.
• The problem is this: The goblin can run four times
as fast as the maximum speed of your boat. He has
perfect eyesight and is completely logical. he will
do anything in his power to catch you.
• How can you make it to land and escape the
goblin?
 Ants on Rod..
• N ants are spread randomly on a rod 1 meter long.
• They can only move either to the right or to the left
(they move at a constant speed of 1 meter per minute)
and when two meet they both shake hands change
directions.
• Assume they shake hands at a lightning speed so there
is no time delay ( just imagine that… God damn it !!)
• If an ant reaches the end of the rod it falls off. They start
moving on 8:00, after how many hours will there be no
more ants left on the rod?
 Painting A Cube
• In how many ways can a person paint a cube
with six different colors?
 Roll and Get Rich!!

• You are rolling a die and being given whatever

you roll in dollars.
• You are given two more chances if you don’t
like what you get the first time, or the second
time, for a max of 3 rolls.
• What’s your strategy that maximizes your
payoff ??
 Burning Ropes
• Given: two ropes and a lighter.
• Each of the two ropes has the following
property: if you light one end of the rope, it will
take exactly one hour to burn all the way to the
other end.
• But it doesn't have to burn at a uniform rate. In
other words, half the rope may burn in the first
five minutes, and then the other half would take
55 minutes. The rate at which the two ropes
burn is not necessarily the same, so the second
rope will also take an hour to burn from one end
to the other, but may do it at some varying rate,
which is not necessarily the same as the one for
the first rope.
• How would you measure a period of 45
minutes.
 Fruity!
• You are on an island and there are three
crates of fruit that have washed up in
front of you. One crate contains only
apples. One crate contains only oranges.
The other crate contains both apples and
oranges.
• Each crate is labeled. One reads "apples"
one reads "oranges" and one reads
"apples and oranges". You know that
none of the crates have been labeled
correctly they are all wrong.
• If you can only take out and look at just
one of the pieces of fruit from just one
of the crates, how can you label all of
the crates correctly?