The Riddle Thread….

[kapusta]

squeak anytime ;p (that was a combination of 😉 and :p)

ICOT how long did it take to write that?

🙂

[Dr. Pepper]

I can only try-

I hope this comes out looking decent.

# => Number of Hearts left in the deck.

# of ways => Number of way that that amount of Hearts can be chosen from the 32 that are removed.

Prob => Probability of picking a Heart from the 20 left.

(This is done using Excel)

# # of ways Prob. # of ways * Probability

0 15,380,937 0.65 0.0000000793494867

1 799,808,724 0.6 0.0000038087753615

2 16,529,380,296 0.55 0.0000721551332366

3 181,823,183,256 0.5 0.0007215513323662

4 1,198,380,071,460 0.45 0.0042801113124451

5 5,033,196,300,132 0.4 0.0159790822331284

6 13,938,082,061,904 0.35 0.0387185454110420

7 25,885,009,543,536 0.3 0.0616336028992096

8 32,356,261,929,420 0.25 0.0642016696866767

9 26,963,551,607,850 0.2 0.0428011131244512

10 14,592,039,693,660 0.15 0.0173722165034537

11 4,864,013,231,220 0.1 0.0038604925563231

12 896,002,437,330 0.05 0.0003555716828192

13 68,923,264,410 0 –

Total 125,994,627,894,135 0.2500000000000000

Here are the formulas used: (Starting from Cell A1)

# # of ways Probability # of ways * Probability

0 =COMBIN(13,13-A2)*COMBIN(39,7+A2) =(13-A2)/20 =(B2/$B$16)*C2

1 =COMBIN(13,13-A3)*COMBIN(39,7+A3) =(13-A3)/20 =(B3/$B$16)*C3

2 =COMBIN(13,13-A4)*COMBIN(39,7+A4) =(13-A4)/20 =(B4/$B$16)*C4

3 =COMBIN(13,13-A5)*COMBIN(39,7+A5) =(13-A5)/20 =(B5/$B$16)*C5

4 =COMBIN(13,13-A6)*COMBIN(39,7+A6) =(13-A6)/20 =(B6/$B$16)*C6

5 =COMBIN(13,13-A7)*COMBIN(39,7+A7) =(13-A7)/20 =(B7/$B$16)*C7

6 =COMBIN(13,13-A8)*COMBIN(39,7+A8) =(13-A8)/20 =(B8/$B$16)*C8

7 =COMBIN(13,13-A9)*COMBIN(39,7+A9) =(13-A9)/20 =(B9/$B$16)*C9

8 =COMBIN(13,13-A10)*COMBIN(39,7+A10) =(13-A10)/20 =(B10/$B$16)*C10

9 =COMBIN(13,13-A11)*COMBIN(39,7+A11) =(13-A11)/20 =(B11/$B$16)*C11

10 =COMBIN(13,13-A12)*COMBIN(39,7+A12) =(13-A12)/20 =(B12/$B$16)*C12

11 =COMBIN(13,13-A13)*COMBIN(39,7+A13) =(13-A13)/20 =(B13/$B$16)*C13

12 =COMBIN(13,13-A14)*COMBIN(39,7+A14) =(13-A14)/20 =(B14/$B$16)*C14

13 =COMBIN(13,13-A15)*COMBIN(39,7+A15) =(13-A15)/20 =(B15/$B$16)*C15

14 =SUM(B2:B15) =SUM(D2:D15)

[squeak]

LOL at ames!

[I can only try]

kapusta-

It didn’t take long to write – I plugged the formulas into a spreadsheet, then cut-and-pasted the results.

I’d say it took between 1-2 hours to do the bulk of the work yesterday, after spending some time two days ago on-and-off thinking about how to approach the problem.

One of the key things for a non-math person (me) was understanding how the factoring, multiplication and division worked in deriving odds. Once I figured out how “Dr. Pepper” was performing the calculations, I verified that my understanding was correct by calculating the NY lotto odds and comparing the result to the official lotto site numbers.

ames-

2 weeks ago?

Sounds to me like you can join “SJSinNYC” and “anon for this” as math mevinim (or is it mevinos?)

I’m not good at math, and am not sure my solution is correct, but I really enjoyed learning and trying new stuff in the attempt to solve it.

[Dr. Pepper]

I can only try- Can you let me know how to align columns?

Let me try this again.

# => Number of Hearts left in the deck.

# of ways => Number of way that that amount of Hearts can be chosen from the 32 that are removed.

Prob => Probability of picking a Heart from the 20 left.

(This is done using Excel)

# # of ways Prob. # of ways * Probability

0 15,380,937 0.65 0.0000000793494867

1 799,808,724 0.6 0.0000038087753615

2 16,529,380,296 0.55 0.0000721551332366

3 181,823,183,256 0.5 0.0007215513323662

4 1,198,380,071,460 0.45 0.0042801113124451

5 5,033,196,300,132 0.4 0.0159790822331284

6 13,938,082,061,904 0.35 0.0387185454110420

7 25,885,009,543,536 0.3 0.0616336028992096

8 32,356,261,929,420 0.25 0.0642016696866767

9 26,963,551,607,850 0.2 0.0428011131244512

10 14,592,039,693,660 0.15 0.0173722165034537

11 4,864,013,231,220 0.1 0.0038604925563231

12 896,002,437,330 0.05 0.0003555716828192

13 68,923,264,410 0 –

Total 125,994,627,894,135 0.2500000000000000

Here are the formulas used: (Starting from Cell A1)

# # of ways Prob. # of ways * Probability

0 =COMBIN(13,13-A2)*COMBIN(39,7+A2) =(13-A2)/20 =(B2/$B$16)*C2

1 =COMBIN(13,13-A3)*COMBIN(39,7+A3) =(13-A3)/20 =(B3/$B$16)*C3

2 =COMBIN(13,13-A4)*COMBIN(39,7+A4) =(13-A4)/20 =(B4/$B$16)*C4

3 =COMBIN(13,13-A5)*COMBIN(39,7+A5) =(13-A5)/20 =(B5/$B$16)*C5

4 =COMBIN(13,13-A6)*COMBIN(39,7+A6) =(13-A6)/20 =(B6/$B$16)*C6

5 =COMBIN(13,13-A7)*COMBIN(39,7+A7) =(13-A7)/20 =(B7/$B$16)*C7

6 =COMBIN(13,13-A8)*COMBIN(39,7+A8) =(13-A8)/20 =(B8/$B$16)*C8

7 =COMBIN(13,13-A9)*COMBIN(39,7+A9) =(13-A9)/20 =(B9/$B$16)*C9

8 =COMBIN(13,13-A10)*COMBIN(39,7+A10) =(13-A10)/20 =(B10/$B$16)*C10

9 =COMBIN(13,13-A11)*COMBIN(39,7+A11) =(13-A11)/20 =(B11/$B$16)*C11

10 =COMBIN(13,13-A12)*COMBIN(39,7+A12) =(13-A12)/20 =(B12/$B$16)*C12

11 =COMBIN(13,13-A13)*COMBIN(39,7+A13) =(13-A13)/20 =(B13/$B$16)*C13

12 =COMBIN(13,13-A14)*COMBIN(39,7+A14) =(13-A14)/20 =(B14/$B$16)*C14

13 =COMBIN(13,13-A15)*COMBIN(39,7+A15) =(13-A15)/20 =(B15/$B$16)*C15

14 =SUM(B2:B15) =SUM(D2:D15)

[I can only try]

Dr. Pepper-

Putting a backtick (the character under the tilde ~ on your keyboard) both before and after your text forces a fixed-width font and also preserves spaces.

This makes columns line up for readability.

(hope I got the headers right)

<--- a backtick was here

#   # of ways              Prob. # of ways * Probability

0   15,380,937             0.65  0.0000000793494867

1   799,808,724            0.6   0.0000038087753615

2   16,529,380,296         0.55  0.0000721551332366

3   181,823,183,256        0.5   0.0007215513323662

4   1,198,380,071,460      0.45  0.0042801113124451

5   5,033,196,300,132      0.4   0.0159790822331284

6   13,938,082,061,904     0.35  0.0387185454110420

7   25,885,009,543,536     0.3   0.0616336028992096

8   32,356,261,929,420     0.25  0.0642016696866767

9   26,963,551,607,850     0.2   0.0428011131244512

10  14,592,039,693,660     0.15  0.0173722165034537

11  4,864,013,231,220      0.1   0.0038604925563231

12  896,002,437,330        0.05  0.0003555716828192

13  68,923,264,410         0     -



#   # of ways                           Prob.        # of ways * Prob.

0   =COMBIN(13,13-A2)*COMBIN(39,7+A2)   =(13-A2)/20  =(B2/$B$16)*C2

1   =COMBIN(13,13-A3)*COMBIN(39,7+A3)   =(13-A3)/20  =(B3/$B$16)*C3

2   =COMBIN(13,13-A4)*COMBIN(39,7+A4)   =(13-A4)/20  =(B4/$B$16)*C4

3   =COMBIN(13,13-A5)*COMBIN(39,7+A5)   =(13-A5)/20  =(B5/$B$16)*C5

4   =COMBIN(13,13-A6)*COMBIN(39,7+A6)   =(13-A6)/20  =(B6/$B$16)*C6

5   =COMBIN(13,13-A7)*COMBIN(39,7+A7)   =(13-A7)/20  =(B7/$B$16)*C7

6   =COMBIN(13,13-A8)*COMBIN(39,7+A8)   =(13-A8)/20  =(B8/$B$16)*C8

7   =COMBIN(13,13-A9)*COMBIN(39,7+A9)   =(13-A9)/20  =(B9/$B$16)*C9

8   =COMBIN(13,13-A10)*COMBIN(39,7+A10) =(13-A10)/20 =(B10/$B$16)*C10

9   =COMBIN(13,13-A11)*COMBIN(39,7+A11) =(13-A11)/20 =(B11/$B$16)*C11

10  =COMBIN(13,13-A12)*COMBIN(39,7+A12) =(13-A12)/20 =(B12/$B$16)*C12

11  =COMBIN(13,13-A13)*COMBIN(39,7+A13) =(13-A13)/20 =(B13/$B$16)*C13

12  =COMBIN(13,13-A14)*COMBIN(39,7+A14) =(13-A14)/20 =(B14/$B$16)*C14

13  =COMBIN(13,13-A15)*COMBIN(39,7+A15) =(13-A15)/20 =(B15/$B$16)*C15

14  =SUM(B2:B15) =SUM(D2:D15)

<— a backtick was here

[aussieboy]

1) If you have 29 cows and all but 17 die how many do you have left?

2) If a doctor gives you 3 pills and he tells you to take 1 every 30 minutes how long will it take to use them up?

3) Does England have a 4th of July?

4) How many of each animal did Moses take into the ark?

5) What is 7 times 14 divided by 1/2?

6) How many birthdays does the average person have?

[kapusta]

ICOT 1-2 hours?! thats crazy! you must love math (or Dr. Pepper) 🙂

aussieboy I’m sure I heard them before but,

1. 17

2. 1 hour

3. yes but its just a regular day, no different than july 5th

4. none

5. too late for that try me again tomorrow

6. one, the actual day he was born

7. meat

[an open book]

these are some of the few riddles posted here i actually know the answer to! at least kapusta left me one to answer 🙂

5) 196

[kapusta]

AOB, sorry 🙁

at least you got to do # 5, I never would’ve gotten when I wrote that in the middle of last night… 🙂

anyone got anything that the normal people can answer?

[an open book]

kapusta: its ok. what do u think i would do if i was the 1st to see those 😉

[kapusta]

AOB: youre right next time lets have a contest to see who can type the answers faster 🙂

[Dr. Pepper]

You have a rectangular pan of cake and someone cut out a random square somewhere on the cake (not in the middle).

Using one cut how can you split the cake exactly in half?

[moish01]

cut the thickness of the cake.

if that was a clear answer.

[an open book]

cut directly down the middle of the missing square in the direction & angle that would split the cake into halves?

oh wait – cut it into 2 shorter layers of cake 🙂

[kapusta]

DR. Pepper I’m happy you have some normal riddles for us. anything else?

[an open book]

oh did i win the race this time? 😉

[moish01]

no, actually i did

[YW Moderator-39]

Here are two riddles:

1. Make this equation true without changing it 8+8=91

2. Start with these letters:

ERGRO

If you place three letters in front of them, and the same three letters after them (IN THE SAME ORDER!!) you’ll from a common word. (You may have to dig deep for the answer)

[moish01]

this sounds like a wayside school math/spelling example. mod, is that where you got it from??

[kapusta]

AOB: yeah, I guess so

moish when were you part of it? next time include me in these news updates

🙂

[I can only try]

YW Moderator-39-

1) turn it upside-down (appropriate time of year)

2) you buried it well, I’ll leave it for now.

[moish01]

kapusta – my answer is right after Dr Pepper’s question

[an open book]

oh hey now that you say that, i went back & you’re right. u win! but it wasnt there when i posted.

[Dr. Pepper]

Hi MOD 39,

underground?

The answer I was looking for by the cake riddle was to find the center of the rectangle and square and have the cut go through the center of each.

[Dr. Pepper]

You have a set of 20 encyclopedias standing in order on a bookshelf each one containing 100 pages (200 sides but 100 pages). A bookworm eats from the first page of the first volume to the last page of the last volume inclusive.

How many pages did the bookworm eat through?

[an open book]

moish01: lol, yeah, but i might have known the answers then

icot: nice

[anon for this]

moish01,

Did you read the Wayside Math books? My kids liked the stories in the original trilogy of story books, and my daughter likes math riddles, so I bought her the first Wayside Math book. It was actually pretty neat.

[aussieboy]

(if it is talking about an actual animal then) does this include the covers? if so then it is 4040. if not it is 4000.

(if you are talking metaphorically about a person who is a bookworm [reads a lot of books] then) 0 because they did not technically eat any pages (although in the metaphore they ate 4000 pages)

its complicated lol 🙂

[an open book]

Dr. Pepper: thats what i said. sorry it was unclear.

moish01: does that mean i also won? i gave the answer he was looking for

[Dr. Pepper]

You have a set of 20 encyclopedias standing in order on a bookshelf each one containing 100 pages (200 sides but 100 pages). A bookworm eats from the first page of the first volume to the last page of the last volume inclusive.

How many pages did the bookworm eat through?

Answer:

If they are lined up in order then the first page of the first volume is adjacent to the last page of the second volume. The last page of the last volume is adjacent to the first page of the second to last volume. (Look at a set of books on a shelf if you don’t see this.)

1 page from the first volume, one page from the last volume and 100 pages from each of the 18 volumes in between => 1 + 100*18 + 1 = 1802.

[aussieboy]

Dr. Pepper: nice catch 🙂

[YW Moderator-39]

Correct Dr Pepper, the word was Underground (had to add the UND tothe beginning and the end)

Here are two more:

1. What makes the number 8,549,176,320 unique?

2. What is the commonality between the following list of words:

revive

banana

grammar

voodoo

assess

potato

dresser

uneven

Good Luck

[an open book]

2. after the first letter, it is a palindrome

[YW Moderator-39]

2. after the first letter, it is a palindrome

Correct, though I was hoping someone said, “if you put the first letter at the end, you get the same word in reverse”

[kapusta]

mod 39 I like that one! any more?

[YW Moderator-39]

any more?? the 1st riddle wasn’t touched yet!! and you want more

[aussieboy]

kapusta: you still have the first one

1. What makes the number 8,549,176,320 unique?

only thing i can think of is it has evry number from 0-9 but you can write that in a bunch of diffrent ways so its not unique

[kapusta]

whoops sorry mod 39, I didnt see it, or maybe I just saw so many numbers it turned me off, I’ll give it a whack though. 🙂

[kapusta]

ok I think I’m giving up

[an open book]

wow it took you 1 minute to decide that? 😛

[kapusta]

ok mod 39, this is weird but I’ll give it a shot…

reading right to left

0<skip 1>23<skip 4,5>6,7<skip 8>the missing 1 turns up<9>missing 4,5,8 appear

Its probably not right just because its so weird, but its proves I made an effort (just keep in mind that I’m fasting) 🙂

[squeak]

The numbers are all in alphabetical order

[Dr. Pepper]

aussieboy-

Thanks for your hint- I was actually looking at the prime factorization, (2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*3*3*3*5*61843), and did not notice that it contains each of the numbers 0 – 9.

After you mentioned that each of the digits are there (and a couple of beers) it was a dead giveaway.

They are in alphabetical order.

Happy Purim to everyone!

[Dr. Pepper]

Here’s an old (but good) one.

Three people of equal intelligence are standing one behind another all facing forward.

A person nearby has five hats, three red and two white. The three people close their eyes while the other person randomly puts a hat on each of them. When they open their eyes they can not see what color hat they are wearing but the person in back can see what color hat the other two are wearing and the person in the middle can see what color hat the person in front is wearing. The person in front can not see what color hat anyone is wearing. The three people are unable to see the two remaining hats.

When the person in back was asked what color hat he was wearing he looked at the two people in front of him and said, “I don’t know”. When the middle person was asked what color hat he was wearing he looked at the person in front of him and said, “I don’t know”. Finally the person in front said, “I know what color hat I’m wearing”.

What color hat was he wearing and how did he know?

[YW Moderator-72]

Dr. Pepper

If the front two were wearing white the back guy would know.

If they were wearing red he would not know

~~~

If he knew, the middle guy would know that he has white, however if the front guy was wearing white, the middle guy would know that he was wearing red otherwise the last guy would know.

~~~

the front guy must be wearing a red hat.

[RoshYeshivah]

Bingo 72 i was getting there but you cut in before me!

[kapusta]

very good squeak!

[YW Moderator-72]

RoshYeshiva that’s the advantage to moderating… :o)

ames… do you really think I could have done this with (thanks ames) only drinking coffee…

[I can only try]

Joseph-

Going way back to these cryptogram puzzles on page 8 of this thread:

http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/the-riddle-thread/page/8#post-17125

Cryptogram Puzzle # 1

Decipher the following quote from a famous mathematician:

fq pqv yqtta cdqsv aqwt fkhhkewnvkgu kp ocvjgocvkeu. k ecp cuuwtg aqw okpg atg uvknn itgcvgt. – cndgtv gkpuvgkp

“Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater” – Albert Einstein

(Solved by substituting “I” for “K” and realizing everything else was just two letters back from the letter in the puzzle. The puzzle has a typo or two.)

Cryptogram Puzzle # 2

Decipher the following quote about intelligence.

3325863186 2432 881621163412 3216 24313124331933248826 1932 3216878621163412 53243325 89863232 248833868989242686884286 198834 87163186 3286883286 33251988 5386 25195786. – 341688 258631168934

“There is nobody so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have.” – Don Herold

(Solved by analyzing letter frequency, realizing one of the words had the number of letters and matching letter-patterns of the word “intelligence”, and working from there).

I haven’t seen you posting for a few days – hope everything is OK by you.

Gut Shabbos to all.

[Author]

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