Category: Puzzles

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The Pasta Puzzle

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Mathematics
Difficulty:

You have 10 strings of pasta left on your plate. You randomly start tying up their ends, until there are no loose ends anymore. What is the average number of loops which are created?

The expected (average) number of loops at the end of the procedure is equal to the expected number of loops created after the first tying, plus the expected number of loops created after the second tying, etc. After each tying, the number of non-loop strings decreases by 1, and then the probabilities to create a new loop are 1/19, 1/17, 1/15, etc. Therefore, the answer is the sum 1/19 + 1/17 + 1/15 + … + 1/3 + 1/1 ~ 2.1.

unknown-author
Unknown Author May 31, 2020
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Non-Transitive Dice

Section: Brain Teasers Category: Deduction
Difficulty:

This is a non-transitive dice set, i.e. every dice in it is weaker than some other dice. Can you design a non-transitive set with only 3 dice?

Remark: “Weaker” means that it loses more often than it wins.

The simplest solution is given by:

2, 2, 4, 4, 9, 9;
1, 1, 6, 6, 8, 8;
3, 3, 5, 5, 7, 7.

Another solution is given by the so-called “Miwin’s dice”. They are as follows:

1, 1, 3, 5, 5, 6;
2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5;
1, 2, 2, 4, 6, 6.

unknown-author
Unknown Author May 9, 2020
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