MATTHEW RE RIDDLES WITH ANSWERS TO SOLVE - PUZZLES & BRAIN TEASERS

Father-mother-father

To beat two games in a row, it is necessary to win the second game. This means that it would be to his advantage to play the second game against the weaker player. Though he plays his father twice, he has a higher chance of winning by playing his mother second. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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He should shoot at the ground.

If Kangwa shoots the ground, it is Rafael's turn. Rafael would rather shoot at Ferdinand than Kangwa, because he is better.

If Rafael kills Ferdinand, it is just Kangwa and Rafael left, giving Kangwa a fair chance of winning.
If Rafael does not kill Ferdinand, it is Ferdinand's turn. He would rather shoot at Rafael and will definitely kill him. Even though it is now Kangwa against Ferdinand, Kangwa has a better chance of winning than before. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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Take out 5000 pearls. If the remaining pearl is white, then you've won 5000 gold bars! Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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The answer is (A). Since it must happen, the probability is actually 1 (100%).

Explanation: Firstly, consider 2 men, one starting from the top of the mountain and hiking down while the other starts at the bottom and hikes up. At some time in the day, they will cross over. In other words they will be at the same place at the same time of day.

Now consider our man who has walked up on one day and begins the descent the next day. Imagine there is someone (a second person) shadowing his exact movements from the day before. When he meets his shadower (it must happen) it will be the exact place that he was the day before, and of course they are both at this spot at the same time.

Contrary to our common sense, which seems to say that this is an extremely unlikely event, it is a certainty.

NOTE: There is one unlikely event here, and that is that he will notice the time when he is at the correct location on both days, but that was not what the question asked. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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The odds are 11:1. (The probability is 1/12.)

Imagine they sat down in age order, with each person randomly picking a seat. The first person is guaranteed to pick a seat that "works". The second oldest can sit to his right or left, since these five can sit either clockwise or counterclockwise. The probability of picking a seat that works is thus 2/4, or 1/2. The third oldest now has three chairs to choose from, one of which continues the progression in the order determined by the second person, for a probability of 1/3. This leaves two seats for the fourth oldest, or a 1/2 chance. The youngest would thus be guaranteed to sit in the right seat, since there is only one seat left. This gives 1 * 1/2 * 1/3 * 1/2 * 1 = 1/12, or 11:1 odds against. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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Gretchen said that there were 4 girls in the family, three of whom were blond.

This would make the probability that she saw two blonds (3/4) * (2/3), which equals 1/2.

Other numbers would work, but the next pair would lead to a rather large family. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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ZERO.

The core of the 3 inch cube when cut, has all faces that are not painted. Hence at least one cube with no painted face always occurs. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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With only 6 tracks on the player:
The first chapter has been set to play first. The probability of the next 5 chapters playing in order is 1/5! = 1/120.

With the music on the player as well:
Seeing as I don't care about when the music plays, it doesn't change anything. The answer is still 1/120. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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The answer is to let your friend go first. This puzzle is based on an old game/scam called Penny Ante. No matter what you picked, your friend would be able to come up with a combination which would be more likely to beat yours. For example, if you were to choose HHH, then unless HHH was the first combination to come up you would eventually lose since as soon as a Tails came up, the combination THH would inevitably come up before HHH. The basic formula you can use for working out which combination you should choose is as follows. Simply take his combination (eg. HHT) take the last term in his combination, put it at the front (in this case making THH) and your combination will be more likely to come up first. Try it on your friends! Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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Russian Roulette
Probability puzzles require you to weigh all the possibilities and pick the most likely outcome.


Puzzle ID: #17681
Fun: *** (2.59)
Difficulty: ** (2.07)
Category: Probability
Submitted By: JMCLEOD****
Corrected By: cnmne








You are in a game of Russian Roulette with a revolver that has 3 bullets placed in three consecutive chambers. The cylinder of the gun will be spun once at the beginning of the game. Then, the gun will be passed between two players until it fires. Would you prefer to go first or second?


Answer
Label the chambers 1 through 6. Chambers 1 through 3 have bullets and chambers 4 through 6 are empty. After you spin the cylinder there are six possible outcomes:

1. Chamber 1 is fired first: Player 1 loses
2. Chamber 2 is fired first: Player 1 loses
3. Chamber 3 is fired first: Player 1 loses
4. Chamber 4 is fired first: Player 2 loses (First shot, player 1, chamber 4 empty. Second shot player 2, chamber 5, empty. Third shot player 1, chamber 6 empty. Fourth shot player 2, chamber 1 not empty.)
5. Chamber 5 is fired first: Player 1 loses (First shot, player 1, chamber 5 empty. Second shot player 2, chamber 6, empty. Third shot player 1, chamber 1 not empty.)
6. Chamber 6 is fired first: Player 2 loses (First shot, player 1, chamber 6 empty. Second shot, player 2, chamber 1, not empty)

Therefore player 2 has an 4/6 or 2/3 chance of winning. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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Those that remain behind must have written {1,4,6,8,9} and from this only {1,9} are odd. The probability of an odd number is thus 2/5.
Expected number of odds is 2/5 * 90 = 36 Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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The probability of the driver encountering a yellow light and the light turning red before the car enters the intersection is about 5.5%.

At 45 mph the car is traveling at 66 feet/second and will take just over 3 seconds (3.03) to travel the 200 feet to the intersection. Any yellow light that is in the last 3.03 seconds of the light will cause the driver to run a red light.

The entire cycle of the light is 55 seconds. 3.03/55 = 5.5%. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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A stable Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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This year. New Years always comes before Christmas of the same year. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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He Philosopher winds the grandfather clock to a random time right before leaving, 9:00 for example. Although this is not the right time, the clock can now be used to measure elapsed time. As soon as he arrives at his friend's house, the Philosopher looks at the time on his friend's clock. Let's say the time is 7:15. He stays overnight and then, before leaving in the morning, he looks at the clock one more time. Let's say the time is now 10:15 (15 hours later). When the Philosopher arrives home, he looks at his grandfather clock. Let's say his clock reads 12:40. By subtracting the time he set it to when he left (9:00) from the current time (12:40) he knows that he has been gone for 15 hours and 40 minutes. He knows that he spent 15 hours at his friends house, so that means he spent 40 minutes walking. Since he walked at the same speed both ways, it took him 20 minutes to walk from his friend's home back to his place. So the correct time to set the clock to in this example would therefore be 10:15 (the time he left his friend's house) + 20 minutes (the time it took him to walk home) = 10:35. Did you answer this riddle correctly?
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