The Rope Bridge

Four people need to cross a rickety rope bridge to get back to their camp at
night. Unfortunately, they only have one flashlight and it only has enough light
left for seventeen minutes. The bridge is too dangerous to cross without a
flashlight, and it’s only strong enough to support two people at any given time.

Each of the campers walks at a different speed. One can cross the bridge in 1
minute, another in 2 minutes, the third in 5 minutes, and the slow poke takes 10
minutes to cross. How do the campers make it across in 17 minutes?

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The Rope Bridge Solution

To get everyone across in 17 minutes, we need get the two slowest people across
together; otherwise we are wasting too much time. Once we get them across, how do we
not make one of them walk back with the flashlight? Just have one of the faster people
already there waiting to sprint the flashlight back across.

person A: 1 minute
person B: 2 minutes
person C: 5 minutes
person D:10 minutes

1. A & B cross. total time: 2 minutes.

C |==========================| A
D | | B
|==========================| flashlight

2. B comes back. total time: 4 minutes.

C |==========================| A
D | |
B |==========================|
flashlight
3. C & D cross. total time: 14 minutes.

B |==========================| A
| | C
|==========================| D
flashlight

4. A comes back. total time: 15 minutes.

A |==========================| C
B | | D
|==========================|
flashlight

5. A & B cross. total time: 17 minutes.

|==========================| A
| | B
|==========================| C D
flashlight

Another valid solution is to have A bring the flashlight back in step 2.

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The Oldest Plays the Piano

Two MIT math grads bump into each other while shopping at Fry’s. They haven't seen each other in
over 20 years.

First grad to the second: "How have you been?"

Second: "Great! I got married and I have three daughters now."
First: "Really? How old are they?"
Second: "Well, the product of their ages is 72, and the sum of their ages is the same as the number
on that building over there..."
First: "Right, ok... Oh wait... Hmm, I still don't know."
Second: "Oh sorry, the oldest one just started to play the piano."
First: "Wonderful! My oldest is the same age!"

How old was the first grad’s daughter?

 Read the

The Oldest Plays the Piano Solution

The possible ages ( factors of 72 ) and their sums are shown below:

Ages: Sum of ages:

1 1 72 74
1 2 36 39
1 3 24 28
1 4 18 23
1 6 12 19
1 8 9 18
2 2 18 22
2 3 12 17
2 4 9 15
2 6 6 14
3 3 8 14
3 4 6 13

We can deduce from the man’s confusion over the building number that this wasn’t enough
information to solve the problem. The chart shows the sum 14 twice for two different age possibilities,
which would explain how knowing the building number alone would not have given him the answer.
The clue that the “oldest one” started to play the piano rules out “2 6 6” as an answer, because there
is no “oldest”. Since the first grad was certain with the piano clue, the first grad’s oldest daughter is 8.
I’ll leave it up to the reader to figure out why this doesn’t necessarily mean the second grad’s oldest
daughter was also 8.

Yarr Maties
Five pirates discover a chest full of 100 gold coins. The pirates are ranked by their years of service,
Pirate 5 having five years of service, Pirate 4 four years, and so on down to Pirate 1 with only one
year of deck scrubbing under his belt. To divide up the loot, they agree on the following:

The most senior pirate will propose a distribution of the booty. All pirates will then vote, including
the most senior pirate, and if at least 50% of the pirates on board accept the proposal, the gold is
divided as proposed. If not, the most senior pirate is forced to walk the plank and sink to Davy Jones’
locker. Then the process starts over with the next most senior pirate until a plan is approved.
These pirates are not your ordinary swashbucklers. Besides their democratic leanings, they are also
perfectly rational and know exactly how the others will vote in every situation. Emotions play no part
in their decisions. Their preference is first to remain alive, and next to get as much gold as possible
and finally, if given a choice between otherwise equal outcomes, to have fewer pirates on the boat.

The most senior pirate thinks for a moment and then proposes a plan that maximizes his gold, and
which he knows the others will accept. How does he divide up the coins? What plan would the most
senior pirate propose on a boat full of 15 pirates?

Yarr Maties Solution

To understand what happens when there are 5, 15, or even 150 pirates on the boat, it will help us to
first consider the case when the lowly deck swabbing Pirate 1 is the only one left on board and
suddenly finds himself as the most senior pirate aboard.

In this situation, when there is only one pirate left on the boat, Pirate 1 can vote for his own proposal
and get 100% of the vote; so he would simply take all of the gold.

If there were two pirates left, Pirate 2, now being the most senior pirate, could propose any plan since
his own vote guarantees 50% of the total votes. Being the greedy gold-loving pirate he is, Pirate 2
would take all of the gold and Pirate 1 would be left with nothing.

If there were three pirates, Pirate 3 needs one other person to vote for his plan. The trick to this
puzzle is understanding that if Pirate 3’s plan is voted down, he would die and then there would be
only two pirates on the boat. We already figured out what happens when there are only two pirates on
the boat. In the case of two pirates, Pirate 1 receives nothing. So Pirate 3 can simply offer Pirate 1 a
single gold coin and ensure his vote. As a perfectly rational pirate knows, one coin is better than no
coins at all!

If there were four pirates, Pirate 4 needs to convince one other person to guarantee 50% of the vote.
He could give Pirate 1 two gold coins, but his greed makes him realize that if his plan is scuttled, there
will only be three pirates on the boat. When there are three pirates left, Pirate 2 knows he will get
nothing; so Pirate 4 buys Pirate 2's vote with one gold coin.

Finally when there are five pirates, Pirate 5 needs two other cohorts. He realizes that if he dies, Pirate
1 and Pirate 3 will get zero gold. So he offers each of them one doubloon and makes off with the other
98 pieces o’ eight.

The pattern should be evident now. When 15 pirates are on board, Pirate 15 needs 7 other people to
vote for him. He recruits pirates 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, 3 and 1 with one coin each, leaving 93 coins for Pirate
15. Those pirates will all vote for Pirate 15’s plan because if they don’t, they’ll be stuck with Pirate 14’s
plan in which they all get nothing.
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cars on road - solution ???

if the probability of observing a car in 20 minutes on a highway is 609/625, what is the
probability of observing a car in 5 minutes (assuming constant default probability)?

Abyss
Wednesday, June 22, 2005

let x be the probability of seeing the car in 5 mins. we assume constant default probabilty so for
every 5 mintue interval the distribution is the same

probability of seeing the car in 20 mins =

probability of seeing the car in first 5 mins or

probability of not seeing the car in first 5 minsinterval but in the next 5 mins (10 minute) or
probablity of not seeing the car both in the first  and second 5 mins interval and seeing it in the
third 5 mins(15 minute)
or
probabilty of not seeing it in first, second and third 5 minute and seeing it in the fourth 5 minute
interval(20 mins)

so
x + (1-x)x + (1-x)(1-x)x + (1-x)(1-x)(1-x)x = 609/625

solving the above cubic equation for values x < 609/625

Abyss
Wednesday, June 22, 2005

3/5. You have correct equation, but there is a way to get to the answer without using a pen.

DK
Wednesday, June 22, 2005

yeh i see it.that is by taking the converse right

probability of not seeing the car in 20 mins = (probability of not seeing the car in 5 mins)^ 4

as we can assume constant default probability

probability of not seeing tha car in 5 mins = (1 - (609/625))^ (1/4) = 2/5

so probability of seeing the car in 5 mins = 1 - (2/5) = 3/5

Railroad Bridge - Answer
The answer is that the train is moving 2x the speed of the man.

Let T = speed of the train

Let M = speed of the man
Let S = size of the tunnnel
Let D = distance of the train from the start of the tunnel.

Since Distance = Rate * Time, we also have Time = Distance / Rate.

The first part of the problem tells us that:

D/T = (S/4)/M

Substituting T = 2*M gives us:

D/2*M = (S/4)/M
D/2 = S/4 or 4D = 2S

If tunnel is 2 km, then the train is 1 km away from the start of the tunnel.  So, let's
assume D = 1km, S = 2km.

The second part of the problem tells us that:

(D + S)/T = (3S/4)/M which gives us:

(3km)/2M = (6km/4)/M

The solution comes from solving for T/M from the following two equations:

D/T = (S/4)/M
(D+S)/T = (3S/4)/M

Larry Freeman
Thursday, August 04, 2005
 

Railroad Bridge
i got some new brain teasers and more classic programming puzzles for
everyone!

a man needs to go through a train tunnel.  he starts through the tunnel and
when he gets 1/4 the way through the tunnel, he hears the train whistle behind
him. you don't know how far away the train is, or how fast it is going, (or how
fast he is going).  all you know is that

1. if the man turns around and runs back the way he came, he will just
barely make it out of the tunnel alive before the train hits him.
2. if the man keeps running through the tunnel, he will also just barely
make it out of the tunnel alive before the train hits him.

assume the man runs the same speed whether he goes back to the start or
continues on through the tunnel.  also assume that he accelerates to his top
speed instantaneously.  assume the train misses him by an infintisimal amount
and all those other reasonable assumptions that go along with puzzles like this so
that some wanker doesn't say the problem isn't well defined.

how fast is the train going compared to the man?

Read
 

You can also apply a little bit of logic to the problem to come up with the solution,
for the people I interview its more important than someone who can work
through the math.

We know that the train and man will reach the start of the tunnel at the same
time if the man turns around, in that time the man travels 1/4th the length of the
tunnel. 

If the man travels on towards the end of the tunnel he will be able to travel an
additional 1/4th of the length of the tunnel before the train reaches the start of
the tunnel, putting the man at the half way point.

For both the man and the train to reach the end of the tunnel at the same time,
the man has to travel 1/2 the length of the tunnel while the train has to travel the
full length of the tunnel.

Therefor the train must be travelling twice as fast as the man (and as an aside
must have been half the length of the tunnel away from the start of the tunnel
when it blew its whistle).

Nick Thomson