On a Sunday afternoon, 4 persons are playing a game of Bridge and you need not know anything about the game of Bridge, except that a pack of cards without joker is used and each player receives 13 cards, to solve this puzzle. You must also know that 4 players are actually 2 teams, North and South, East and West. Now the question is which is greater, the probability of anyone team receiving all 26 cards red, or the probability of any one team receiving all 26 cards not red?
Answer:
NEITHER, because if one team receives all cards(26) red, naturally the other team might not receive all cards red. Both are the same event. Hence the probability of any one team receiving all cards red is very much the same as the probability of one team receiving all cards not red !!
12. COLOUR OF BEAR
In a remote place on the globe, there is a small, house having, 4 windows, each window being placed on each wall, but all the windows face south direction. An hungry bear comes to that house and peeps through the window, possibly to search for hunting any prey. Now what is the colour of the bear?
Answer:
The only place where all four windows placed on four walls, facing the south direction, is North pole. Hence the bear should be polar bear and therefore its colour should be white.
13. TRUE OR FALSE?
In a certain remote village, all the inhabitants belong to two category. i.e. they always speak either true statements or false statements, but not both. Three persons of that village are passing by when they met a foreigner, who asked the firstperson what group does he really belong. The first one told in his native language which the foreigner could not understand. Hence the foreigner asked the second person, who knows a little bit English, whatdid the first person tell. The second person told that he(firstperson) said he belonged to 'true group'. Immediately the thirdperson said that he(first person) said he belonged to' false group'. Now the question is which group does the second person belong?
Answer:
The second person should belong to 'True group'. Because no matter if one belongs to 'true' or 'false' group, he will invariably tell he belongs to true group, if he is asked which group does he belong? That is what is repeated by the second person. The fact that whether the first person belongs to true or false group, he will only tell he belongs to true group, was repeated exactly by the second person. Therefore the second person speaks truth and hence belong to truegroup. Now it is very evident that the third person is clearly a liar but we don't know about the first person's group, still.
14. OLD COIN
In a certain archeological study, a person comes out with the finding of an old coin with the inscription '30 B.C.' He announces to the world of scientists that he is in possession of a very rare coin and shows it to them. However one fellow scientist disproves the veracity of his statement and exposes his fraudulent activities. How does he know that the coin is fake and not original?
Answer:
If the coin with the inscription '30 BC' is real, the the people who minted the coin must have known that after a period of 30 years, jesus would be born. This is clearly impossible. This proves the man's claim as wrong and untrustworthy.
15. PRIZE FOR SLOW RUN.
Two persons with their own horses are participating in a strange competition. These two persons are asked to run the race and the prize will be awarded to the owner of the horse, which comes not first, but second. Since it is of the odd type of racing, and also slower horse wins the race, none of them is really starting to go. The competition seems to be unclear, unable to pinpoint the winner, however there is an ingenious method by which you can determine the winner in a fair and justifiable manner. Can you spot it?
Answer:
Just swap the riders. i.e. by changing the riders between themselves, they will have really a running race, because if one comes first, naturally his horse will come second, and thus win the competition. A real competition will ensure by swapping them. What a brilliant idea!!
16. CHURCH BELL
The time taken by a church bell to strike 4'o clock is 9 seconds. How long will it take for the same church bell to strike 8'o clock?
Answer:
Pity those people who thinks that the answer is 18 seconds. Proportionality does not work. Nor is the normal multiplication. The key fact lies in our common-sense. To strike 4'o clock, three intervals are needed (from first chime to 4th chime), which take 9 seconds. Therefore each interval takes 3 seconds. So in order to strike 8'o clock, seven intervals are needed, which must take 7x3=21 seconds. The time elapsed should be measured by means of such intervals and not by the numbers themselves. Got it?
17. FINDING THE IDENTITY.
In a certain remote African village, some people always speak true statement while some always utter falsehood. Now a person belonging to that village comes by. You are asked to identify the person whether he belongs to 'true' or 'false' group? How will you find it out?
Answer:
This puzzle may seem more harder than you imagine but it is really an easy one than you think. Just ask the question 'Whether it is raining now?'. If the person says 'yes' and if it is really raining now, you will know his identity. So also will you know if he says 'yes' and 'not raining'. Similar is the case with his saying 'no' when it is'raining' and also when 'not raining'. The puzzle is cracked because you are comparing the answer given by him, to the already known fact of it by you.
18. ODD COIN OUT
There are 9 coins, all having similar look, appearance and other physical features except that only one coin among them is lighter than others. An ordinary balance with no weights is given to you and you have to find it out that 'odd coin' in minimum number of weighings. How will you find it out and how many number of weighings you will do so as to ensure minimum weighings?
Answer:
The odd coin can be found out in just 2 weighings. Label them as 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9. Out of this, take any 6 coins, put 3 coins in the left pan of the balance and the other 3 coins in the right pan. If they balance, the odd coin is in the last 3 and can be found out in rest of the weighing. If they do not balance in the first weighings, still the odd coin is in the pan that looks up since it is lighter than others, and the same can be found out in the rest of the weighing.
19. AVERAGE SPEED.
A person travels from city 'A' to city 'B' with uniform speed of 60kms/hour and returns from city 'B' to city 'A' on the same route with an uniform speed of 40 kms/hour. What is the average speed for the entire journey traversed?
Answer:
If you unwittingly answer as 50 kms/hour (60+40)/2, is the right one, we can only feel sorry for you. The right answer is 48 kms/hour. Here is how the method works. Let the distance between cities A and B be 'x' kms. To go from A to B, speed is 60 kms/hour. Distance is x kms. Time taken for the journey A to B = x/60 hour. Similarly to return from B to A, speed is 40 kms/hour. Distance is' x' km. Therefore time taken for the return journey = x/40 hour. Now total distance traversed = x + x = '2x' kms. Now total time taken = [x/60 + x/40]hour= 5x/120= x/24 hour. Average speed for the entire journey = 2x/[x/24]=48 kms/hour.
20. PROPER SHARE.
A person, on his death bed, leaves a will stating that if he is blessed with a baby boy, he should inherit 2/3 of the estate and 1/3 should go to his mother (i.e.his wife). On the other hand, if he gets a baby girl, she should take 1/3 of the property and 2/3 should go to his wife. Eventually he dies and shortly after, his expectant wife delivers a twin, a baby boy and a baby girl. Unfortunately he didnot leave any instructions for the case of a twin, but however the property must be divided among them, i.e. his wife, his son, and daughter in a fair and square method, befitting in a way that honours his intentions and sentiments while he made out his will. How best could it be accomplished?
Answer:
If you study carefully the problem, you will notice that the deadman's intention was his boy should get twice of what his wife gets and also he wanted that his wife should get twice of what her daughter gets. Hence if we assume that what his daughter gets is 1 unit, then his wife should have 2 units, and then his son, 4 units, totalling 7 units as the whole estate or property. Therefore, the right proportion by which this could be divided is, the daughter's share = 1/7 of whole property, the wife's share = 2/7 of whole property and the son's share is 4/7 of the whole property.