Thinking Mathematically : puzzle solving through logic.

Narayanan N

Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.

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My three questions

▶ I would like to ask you three questions. Would you

answer them with a simple `Yes' or `No'?

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My three questions

▶ I would like to ask you three questions. Would you

answer them with a simple `Yes' or `No'?
▶ That was my first question. Now, would you answer the
same to the second question as to the third?

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My three questions

▶ I would like to ask you three questions. Would you

answer them with a simple `Yes' or `No'?
▶ That was my first question. Now, would you answer the
same to the second question as to the third?
▶ Okay, my third question is Will you give me 100 Rupees?

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Identical twins

There are two identical twins. One of them is named Ajay. One of
them is turhful while the other always lies. We dont know who is
truthful.
Question
Can you find an `yes'/`no' question in 3 words that we can ask to any
of the twins to find out who is Ajay?

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Triplets

Just like our twins above, we have identical triplets who are named
Ajay, Amal and Krish. Krish is truthful while both Ajay and Amal
always lie. You meet one of them in the market and wanted to
know if he was Ajay (Because he owes you money). What 3 word
yes/no question you can ask to find out if he is Ajay?

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Road to Heaven

Question
The road to the heaven/hell forks to two roads, one to the left and the
other to the right. Two identical guards stand duty at the junction,
one truthful and the other always lies. What single `yes' or `no'
question one can ask to one of them so that you know the correct road
to heaven?

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Question
Can you give me 8 positive integers so that the difference of no two
numbers is a multiple of 7?

Question
500 people live in an island. Will there be two people who has the
same number of friends?

Question
6 people come to a bus stop. Can you show that there will be either 3
of them are mutual friends or 3 of them are strangers?

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Question
A hotel with infinite rooms is full. A new guest request for
accommodation. Can we do something to accommodate her?

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Question
A hotel with infinite rooms is full. An infinite number of guests
request for accommodation. Can we do something to accommodate
them?

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Question
Look at any set S and P(S), the powerset of S . Can you show that
the number of elements in P(S) is larger than the number of elements
in S ?

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Question
We know that the powerset is a set of sets. Can we have sets of
anything? What about set of all sets?

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A Robbery case

Three known thieves were caught in a robbery case. During

interrogation, each of them made the following statements.
Anu : Chris did not do it.
Chris : Yes, I did.
Binu : I did not do it.
Later, the police found that two of these statements were lies and
only one was true.
Question
Who did the robbery?

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Another Robbery

Our thieving friends were caught again and made the following
statements.
Binu: Chris did not do it.
Chris: What Binu said is true.
Anu: Binu is innocent.
The actual thief told the truth, but at least one of them lied.
Question
Who was the thief?

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Diamond's for the king

A diamond merchant went with a basket of diamonds as a gift to

the king. At each of the 3 gates, the security guards asked for
bribe. At each gate, they took half of the remaining diamonds in
the basket and returned one diamond back. At the end, only 2
diamonds were there which was given to the king. How many
were there in the basket originally?

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Orange Seller

An orange seller sold to his first customer half of his oranges and
gave half an orange free for tasting. The second customer took
half of the remaining and he also got half an orange for tasting.
Third customer also purchased, half of the remaining and got half
an orange free. The seller then gave the 3 remaining oranges to a
small kid for free. How many he started with in the biginning?

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A hotel has 1000 rooms and all rooms are full. One fine
Sunday morning, the occupant of room 1 went and opened
all the rooms. Occupant of Room 2 went to rooms 2, 4, 6,
etc and closed all of them. Similarly, occupant in room 3
went to 3,6,9 etc and if the room is closed, opened it and if
open, closed it. This went on till noon, when occupants of
all the rooms did similarly. Can you tell me how many rooms
were open at the end?

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Three wise men and hats

Three wise men stand in a straight line, one in front of the other.
A hat is kept on each of their heads. They are told that each of
these hats were selected from a group of five hats: two black hats
and three white hats. The first man, standing at the front of the
line, can’t see either of the men behind him or their hats. The
second man, in the middle, can see only the first man and his hat.
The last man, at the rear, can see both other men and their hats.
None of the men can see the hat on his own head. They are asked
to deduce its color. Some time goes by as the wise men ponder the
puzzle in silence. Finally the first one, at the front of the line,
makes an announcement: My hat is white!
He is correct. How did he come to this conclusion?

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Another hat puzzle

12 prisoners who were mathematicians are given a chance to go

free. The jailer, kept a hat each on their heads (they cannot see
their own hat) and told that he has kept black or white hats ( at
least one of each colour) on their heads. He will come every 5
minutes and if all having a white hat come forward and declare,
thwill be executed. What will happen? Will they escape?

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Ramesh and Rohini are cousins who once went to play the
following game: Ramesh will arrange 50 coins of various
denominations (25p, 50p, 1R, 2Rs, 5Rs, 10Rs, etc) in a
straight line. Rohini, being younger gets the first chance.
One your turn, you can take one coin from either end of the
line. Then the other player do the same till all coins are
taken.

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Island of Mathematicians

All the 100 people who lived in the island were law abiding
and great mathematicians. All of them had either blue eyes
or brown eyes. It was illegal to talk about the color of eye
and we assume there were no way of finding out your eye
colour by looking at reflective objects. Another law says that
if you happen to deduce your eye colour is blue, you must
leave the island taking the midnight boat.
A visitor who came for a conference was given a sent off and
he made the following statement. I am happy to see that
there is at least one person in this island with blue eyes like
mine.
Question
Will some people leave the island or not?
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A bank clerk had 10 sacks of one rupee coins arranged in a
row. One of the sacks contained fake coins each of which
had an additional weight of 1 gram more than the standard
coins. He forgot which sack contained the fake coins.
He can find it out by weighing a coin from each sack. But
then he got an idea that helped him to find it in just one
weighing. How?

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Ants on a wire

A thin wire of length 1 metre is tied between two nails A and B.

We drop 50 ants randomly on the wire and they start moving
either towards A or towards B at a uniform speed of 1 metre per
minute. If an ant meets another ant face to face, it will turn back
and immediately go to the other end at the same speed. If an ant
reaches either of the nails A or B, it will escape to the wall.
can you tell me the least time that assures us that there will
be no more ants on the wire?

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If I give you 10000 Rs to answer an yes/no question truthfully, will
you accept the offer?

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If I give you 10000 Rs to answer an yes/no question truthfully, will
you accept the offer?
Will you either answer no to this question or pay me two million
dollars

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If I give you 10000 Rs to answer an yes/no question either
truthfully or falsely, will you accept the offer?

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If I give you 10000 Rs to answer an yes/no question either
truthfully or falsely, will you accept the offer?
Will you either truthfully answer no to this question or falsely
answer yes?

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If I give you 10000 Rs to answer an yes/no question either
truthfully or falsely, will you accept the offer?
Will you either truthfully answer no to this question, or falsely
answer yes, or pay me two million dollars

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* Rats going left right
* Belt around earth equator - 6000 KM. How much length to add
so that the belt is loose by 1 meter all around?
*Take this long belt and pull it at one end so that it is tight. How
high is this tip of belt from the ground?
* A lotus flower planted in a pond doubled everyday 2, 4, 8, 16
etc. At end of month, it was full. Which day it was half full? in a
pond double everyday.
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