Maningat, Jheanne Benedetta P.

BH1102

Find five (5) puzzles or riddles related in problem-solving in Mathematics. Discuss how it works and explain
the solution to the puzzles or riddles using the concept you have learned in this lesson.

1. There is a bag which has 21 blue balls and 23 red balls. You also have 22 red balls outside the bag.
Randomly remove two balls from the bag.
 If they are of different colours, put the blue one back in the bag.
 If they are the same colour, take them out and put a red marble back in the bag.
Repeat this until only one marble remains in the bag.
What is the colour of the sole marble left in the bag?

ANSWER: The last marble will be blue.

Since balls can only be taken out in pairs and you started off with an odd number of blues there is
always going to be one blue left over that you'll keep putting back in the box until it's left on its own.

2. Knockout Tournament Matches Puzzle

A chess tournament is taking place on knock-out terms (the one who loses the match is out of the game).
(a) If 15 matches are played in total, how many players participated?
(b) If 50 players took part in the tournament, how many matches were played?

ANSWER:
(a) If you look at the question closely, it is a knockout tournament and the winner will be just one.
Thus no. of players is equal to 15+1=16.
(b) The number of matches will always be one less than the number of players (in knockout
tournaments). Thus the answer is 49.
3. Logical Playing Cards Puzzle
From a pack of 52 cards, I placed 4 cards on the table.
I will give you 4 clues about the cards:
Clue 1: Card on left cannot be greater than the card on the right.
Clue 2: Difference between the 1st card and 3rd card is 8.
Clue 3: There is no card of an ace.
Clue 4: There are no face cards (queen, king, jacks).
Clue 5: Difference between the 2nd card and 4th card is 7.
Identify four cards?

ANSWER: 2 3 10 10
 The 1st card has to be 2 and the last card has been 10 as there is no other way difference can be 8.
=> 2 10
 Because of clue 4, we know the 4th card is 10
=> 2 10 10
 Because of clue 5, we know the 1st card is 3
=> 2 3 10 10

4. You are an expert on paranormal activity and have been hired to locate a spirit haunting an old resort hotel.
Strong signs indicate that the spirit lies behind one of four doors. The inscriptions on each door read as
follows:

Door A: It’s behind B or C

Door B: It’s behind A or D
Door C: It’s in here
Door D: It’s not in here
Your psychic powers have told you three of the inscriptions are false, and one is true. Behind which door
will you find the spirit?

ANSWER: The spirit lies behind Door D.

If the spirit is behind Door A, then both B and D are true
If the spirit is behind Door B, then both A and D are true
If the spirit is behind Door C, then A, C, and D are all true
If the spirit is behind Door D, then the statements on all the doors are false, except for that on Door
B. This matches the rules, and therefore, the resort hotel spirit lurks behind Door D
5. 3 surgeons decided to go for a camp and hired a guide for assistance. Over campfire, they met with an
accident and the guide got seriously injured. The guide needs surgery (a minor one). The 3 surgeons decide
to operate but they have only two medical gloves. To save the guide, all three surgeons are needed to
operate on the guide, in sequence.
How can this be done without any of them being exposed to the blood of any of the others?

ANSWER: The first surgeon operates with the first glove (glove A) inside the second glove (glove B).
The second surgeon operates using just glove B. The third surgeon operates using glove A, turned
inside out, inside glove B.