Fuck Professor Layton

[Merk]

Let's start a thread about brain teasers!

In my old age I feel like I've gotten a lot duller and dumber since I've been out of school and so I've made it a bit of a goal of mine to tackle a brain teaser a day to keep my mind sharp and hone my skills at approaching problems "outside of the box" as all the cool kids are saying these days.

I'll start us off: http://mwwint.com/interactions/bridgeProblem.swf

This was something a personal friend of mine was asked in a job interview that really pissed him off. He did not get the job.

[Amp Divorax]

Yay questions that appeared in my algorithms book.

[Merk]

Amp we're not all as smart as you, tease our brains.

[Amp Divorax]

Amp we're not all as smart as you, tease our brains.

You have mistakened me for someone else cause if I was smart I would have never joined the service nine years ago. Here's something that may be of interest though.

http://www.mathcats.com/explore/river/crossing.html

[DAVE101]

I'll start us off: http://mwwint.com/interactions/bridgeProblem.swf

Woaw that was not intuitive at all! Hope to do more of this.

http://www.mathcats.com/explore/river/crossing.html

Did that in first grade son.

[Merk]

http://www.mathcats.com/explore/river/crossing.html

Wasn't too hard. Goat -> Come back empty -> Cabbage -> Come back with goat -> Wolf -> Come back empty -> Goat

The trick here is the key phrase that these things will murder each other when they are alone.

A clock chimes 5 times in 4 seconds. How many times will it chime in 10 seconds?

[DAVE101]

Can it chime a half chime?

[Merk]

Nope!

[Merk]

The answer is retarded just FYI and it kind of upset me when I read it.

[LikeableRodent]

Wouldn't it still be five times because it says it chimes in four seconds, not every four seconds?

If that's not the answer I call shenanigans based on bad wording.

[Merk]

Yeah the question is horribly written, I didn't write it, obv. But that is not the answer. I'll give the weekday warriors a shot at figuring it out before spilling the answer since no one visits here on weekends.

[Fluffyumpkins]

I had to Google the right answer. Time sucks.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/2/13

[Fluffyumpkins]

Here's a classic taken from Wikipedia. Try and solve it yourself before looking up the answer.

Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1 [but the door is not opened], and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, which has a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No. 2?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?

Also justify your reasoning.

Note: Unless you are Mike, you probably don't want a goat.

[DAVE101]

http://www.mathcats.com/explore/river/crossing.html

Wasn't too hard. Goat -> Come back empty -> Cabbage -> Come back with goat -> Wolf -> Come back empty -> Goat

The trick here is the key phrase that these things will murder each other when they are alone.

A clock chimes 5 times in 4 seconds. How many times will it chime in 10 seconds?

Mathematically It'd be twelve if the "5x in 4 sec" is a consistent rate. But if the question implies it will chime 5 times for seconds from now (meaning it's four seconds from 5 o'clock), then it will chime 0 times in 10 seconds.

[SoDeepPolaris]

Here's a classic taken from Wikipedia. Try and solve it yourself before looking up the answer.

Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1 [but the door is not opened], and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, which has a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No. 2?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?

Note: Unless you are Mike, you probably don't want a goat.

Choose door #2.