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Interesting logic problems

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by eagle33199, Mar 11, 2010.

  1. eagle33199

    eagle33199 Platinum Member

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    Ok, since uart hasn't posted a new problem, i've got one :)

    How can a woman in New Jersey marry 3 men without ever getting a divorce, being widowed, or becoming legally separated?
     
  2. Darwood

    Darwood Senior Member

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    His name could be "3 men", he could have multiple personalities, or she could have citizenship in 3 countries? Or as my father accuses of my mother, she could be married to the church :).
    (I doubt you're looking for one of those answers, though)
     
  3. eagle33199

    eagle33199 Platinum Member

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    Nope, nope, nope and nope!
     
  4. Darwood

    Darwood Senior Member

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    Siamese triplet?? :)
     
  5. eagle33199

    eagle33199 Platinum Member

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  6. Sagitar

    Sagitar Junior Member

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    She's the vicar.
     
  7. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    Damn! Sagitar beat me to it. She's a minister or Justice of the Peace. She's performing the marriage ceremonies. Not sure about the law in N.J. but this might be a group marriage among three gay men, and she's performing the service.
     
  8. airportkid

    airportkid Will Fly For Food

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    Woops. Lotsa gotchas in these conundrums! Thanks. :redface:
     
  9. airportkid

    airportkid Will Fly For Food

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    It was three separate ceremonies, not necessarily on the same day.
     
  10. daniel

    daniel Cat Lovers Against the Bomb

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    One of the problems with this kind of "puzzle" (and it's why I generally dislike them) is that there are often many possible "answers" that fit the description.

    Another possible answer is that she's a bigamist. There are people who flout the law and get married more than once without getting divorced or becoming widowed.
     
  11. airportkid

    airportkid Will Fly For Food

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    True enough. But the "correct" answers for puzzles like these are usually clever or elegant and stand out like a beacon, once you get the right insight, and are rarely ambiguous.
     
  12. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    I still have fond memories of one high school science teacher with a sense of humour. When the answer to an obscure chemistry question came out as K9P, I knew I had it right. :)
     
  13. eagle33199

    eagle33199 Platinum Member

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    This one actually has 2 correct answers (which really ticked me off when i was solving it this morning)... you only get credit if you can find both of them :) Find the 6th number in this sequence:

    1, 2, 6, 42, 1806, _____
     
  14. Darwood

    Darwood Senior Member

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    3,263,442
    (the number squared plus itself) or (the number times the next sequential number)

    (EDIT)
    OR

    3270666
    (1806 * 1811)
    The number times the next prime number
    ;)
     
  15. eagle33199

    eagle33199 Platinum Member

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    Mathematically, those two methods are identical, and yes, you are missing something. Take a look at that next sequential number... What do 2, 3, 7, and 43 have in common?
     
  16. Darwood

    Darwood Senior Member

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    Took a while to get the 2nd answer! (above)

    A group of cannibals threw a dinner party, one of those bring-a-friend get-togethers. Six cannibals came and they decided to eat each other in turn. So someone was randomly selected for everyone else to eat, and when he had been eaten, someone else was selected, and so on. If it took one cannibal two hours on his own to devour one person, how long was it before just one consumer remained?
     
  17. eagle33199

    eagle33199 Platinum Member

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    interesting that it took a while... I actually found that answer first!

    Assuming you don't get to help eat yourself (that would just be weird), and there's no indigestion and everyone has a bottomless stomach that isn't consumed by the following cannibals...

    devouring the first person takes 0.4 hours.
    devouring the second person takes 0.5 hours
    devouring the third person takes 0.6666 (2/3) hours
    devouring the fourth person takes 1 hour
    devouring the 5th person takes 2 hours

    For a grand total of 4.566666 hours.

    Otherwise, you'd run into the issue of consuming the undigested and partially digested individuals from each successive victim - in essence, the 6th cannibal would be eating the 5th, and half of each of the 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st in his last meal (assuming no digestion/defecation). If we take this into account, things get much more interesting...

    devouring the first person still takes 0.4 hours.
    devouring the second person, however, now takes 0.6 hours, as you have 20% of the first person to devour again.
    devouring the third person likewise takes longer, as he's already consumed half a person. 1 full hour.
    devouring the 4th person takes a total of 2 hours, as he's consumed the equivalent of a full person.
    devouring the 5th person finally takes 6 hours, as he's consumed 3 full people at this point!

    in total, it's a 10 hour feeding frenzy!

    Of course, we won't even get into the physical impossibilities associated with a stomach big enough to ingest 5 people over a span of only 10 hours!





    Four tasmanian camels traveling on a very narrow ledge encounter four tasmanian camels coming the other way.
    Tasmanian camels never go backwards, especially when on a precarious ledge. The camels will climb over each other, but only if there is a camel sized space on the other side.
    The camels didn't see each other until there was only exactly one camel's width between the two groups.
    How can all camels pass, allowing both groups to go on their way, without any camel reversing?
     
  18. Darwood

    Darwood Senior Member

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    I started to map that out with xxxx yyyy, but it would take like 30 steps to show it all, and I have actual work to wrap up today!

    The cannibals would take 4:34. (yes, 4.57 hours)
    (2/5 for the first, +2/4, +2/3, +2/2, +2/1)