Unutterably Silly Quiz

[pdurrant]

OK, the next two rows of this sequence, please

___..1
_._.1 1
__..2 1
_.1 2 1 1
1 1 1 2 2 1

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

OK, the next two rows of this sequence, please

___..1
_._.1 1
__..2 1
_.1 2 1 1
1 1 1 2 2 1

I'll have a go at;

312211
13112221

If I am correct, happy to leave it open for a while to let others have a go.

[pdurrant]

You are indeed correct. Over to you for the next question.

Spoiler:

Each row (after the first) describes the previous row:

1
one 1
two 1
one 2 one 1
one 1 one 2 two 1
three 1 two 2 one 2
etc.

[Bilbo1967]

Thank you.

You are a prisoner sentenced to death. The Emperor offers you a chance to live by playing a simple game. He gives you 50 black marbles, 50 white marbles and 2 empty bowls. He then says, "Divide these 100 marbles into these 2 bowls. You can divide them any way you like as long as you use all the marbles. Then I will blindfold you and mix the bowls around. You then can choose one bowl and remove ONE marble. If the marble is WHITE you will live, but if the marble is BLACK... you will die."

How do you divide the marbles up so that you have the greatest probability of choosing a WHITE marble?

[SneakySnake]

Put 50 black and 49 white in one bowl, and one white in the other.

Hoping to be able tell by the sound and weight which one has the white one in it?

[Kevin8or]

^^ This ^^

[SneakySnake]

And also put all the white marbles on the top of the full bowl, just in case!

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by SneakySnake

Put 50 black and 49 white in one bowl, and one white in the other.

Hoping to be able tell by the sound and weight which one has the white one in it?

That is the correct answer, although it's nothing to do with sound/weight.

If there is one bowl with only one white marble in it, you have a 50/50 chance of picking that bowl and therefore surviving. Even if you pick the other bowl, you stll have an almost 50/50 chance of surviving (49/99).

Take it away Sneaky.

[SneakySnake]

OK I can't think of one myself so I found this one on the internet.

Three people check into a hotel. They pay £30 to the manager and go to their room. The manager suddenly remembers that the room rate is £25 and gives £5 to the bellboy to return to the people. On the way to the room the bellboy reasons that £5 would be difficult to share among three people so he pockets £2 and gives £1 to each person. Now each person paid £10 and got back £1. So they paid £9 each, totalling £27. The bellboy has £2, totalling £29. Where is the missing £1?

Don't be took quick though, I haven't figured out the answer myself.

[orlok]

I think I've got it. Nice tricky question.

Spoiler:

It's a trick question - there is no extra £1. The £30 is irrelevant. They have each paid £9, totalling £27, and as the bill was £25, the difference, £2, was kept by the bellboy.

[SneakySnake]

Correctamundo!

I must admit I was stumped and confused, and had to look up the answer.

go orlok

[Kevin8or]

The sleight of hand is in this sentence:

Originally Posted by SneakySnake

So they paid £9 each, totalling £27.

Taking into account the manager's refund, they paid 25 to the hotel, they received 3 back, and lost 2 to the theiving bellboy. There's a slippery remainder you can shift around with words.

[orlok]

Ok, a simple one...

Why is it better to have round manhole covers than square ones?

[pdurrant]

Several reasons, but mainly, I expect, because round covers can't fall through the hole at all.

[WT Sharpe]

So the covers don't fall in.