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        riddles >> easy >> Answers to a few more riddles (spoilers)
        
(Message started by: Brandon Arnold on Feb 10^th, 2003, 12:02am)

Title: Answers to a few more riddles (spoilers)
Post by Brandon Arnold on Feb 10^th, 2003, 12:02am

I looked into the forum about 3 pages and didn't see any answers for these so here's what I got:

HAHA (the more I dry the wetter I get)
I'm sure someone got this...it's a towel.

PLACING TREES
The only way to get 3 trees to be equidistant is to make an equilateral triangle. So with 4 trees you make an equilateral triangle out of 3 trees, and then form a pyramidal shape out of the last one (built up from the other three) so that you form 3 more equilateral triangles in the shape of a pyramid.

NEW DOOR
I admit I'd already heard this one (it's kinda cheap if you think about it). There is only one way to rearrange the letters in "new door" to form one word. Or should I say "one word".

9 DOTS
This is a classic problem and the answer is just to draw four different lines that curve around and intersect all nine of the dots...it's that simple.

BALLOON IN CAR
In the real world this is a physics problem; without any open windows, the balloon would actually move toward the front of the car. This is because the air in the cab is shifted toward the back seat, which makes the buoyant force on the balloon toward the front of the cab.

DESPERADOS IN JAIL
He hasn't solved the problem because the tenth man stilll has no cell. There is no way to solve this problem with 10 convicts and 9 cells...I think?

FEMENIST RULE
Everyone knows that there is always a 50% chance of having a boy or a girl (basic biology, male has a 50% chance of giving the X or Y chromosome). Then probability says that (a), the ratio of boys to girls will go up, is correct. Because there are two probable scenarios: the family has a boy, and the family has one girl and one boy. Thus all families will have at least one boy, but not all will have also one girl. (I think...)

LETTER SEQUENCE
The letters are the first letters of each word in the problem statement. So the sequence is W I T N L I T S, S being the last letter (which is the first letter of sequence).

TWO GIRLFRIEND PARADOX
It is possible for Bill to end up visiting one girl much more than the other girl, depending on how close the arrival times are for the trains. If the East train arrives 10 seconds before the West train, then the only chance Hillary has of seeing Bill is if he gets to the train station within those 10 seconds in between both train arrivals. Not really the answer but I imagine it's in the right direction..

Oh well I need some sleep....

Title: Re: Answers to a few more riddles (spoilers)
Post by Brandon Arnold on Feb 10^th, 2003, 12:09am

Forget what I said about the 9 dots one.

Title: Re: Answers to a few more riddles (spoilers)
Post by towr on Feb 10^th, 2003, 12:58am

and what you said about feminist rule..

someone might have two girls and one boy, or 5 girls and one boy, or 30 girls and one boy..
chances, in the end, stay 50-50, assuming people could have an infinite number of children, and boys and girls are equally likely.. (neither of which is actually true)

the average number of boys is one
the average number of girls is 1/2 * sum(i * 1/2^i, i,0, inf) = 1

Title: Re: Answers to a few more riddles (spoilers)
Post by Abby Feiler on Feb 27^th, 2003, 4:22pm

I;m really bad at these things, but the one about the two brothers on the camels and the wise man. I think what he told them is " The first shall be last and the last shall be first " I'm not sure though.

Title: Re: Answers to a few more riddles (spoilers)
Post by Icarus on Feb 27^th, 2003, 5:45pm

on 02/27/03 at 16:22:53, Abby Feiler wrote:

There are three threads for this one here (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=riddles_easy;action=display;num=1027806008), here (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=riddles_easy;action=display;num=1028413500), and here (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=riddles_easy;action=display;num=1038635480). It is also mentioned in a previous "Spoilers thread" (http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wwu/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=riddles_easy;action=display;num=1027806697)

The canonical answer is that the wise man told them to switch camels. Since it is the camel that crosses first which determines the loser, once they switch camels they both ride "hell for leather" to get the other's camel across the line first.