Quicker Maths » game puzzle

A Coin Game

admin — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 11:47:54 +0000

Recently, a friend of mine showed me a very interesting game with coins. She asked me to bring three saucers first and she placed them in a line. Then she placed 5 coins of different denominations, one on top of another in the first saucer.

The coins were of the denominations Re 1/-, 50P, 10P, 5P and 25P and she placed the coins in the order of their size—smallest on the top and biggest in the bottom.

She now asked me to transpose these coins to the third saucer observing the conditions that I transpose only one coin at a time, I do not place a bigger on a small one and I use the middle saucer only temporarily observing the first two conditions but that in the end the coins must be in third saucer and in the original order.

‘Oh that’s very simple. This hardly needs much effort’ I said.

I took the 25P coin and put it in the third saucer. Then I kept the 5P coin in the middle saucer. Now I got stuck. I did not know where to put the 10P coin. It was bigger then both!

My friend smiled and said ‘put the 25P coin on top of the 5P coin. Then you can put the 10P coin in the third saucer’.

I saw my way and did exactly what she told me. But to my great surprise I saw that my trouble had just begun. Where do I put 50P coin?

I did a lot of thinking. I put the 25P coin into the first saucer, the 5P coin into the third and transposed the 25P coin there two. And now I could place the 50P coin in the second saucer.

After numerous transpositions—at last—I was able to succeed in moving the entire pile of coins from the first saucer to the third.

How many movers did I make altogether?

Go Figure

admin — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 05:14:58 +0000

A cricket team has two bowlers, Demon and Googly. Before their last match, their averages are the same, and they have taken 30 wickets between them. In the last match Demon takes 3 for 24 and Googly 2 for 26. Their averages for the season are now worked out and are found in each case to be 4. What are their respective figures for the season?

A Game of Billiards

admin — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 05:35:10 +0000

Rajiv, Sanjiv and Vijay were playing a game of billiards. Rajiv can give Sanjiv 10 points in 50, and Sanjiv can give Vijay 10 points in 50. How many points in 50 must Rajiv give Sajiv to make an even game?

Dropping a Ball

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:16:55 +0000

A little ball is dropped from a height of 8 ft. and it bounces back each time to a height which is one-half of the height of the last bounce.

How far approximately will the ball have travelled when it comes to rest?

A Problem of Ping Pong

admin — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:48:15 +0000

There are 150 members in my club. We decided to have a ping pong tournament. All the members came forward to play in the game. Every time a member loses a game he is out of the tournament.
There are no ties.
Can you tell how many games must be played in order to determine the champion?

Bingo!

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:21:13 +0000

A group of us were playing Bingo. I noticed something very interesting. There were different Bingo cards with no two cards having the same set of numbers in corresponding column or row. The centre of course was free space.

How many such cards are possible, can you tell?