Puzzles for Traders

[MightyMouse 12]

  Patuca said:

nope. it is a normal regular bridge you can drive a car over or walk over. the bridge is over a set of railroad tracks.

 

the man is on the train. He walks in the train as the train crosses the bridge.

 

He doesn't even have to be walking

[Patuca 13]

  MightyMouse said:

the man is on the train. He walks in the train as the train crosses the bridge.

 

He doesn't even have to be walking

nope. remember he went across the bridge and yet went around the bridge at the very exact time and day. The answer is disgustingly simple.

[Patuca 13]

does everyone give up?

[bobcollett 10]

  Patuca said:

does everyone give up?

 

Hi Patuca

Lets not sell our position too quickly

Give us another 24 hours

regards

bobc

[SIUYA 11]

Three men are travelling and get tired, so they decide to spend the night at a nearby inn. When they go to the front desk, the innkeeper charges them $30, ($10 each), and the three men go into their rooms and go to sleep. Then the innkeeper realizes that he was only supposed to charge the men $25 total, so he gives $5 to the bellboy to give to the men. But on the way to the men's rooms, the bellboy thinks to himself, "Hey, I've been so good, I deserve some money." So he keeps $2 and gives the remaining $3 to the men. Because they each get $1 back, they paid $9 instead of $10 each. But 3 x 9 = 27. But $30 - the taken $2 = $28. Where is the missing dollar?

 

.........

Patucca - is bridge referring to the card game bridge, and the train, crossing, and around moves? No because you can drive a car across it. :doh:

[Perrin 10]

  Patuca said:

nope. remember he went across the bridge and yet went around the bridge at the very exact time and day. The answer is disgustingly simple.

 

Is it something obscure like the railway tracks are underground and the bridge is above the tracks overground? But I've no idea how you go around the bridge and over it at the same time.

 

Or something even more obscure like it's not quite based in reality, such as in a game (like the card game bridge as Siuya said) or monopoly where there are train stations (but no tracks as far as I know).

 

No idea, really.

 

The thought had crossed my mind that it's a problem with no answer, and we all need to sit in a cave for 300 years thinking about it in order to try to solve it, after which we finally figure out there is no one true answer, and we all figure out the meaning of life.

[Traitor1 10]

  SIUYA said:

Three men are travelling and get tired, so they decide to spend the night at a nearby inn. When they go to the front desk, the innkeeper charges them $30, ($10 each), and the three men go into their rooms and go to sleep. Then the innkeeper realizes that he was only supposed to charge the men $25 total, so he gives $5 to the bellboy to give to the men. But on the way to the men's rooms, the bellboy thinks to himself, "Hey, I've been so good, I deserve some money." So he keeps $2 and gives the remaining $3 to the men. Because they each get $1 back, they paid $9 instead of $10 each. But 3 x 9 = 27. But $30 - the taken $2 = $28. Where is the missing dollar?

 

.........

Patucca - is bridge referring to the card game bridge, and the train, crossing, and around moves? No because you can drive a car across it. :doh:

 

This is a GREAT thread. And while I've been wrong about every puzzle so far, this last one by SIUYA blew my mind. I keep doing the math expecting it to change and am really looking forward to hearing how the heck it happened.

 

Regarding the bridge, I think the definitions of both "over" and "around" have been left unattended to. Using "around" as in, "are my keys around here?" where the word is just subtext for an area, and using the word "over" literally, as in "above" I think it's a through-arch bridge and if you were to walk on the arch you'd be travelling OVER the bridge while "around" it.

[talond 10]

he walked across the train track under the bridge diagonally.

Thus crossing from one side of the bridge to the other under the bridge and going around it at the same time.

[jpennybags 11]

  SIUYA said:

Three men are travelling and get tired, so they decide to spend the night at a nearby inn. When they go to the front desk, the innkeeper charges them $30, ($10 each), and the three men go into their rooms and go to sleep. Then the innkeeper realizes that he was only supposed to charge the men $25 total, so he gives $5 to the bellboy to give to the men. But on the way to the men's rooms, the bellboy thinks to himself, "Hey, I've been so good, I deserve some money." So he keeps $2 and gives the remaining $3 to the men. Because they each get $1 back, they paid $9 instead of $10 each. But 3 x 9 = 27. But $30 - the taken $2 = $28. Where is the missing dollar?

 

.........

Patucca - is bridge referring to the card game bridge, and the train, crossing, and around moves? No because you can drive a car across it. :doh:

 

$5.00 divided 4 ways (3 men + the bellboy) = $1.25 each

 

As he only returned a dollar to each of the men, he dragged off $.25 from each = $.75

 

The bellboy's take was $1.25 + $.75 = $2.00

 

The bellboy took $2.00 from the $5.00 owed the men... not from the original price of the rooms.

[TradeRunner 10]

  SIUYA said:

you should always swap.

 

SIUYA nailed it. This is called the Monty Hall problem...

 

Monty Hall problem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[addchild 10]

  Patuca said:

a man came to a bridge that crossed a railroad track. he went across the bridge but yet went around the bridge at exactly the same time. how did he do it?

 

He rode the train, which goes around by crossing under.

[jpennybags 11]

  Patuca said:

nope that not it. he crossed the bridge and yet went around the same bridge on the same day at the same exact time. don't feel bad the answer is disgusting simple but i have never had anyone guess it the about 30 years that i've know the puzzle/riddle.

 

OK... last shot. He meandered about the bridge as he was crossing. This fills the "around" word in the puzzle... yet he still walked across the bridge.

[BlueHorseshoe 10]

  TradeRunner said:

SIUYA nailed it. This is called the Monty Hall problem...

 

Monty Hall problem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

When the solution was originally published, if I remember correctly, lots of maths PhDs wrote in to the newspaper to complain. I wonder what percentage of them worked at LTCM at the time?

 

BlueHorseshoe

[Patuca 13]

  talond said:

he walked across the train track under the bridge diagonally.

Thus crossing from one side of the bridge to the other under the bridge and going around it at the same time.

nope he went on top of the bridge ...normal crossing... walking or driving ever which one you desire.

[Patuca 13]

  addchild said:

He rode the train, which goes around by crossing under.

nope..he went over the bridge, he wasnt on the train. there was no train. just the tracks.

[Patuca 13]

  Quote

Regarding the bridge, I think the definitions of both "over" and "around" have been left unattended to. Using "around" as in, "are my keys around here?" where the word is just subtext for an area, and using the word "over" literally, as in "above" I think it's a through-arch bridge and if you were to walk on the arch you'd be travelling OVER the bridge while "around" it.

what? sh$t..that is a riddle in itself :rofl: it is not the answer. Edited January 14, 2013 by Patuca

[SIUYA 11]

  BlueHorseshoe said:

When the solution was originally published, if I remember correctly, lots of maths PhDs wrote in to the newspaper to complain. I wonder what percentage of them worked at LTCM at the time?

 

BlueHorseshoe

 

I had read about the whole mathematics issues and complaints, and that was never my strong point. I thought a lot of that arguing had to do with the exact wording, and when choices were made etc....either that or the experts in probability really cant agree. the Wikipedia site explains it perfectly

 

The intuitive part usually says you should not swap, but when you think about what the host is doing, then it changes everything.

 

.....................

............................

Re the Room change and $30.....

jpennybags - your final answer is correct "The bellboy took $2.00 from the $5.00 owed the men... not from the original price of the rooms" - the maths you perform is not necessary.

 

...............

The 30,$28 and $2 is a red herring....there is no missing $1

 

The tenants only ever pay either -

$25 the original cost to the manager

$30 the incorrect price

or $27 --- the managers $25+$2 to the bell boy = total $29

ie; the bellboys $2 should either be added to the managers cost, OR subtracted from the total cost.

 

This is how the government accounts for things.

[MightyMouse 12]

  Patuca said:

a man came to a bridge that crossed a railroad track. he went across the bridge but yet went around the bridge at exactly the same time. how did he do it?

 

it was a train track from a model train set. He had a car or foot bridge that crossed the track. He walked over the tracks with the bridge between his legs, making him go across the bridge and around it at the same time with his feet.

[Patuca 13]

  MightyMouse said:

it was a train track from a model train set. He had a car or foot bridge that crossed the track. He walked over the tracks with the bridge between his legs, making him go across the bridge and around it at the same time with his feet.

LOL :rofl: nope. it is a regular size straight real bridge (say that a real ford pickup could go over) over regular size real train tracks that a real size train can travel on.

[Patuca 13]

  jpennybags said:

OK... last shot. He meandered about the bridge as he was crossing. This fills the "around" word in the puzzle... yet he still walked across the bridge.

nope he walked straight or drove straight (if you want to put him in a car) across the bridge. no meandering around.

[Perrin 10]

Thoughts...

 

The bridge wasn't a normal bridge, it was a big log floating in the middle of a river, and the man had to go around the log (because it kept rotating round) to keep his balance. So he went across it and went around it at the same time.

 

Or maybe he had some kind of skitzophrenic multiple personality disorder.

 

Or maybe he was a ghost.

 

Or maybe he was a particle, and he was in both places at the same time because he'd not been measured yet.

[MightyMouse 12]

  Patuca said:

LOL :rofl: nope. it is a regular size straight real bridge (say that a real ford pickup could go over) over regular size real train tracks that a real size train can travel on.

 

my solution woks for the originally stated puzzle.

[BlueHorseshoe 10]

  Patuca said:

nope he walked straight or drove straight (if you want to put him in a car) across the bridge. no meandering around.

 

The bridge runs from East to West, and he takes a full 24 hours to cross it, by which time the earth will have completed a full revolution so that he will also have travelled around it.

 

???

 

BlueHorseshoe

[talond 10]

  BlueHorseshoe said:

The bridge runs from East to West, and he takes a full 24 hours to cross it, by which time the earth will have completed a full revolution so that he will also have travelled around it.

 

???

 

BlueHorseshoe

 

That reminds me of of this one. A dog is in a pen. A man (or woman) walks all the way around the pen. The dog continuously turns to face the person. So has this person walked around the dog since he has only seen the dogs snarling teeth and has not seen the dog's tail?

[liahwy 10]

  Patuca said:

a man came to a bridge that crossed a railroad track. he went across the bridge but yet went around the bridge at exactly the same time. how did he do it?

 

Was he on the train?