April 2010
6 posts
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Answer: Tuesday Teaser #15
Since we’re making two random cuts, let’s mark the first cut as x and the second cut as y.
It’s clear that we can’t always make a triangle, but what exactly are the conditions we need to have to make a triangle? Well, we simply need that for the longest side to be shorter than the sum of the two shorter sides.
In the case where x < y, we have the three sides x, y-x and...
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Tuesday Teaser #15
Suppose I have a stick that is 1m long. If I break the stick in two random places (to form three pieces), what is the probability that I can form a triangle?
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Grand National 2010
I’ve never been a particularly big gambler (unlike aliholli who recently withdrew some winnings from her Betfair account to purchase a shiny new netbook*), but I’ve always had a tenner on the Grand National, Britain’s most valuable National Hunt race. This started in 2005 when, knowing nothing other than the fact that Ruby Walsh was “a bit good”, I staked £10 on...
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Answer: Tuesday Teaser #14
The first thing to note with this puzzle is that in order to minimize the number of planes required we want to keep as many planes as possible close to the island. For this reason, the best strategy is going to involve sending my plane around the far side of the world alone, so the question is how to get my plane to the 1/4 point with a full tank and how to fuel my plane back from an empty tank at...