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Category Archives: Riddles
ChatGPT Meets Elchanan Mossel’s Dice Problem
One of the greatest hits of this blog was Elchanan Mossel’s dice problem, asked here and answered here. Here is how chatGPT (the free version) handles the problem. You throw a die until you get 6. What is the expected … Continue reading
Posted in AI, Probability, Riddles, Test your intuition
Tagged AI, ChatGPT, Elchanan Mossel
17 Comments
Ehud Friedgut: How many cubes of 2×2×2 fit into a box of size 8×4×3? (TYI 49)
This blog post is kindly written by Ehud Friedgut. My daughter, Shiri, who’s in seventh grade, had the following question in a math exam: How many cubes of 2×2×2 fit into a box of size 8×4×3? Shiri divided the volumes, … Continue reading
Posted in Geometry, Riddles, Test your intuition
Tagged Alef's corner, Ehud Friedgut, Shiri Friedgut, Test your intuition
6 Comments
Cheerful Test Your Intuition (#45): Survey About Sisters and Brothers
You survey many many school children and ask each one: Do you have more brothers than sisters? or more sisters than brothers? or the same number? Then you separate the boys’s answers from the girls’s answers Which of the following … Continue reading
Posted in Combinatorics, Probability, Riddles, Statistics, Test your intuition
Tagged Test your intuition
7 Comments
TYI38 Lior Kalai: Monty Hall Meets Survivor
For breaking news, scroll down. Lior Kalai: Survivor Meets the Monty Hall Puzzle We start with the classical question and go on with a new version contributed by my son Lior. Update: A few brief comments on the original problem … Continue reading
Posted in personal, Probability, Riddles, Test your intuition, Women in science
Tagged Karen Uhlenbeck, Lior Kalai, Monty Hall problem, Survivor
5 Comments
In how many ways you can chose a committee of three students from a class of ten students?
The renewed interest in this old post, reminded me of a more recent event: Question: In how many ways you can chose a committee of three students from a class of ten students? My expected answer: which is 120. Alternative … Continue reading
Posted in Mathematics to the rescue, Riddles, Teaching
1 Comment
The Mystery Beeping Riddle
We came back from the airport with our daughter who has just landed after a four-month trip to India. The car was making a strange beep every so often. Maybe it is an indicator signal that should have … Continue reading
Posted in Mathematics to the rescue, Rationality, Riddles
12 Comments
Combinatorics and more 