Neuron trainer
Want to flex your synaptic junctions a little, or perhaps a
break from staring at C#? I’ll try and post a logical problem here every week
(or so). These are puzzles that have been presented to me during interviews, or
shared over a beer in the pub.
I am sure that they are all in the public domain, and many
of them can arguably have several solutions, but the fun is in trying to come
up with a solution yourself, so no googling for answers!
An easy one to begin with then…
Puzzle 1:
There are 3 bowls on a table, each with a label on the
front. Because of the obscure way in which you are positioned relative to the
table, you can’t see what’s in the bowls, but you can however reach into each
bowl and remove an item without seeing what else is in it (!)… take that as
granted.
OK, the bowls are labelled as followed:
Left bowl: acorns
Middle bowl: conkers
Right bowl: acorns and conkers
You are told that each bowl has the wrong label on it, and
that the labels need to be swapped so that they are on the correct bowl.
Problem: What is the minimum possible number of items that
you need to remove from all the bowls in order to correctly label them? this is not a trick question!
Please bring your answers along with a beer on Friday
evening!
Will