Almost exactly a year ago I posed. Here’s a card puzzle It sparked a frenzy in the comments section. The solution to that puzzle was so unintuitive that some readers rejected it outright. In honor of the upcoming anniversary, it’s time to stir up more controversy with two amazing card puzzles.
One of them I learned from Presh Talwalkar and the other from Martin Gardner. So please forward the hate mail to someone else.
Did you miss last week’s puzzle? Check it here, find the solution at the bottom of today’s article. If you haven’t solved last week’s problem yet, be careful not to read too far ahead!
Puzzle #46: The Coming Ace
1. Shuffle a deck of 52 regular cards, then turn over one card at a time.
Which card is more likely to come out? Right after the first ace Appears: King of Spades or Ace of Spades? That is, you have to turn over the cards until you get an Ace of any suit. Is next Is the card more likely to be the King of Spades or the Ace of Spades, or are they equally likely?
2. Shuffle the same deck again and start flipping it over again. This time, you have to guess when it will flip before it flips. the first black ace It will show up. Which position in the deck is most likely, or are they all the same?
I’ll be back on Monday with answers and a new puzzle. Know of a cool puzzle you think should be featured here? Please send a message to @JackPMurtagh Or send an email to: gizmodopuzzle@gmail.com
Solution to Puzzle #45: There’s no place like home
last week’s puzzle We’ve asked you to take on the role of a sports statistician. Have you figured out how the schedule affects the NBA Championship Series?
Scream adanarg13 For your clear answer.
While it could be argued that the order of play is important in real basketball for psychological reasons (e.g. enjoying a winning streak can increase your chances of winning the next game), mathematical models show that the order of play is not important. It doesn’t matter at all. In both cases, the Celtics still have a better chance of winning even without using the home game because they have one more home game. We’ll argue for the best-of-seven case, but the same argument applies to any other number of games.
The key insight is that even if a team has four wins before Game 7, playing the remaining games just for fun won’t change the outcome of the championship. So we can look at the series as if we always play 7 games no matter what and look at who has won more games after all 7 games are played. The team that plays at home more often has the advantage.
