Did you miss last weeks puzzle?
Check it outhere, and find its solution at the bottom of todays article.
Be careful not to read too far ahead if you havent solved last weeks yet!
Image: Photo: Shutterstock Graphics: Vicky Leta
The wolf moves four times faster than the duckling can swim.
He can see the duckling and is free to prowl along the shoreline however he wants.
How can the duckling make it to land and fly away without becoming the wolfs dinner?
As usual, this isnt a trick question.
The answer isnt the lake is frozen so the duckling can fly away or anything like that.
There is a legitimate strategy with mathematical reasoning behind it.
Ill be back next Monday with the answer and a new puzzle.
Do you know a cool puzzle that you think should be featured here?
You and I are going to settle something with a coin flip.
Instead of an ordinary coin flip, youll call either HHT or THH.
Then well flip the coin multiple times in a row and record the results.
We keep flipping until one of them occurs.
Which do you call?
Or does it not matter?
What is the probability that each wins?
Shout-out to Enfy for the correct solution and for noticing that the winner is determined after only two flips.
But the fact that we keep flipping until one sequence occurs actually changes everything.
HHT can only win if no tails precedes it in the sequence of flips.
To see this, imagine a string of coin flips terminating with HHT.
What coin flip immediately preceded this?
If its tails, then THH actually won.
But if its heads, then what preceded that?
Again a tails means that THH actually won.
Furthermore, the winning sequence tends to end with the start of the losing sequence.
News from the future, delivered to your present.
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Gizmodo Monday Puzzle: Is the Coin Flip Really Fifty-Fifty?
You and I are going to settle something with a coin flip.
Does your call matter?
