The Puzzler's Dilemma by Derrick Niederman

Author:Derrick Niederman [Niederman, Derrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101560877
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2012-03-05T16:00:00+00:00

This puzzle is a bit of a fooler. It is tempting to believe that because the liquid originally taken from the oil container was pure oil, whereas the amount transferred back is a combination, that there is more oil in the vinegar than vinegar in the oil. A little algebra would set us straight, but we’d like to arrive at a solution with as few tools as possible.

The key step is to approach the problem via discrete units rather than amorphous blobs. To wit, suppose you have a pile of 20 white discs and a pile of 20 black discs. (Imagine, for example, the pieces in the ancient Chinese game of Go.) You take five of the white discs and place them into the black pile, which you give a thorough mixing. You then return five of the discs from that mixture (imagine yourself blindfolded, if you like) into the original white pile (Figure 7-1). Do you have more black in the white or white in the black?

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