Long ago, a young Chinese prince wanted to marry a Mandarin's daughter.

The Mandarin
decided to test the prince. He gave the prince two empty, porcelain vases, 100 white pearls,
and 100 black pearls. "You must put all the pearls in the vases", he told the prince. "After
this, I will call my daughter from the room next door. She will take a random pearl from one
of th two vases. If this pearl is a black one, you are allowed to marry my daughter."
What was thebest way in which the prince could divide the pearls over the vases?
The best way is to put one black pearl in the first vase and all other pearls in the second
vase. Then, the probability of grabbing a black pearl from the first vase is 1, and the
probaility of grabbing a black pearl from the second vase is 99/199. The total probability of
grabbing a black pearl is 0.5 1 + 0.5 99/199 = 298/398 (approximately 74.9%).
Ddddddddddddd


Greengrocer C. Carrot wants to expose his oranges neatly for sale. Doing this he discovers
that one orange is left over when he places them in groups of three. The same happens if
he tries to place them in groups of 5, 7, or 9 oranges. Only when he makes groups of 11
oranges, it fits exactly.
The Question: How many oranges does the greengrocer have at least?
Solution to: Odd Oranges
Assume the number of oranges is A. Then A-1 is divisible by 3, 5, 7, and 9. So, A-1 is a
multiple of 579 = 315 (note: 9 is also a multiple of 3, so 3 must not be included!). We are
looking for a value of N for which holds that 315N + 1 is divisible by 11. After some trying it
turns out that the smallest N for which this holds is N = 3. This means that the greengrocer
has at least 946 oranges.
Note that for N = 14, 25, 36, etc. (so each time 11 more) it also holds that 315N + 1 is
divisible by 11.

A school bus travels from Veldhoven to Roosendaal. There are four children in the bus.
Each child has four backpacks with him. There are four dogs sitting in each backpack.
Every dog has four puppies with her. All these dogs have four legs, with four toes at each
leg
What is the total number of toes in the bus
Solution to: Traveling Toes
The total number of toes is 5170.
The puppies: 4 children 4 backpacks 4 dogs 4 puppies 4 legs
4 toes = 4096
Plus the dogs: 4 children 4 backpacks 4 dogs 4 legs
4 toes = 1024
Plus the children: 4 children 2 legs
5 toes = 40
Plus the driver of the school bus: 2 legs
5 toes = 10

------- +
This gives the following total number of toes:
5170


Patrick and Eric are on the two opposite banks of a river. They both have a rowing boat
They both start at the same time towards the opposite bank. They pass each other at 180
meters from the bank where Patrick departed. When reaching the opposite bank, they both
take a rest for the same amount of time before they return. On the way back, they pass
each other at 100 meters from the bank from where Patrick returned.
Patrick and Eric both row with a constant speed, but Eric rows faster

Solution to: Rowing Across the River
Call the requested width of the river r.
The first time that Patrick and Eric meet, the total distance that they have traveled together
equals the width of the river, or r. The second time that Patrick and Eric meet, the total
distance that they have traveled together equals twice the width of the river plus the width of
the river, so 3 r. Because Patrick and Eric row with a constant speed, it also holds that the
distance that Patrick traveled in total at the second meeting, equals 3 times the distance
that Patrick traveled in total at the first meeting.
The distance that Patrick traveled in total at the first meeting is 180. The distance that
Patrick traveled in total at the second meeting is r + 100. When we combine the above, we
get the following equation:
3 180 = r + 100.
When we solve this equation we find that r = 440.
Therefore, the river is 440 meters wide.
There is a water-cask with three different water-taps. With the smallest tap, the water-cask
can be filled in 20 minutes. With the middle tap, the water-cask can be filled in 12 minutes.
With the largest tap, the water-cask can be filled in 5 minutes



Below is an equation that is not correct yet. By adding a number of plus signs and minus
signs between the digits on the left side (without changes the order of the digits), the
equation can be made correct.
123456789 = 100
: How many different ways are there to make the equation correct?
There are 11 different ways:
123+45-67+8-9=100
123+4-5+67-89=100
123-45-67+89=100
123-4-5-6-7+8-9=100
12+3+4+5-6-7+89=100
12+3-4+5+67+8+9=100
12-3-4+5-6+7+89=100
1+23-4+56+7+8+9=100
1+23-4+5+6+78-9=100
1+2+34-5+67-8+9=100
1+2+3-4+5+6+78+9=100
Remark: if it is not only allowed to put plus signs and minus signs between the digits, but
also in front of the first 1, then there is a twelfth possibility: -1+2-3+4+5+6+78+9=100.