3 question mini brain teaser courtesy of Steven Pinker

[mack341]

I believe these are from his latest book. Yes, your first guess is correct there are no prizes

Just something to get the grey matter warmed up:

 

[paul7388]

Thanks mack. Took me about 10 seconds to get each answer. Hope you aren't still trying to work them out lol.

 

[mack341]

Thanks mack. Took me about 10 seconds to get each answer. Hope you aren't still trying to work them out lol.

Yes I may have been misjudging the need for this thread on the basis of how hard I found them!

 

[paul7388]

That saying who knows if my answers were correct lol.

 

[incrediblestuff]

I already knew the first 2, but the last one got me grinding: it's basically because i'd like to think we are talking my favorite kind of weed here, and then i have to beg the question: am i allowed to smoke some/all of it? Because then the calculation is going to be severely increased in difficulty, especially once i start smoking...

It doesn't really make sense but i still found it funny

 

[Reelsoffun]

For anyone who wants to compare answers, mine are below could be wrong tho ? LOL

Spoiler: Answers

$5, 8 Minutes, 29 days

 

[mcgameboy]

Well after seeing those questions, I decided on an alternative method for warming up my grey matter.

I drank my coffee through a straw while standing on my head.

 

[Kroffe]

There are better ways to warm up grey matter.

 

[paul7388]

For anyone who wants to compare answers, mine are below could be wrong tho ? LOL

Spoiler: Answers

$5, 8 Minutes, 29 days

Yeah that was same as I got.

 

[Scott1baird]

I believe these are from his latest book. Yes, your first guess is correct there are no prizes

Just something to get the grey matter warmed up:

View attachment 158988$10. 8 minutes. 29 days

 

[mack341]

For some reason I can't do a direct reply to Scott.

Almost scottie, I think that's the trick with these questions, the wording build up suggests the wrong answer or confuses you with detail, I got them all wrong initially.

It's $5 but spot on with the others.

 

[Reelsoffun]

If anyone really wants a brain workout and think you're clever enough here's one......

20 Balls in a bag

3 Blue
4 Purple
5 Orange
8 Green

You keep picking without replacement until you have 3 the same colour.

What is the probability of getting......

3 Blue
3 Purple
3 Orange
3 Green

You going to need to be above average at math for this one as not an easy one this, still working on my answer to it.

 

[mack341]

If anyone really wants a brain workout and think you're clever enough here's one......

20 Balls in a bag

3 Blue
4 Purple
5 Orange
8 Green

You keep picking without replacement until you have 3 the same colour.

What is the probability of getting......

3 Blue
3 Purple
3 Orange
3 Green

You going to need to be above average at math for this one as not an easy one this, still working on my answer to it.

I'll be amazed if I've got this right, so I'm expecting no, but is it a 2.5% chance? (1 in 40 I guess is the equivalent)

My second guess is 16.85% using a different mad formula.

Regardless of my maths weaknesses, I'm looking forward to the explanation to how you work it out, (I still struggle with rtp calculations)

 

[Reelsoffun]

I not done it yet, 2.5% chance of what? Blue?

Im still looking at the best / easiest way to attack it as its looking more complex than i thought LOL

 

[mcgameboy]

Is that a question where there are too many variables to be able to give an answer?

In theory, you could take the bare minimum of 3 picks to get 3 of the same colour.
But it could also require 9 picks (2 of each colour, with the 9th pick guaranteeing the third ball of a certain colour to be picked.

Or maybe (and this is the most likely option) I have completely misunderstood/misinterpreted the question and made a total dick of myself

 

[mack341]

I not done it yet, 2.5% chance of what? Blue?

Im still looking at the best / easiest way to attack it as its looking more complex than i thought LOL

Ah I misread the question, somehow I thought the goal was to end with 12 balls (being three of each colour) from the original 20, rather than one colour only [x3] and then provide a separate probability for each.

 

[DreamRJ]

Well obviously the blue ball only has 3 balls total. So that will have the lowest odds compared to the other colors.

So 20 balls is 1 in 20......... (each ball is 5% each)

8 green would be 8 in 20 chance (40%)
5 orange would be 5 in 20 chance (25%)
4 purple would be 4 in 20 chance (20%)
3 blue would be 3 in 20 chance (15%)

But those above do not mean they will be the true answer and odds. Because each of those "3 times" you pick a ball the odds will go more crazy with some crazy multiplication.

So you will take 1 blue ball out which will mean 19 balls are left. Odds have then changed again at that point and will change again when you pick the second ball and then the third ball out.

So I would guestimate that picking 3 blue balls out of the 20 balls from the 3 picks to being something like 0.3% chance this is just a total guess then at the second ball picked it would be something like 1.6% ish again this is just a total guess. Then before you pick the first I would say it would be 15% chance of picking the blue ball.

So it would be like 15% chance to pick blue in first pick then 1.6% chance on second blue picked, then 0.3% chance on 3rd and final pick.

Some maths genius can laugh at my total guess but it might be close to the correct answer though for blue ball at least!

As for the other balls odds. I just decided to guess and try work out the blue ball odds haha.

 

[shadow123]

Balls , I give up

 

[Reelsoffun]

Well @DreamRJ you are right that the odds change per pick and that's the main ball ache of this problem.

I still haven't done it fully however I'm fairly sure its somewhere nearer to

Blue 4% ( 1 in 20 )
Purple 10% ( 2 in 20 )
Orange 21% ( 4 in 20 )
Green 65% ( 13 in 20 )

The key point to look at I think is there is technically 27 different ways to end up with 3 blue ( ignoring the orders as such ) which consists of from 3 - 9 total balls picked and in theory only the last ball matters as far as order is concerned. eg if you end up with 8 picked with no win the 9th would result in a win of one of the colours, however how the first 8 in this instance are ordered don't matter? I wish I hadn't started this now as I think were gonna have to work out each one separately.

 

[DreamRJ]

Well @DreamRJ you are right that the odds change per pick and that's the main ball ache of this problem.

I still haven't done it fully however I'm fairly sure its somewhere nearer to

Blue 4% ( 1 in 20 )
Purple 10% ( 2 in 20 )
Orange 21% ( 4 in 20 )
Green 65% ( 13 in 20 )

The key point to look at I think is there is technically 27 different ways to end up with 3 blue ( ignoring the orders as such ) which consists of from 3 - 9 total balls picked and in theory only the last ball matters as far as order is concerned. eg if you end up with 8 picked with no win the 9th would result in a win of one of the colours, however how the first 8 in this instance are ordered don't matter? I wish I hadn't started this now as I think were gonna have to work out each one separately.

What would make it more fun is if this was a challenge set by Derren Brown where he in fact made you think that all 20 balls were in fact blue balls. And you have to pick 3 blue balls out of the bag. Imagine then if they did in fact pick the 3 blue balls out of the bag hahaha would be crazy.....

 

[dunover]

OK you have a slot called Bonanza:

Every 450 spins on average it will trigger a feature by dropping in 4+ gold scatters.

The average pay when it does is theoretically 100x bet.

What are the chances of:

Getting 0x bet?
Less than 50x bet?
Over 100x bet but less than 200x?
Over 500x bet?
Over 1000x bet?
and finally:
Getting 14,400x bet with 32x 5OAK diamonds on an 18x multiplier?

 

[paul7388]

OK you have a slot called Bonanza:

Every 450 spins on average it will trigger a feature by dropping in 4+ gold scatters.

The average pay when it does is theoretically 100x bet.

What are the chances of:

Getting 0x bet? 4%
Less than 50x bet? 63%
Over 100x bet but less than 200x? 31%
Over 500x bet? 1.9%
Over 1000x bet? 0.1%
and finally:
Getting 14,400x bet with 32x 5OAK diamonds on an 18x multiplier? no fucking chance in hell that will ever be saw.

 

[DreamRJ]

OK you have a slot called Bonanza:

Every 450 spins on average it will trigger a feature by dropping in 4+ gold scatters.

The average pay when it does is theoretically 100x bet.

What are the chances of:

Getting 0x bet?
Less than 50x bet?
Over 100x bet but less than 200x?
Over 500x bet?
Over 1000x bet?
and finally:
Getting 14,400x bet with 32x 5OAK diamonds on an 18x multiplier?

Well knowing that this has only occurred once and was reproduced by BTG then in terms of BTG then the odds are like 1 in 1 billion chance probably hahaha Cos we all know BTG slots are just not the same chances of reaching crazy X bet wins compared to Pragmatic or NoLimit City slots. At least with No Limit City they have that leaderboard where you can see people who have won the max wins etc etc. So you can see it is possible. Same for Net Ent with DoA 2 where I have heard of a handful so far who have won the max win on DoA 2.

As for pragmatic I am talking about the newer ones where they implemented max win caps. The max win caps make it far easier to achieve then if it had no max win cap applied to it.

I still have never won a max win of 5000X bet on any pragmatic slot yet. I still try though. That is also me playing them at Pokerstars exclusively because they still have them with the 96% RTP so that at least gives me a couple of extra % RTP to try win it lol

 

[paul7388]

If anyone really wants a brain workout and think you're clever enough here's one......

20 Balls in a bag

3 Blue
4 Purple
5 Orange
8 Green

You keep picking without replacement until you have 3 the same colour.

What is the probability of getting......

3 Blue
3 Purple
3 Orange
3 Green

You going to need to be above average at math for this one as not an easy one this, still working on my answer to it.

Macks questions were easy. Looked at yours and went forget it wouldn't even try to work it out.