• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EST 12:40
CET 18:40
KST 02:40
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
[ASL22] Finals Preview: Sweet Victory!12[ASL22] Ro4 Preview: Mirror Mirror6[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: Within Reach5[ASL22] Ro8 Preview: In A Tizzy11[ASL22] Ro16 Preview: Holy Diver5
Community News
Weekly Cups (Oct 26 - Nov 1): MaxPax, herO, Solar win0Weekly Cups (October 19-25): Clem triples first in 5.0.175Evil Geniuses - shutting down23ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier7Weekly Cups (October 12-18): 5.0.17 era begins1
StarCraft 2
General
No more SC2 streamers on team liquid? [D] Hacker peak in sc2 ? Liquibets sc2 season 30 Evil Geniuses - shutting down Weekly Cups (Oct 26 - Nov 1): MaxPax, herO, Solar win
Tourneys
SC4ALL: II Venue Change Announcement! Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament WardiTV Mondays ISSL (IntoTheTV x SOOP SC2 League): Premier Stellar Fest TWO the Moon (Dec 16-20)
Strategy
[H] ZvP Mid-Late Game: Stalkers Collossi HT
Custom Maps
Starcraft 2 Advance [D] the control group Simple Questions/Answers [G] How to playtest arcade maps
External Content
Mutation # 550 Graveyard Shift The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 549 Endless Sparkles Mutation # 548 Shining Bright
Brood War
General
Rollback Netcode in Brood War SC4ALL: II Venue Change Announcement! Ziemie's Starcraft 1 Prequel Campaign 🇺🇦 Ukrainian StarCraft:BroodWar community reborn BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues Small VOD Thread 2.0 [$1250] International ShieldBattery League KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
Strategy
50,000-Word Terran Builds Memo 2026-10-22 Cliff Jump Revisited (1 in a 1000 strategy) Simple Questions, Simple Answers
Other Games
General Games
Nintendo Switch Thread Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Deus Ex 3!? Mobile Legends: Bang Bang Armies of Exigo - YesYes?
Dota 2
Dota 2 Champions League Season 3 Begins April 25!
League of Legends
[TL LoL EUW IHs] Teemo shall perish
Heroes of the Storm
Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Trading/Investing Thread Dating: How's your luck? Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Canadian Politics Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
Fan Club Resource Thread Reynor Fan Club The Flash Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece
Sports
Football (Soccer) Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 MLB/Baseball 2023
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
Recent Gifted Posts
Blogs
Why I built Repalyzer (1.1.…
BlueStar
Innovate or Game Over?
TrAiDoS
ShieldBattery on Mac
Kraekkling
[ASL22] Ro4 Day1 Ticket Giv…
bITt.mAN
Can Bots Beat Pros?? Starcr…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 9846 users

Nerdy Math Problem - Page 4

Blogs > Byo
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 All
Monoxide
Profile Blog Joined January 2007
Canada1190 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-04-21 23:34:23
April 21 2009 23:18 GMT
#61
On April 22 2009 04:54 kingjames01 wrote:
Ah, I just got home and saw these. I got the same answer as above too.
I'll work on the integers one.

Here's one I just remembered when I was on my way home.

A shipwreck strands 10 people on a desert island whose surrounding waters are filled with the world's most deadliest man-eating sharks. These 10 people think using perfect logic. On the island they find a treasure chest filled with a 1000 gold pieces. They decide to divide the gold. Here is the process that they come up with. They each drew straws to figure out the order in which they will attempt to divide the gold. Whoever goes first can share the gold however that person chooses. The catch is that after the person has finished sharing the gold there is a vote. If the majority (greater than but not equal to 50%) of the people are not happy they can vote to have that person tossed off the island. It would then fall onto the person who was selected to be number 2 to attempt to share the gold, and so on.

Now the conditions are:
1) These people will choose life over death.
2) These people will choose more gold than equal or lesser amounts.
3) These people are perfect logicians.

Question: Can person one divide the gold in such a way that he survives the vote? If so, what is the maximum amount of gold that he can get? If not, show why.


Here is my answer
+ Show Spoiler +
This is how the first person should propose the distribution of the coins.
994 , 0, 1, 2, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0

with the person getting 994 and then second getting 0 and so on.
kingjames01
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
Canada1603 Posts
April 22 2009 01:29 GMT
#62
On April 22 2009 08:18 Monoxide wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 22 2009 04:54 kingjames01 wrote:
Ah, I just got home and saw these. I got the same answer as above too.
I'll work on the integers one.

Here's one I just remembered when I was on my way home.

A shipwreck strands 10 people on a desert island whose surrounding waters are filled with the world's most deadliest man-eating sharks. These 10 people think using perfect logic. On the island they find a treasure chest filled with a 1000 gold pieces. They decide to divide the gold. Here is the process that they come up with. They each drew straws to figure out the order in which they will attempt to divide the gold. Whoever goes first can share the gold however that person chooses. The catch is that after the person has finished sharing the gold there is a vote. If the majority (greater than but not equal to 50%) of the people are not happy they can vote to have that person tossed off the island. It would then fall onto the person who was selected to be number 2 to attempt to share the gold, and so on.

Now the conditions are:
1) These people will choose life over death.
2) These people will choose more gold than equal or lesser amounts.
3) These people are perfect logicians.

Question: Can person one divide the gold in such a way that he survives the vote? If so, what is the maximum amount of gold that he can get? If not, show why.


Here is my answer
+ Show Spoiler +
This is how the first person should propose the distribution of the coins.
994 , 0, 1, 2, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0

with the person getting 994 and then second getting 0 and so on.


Nice! Good answer!
As a prize you receive one Schrute Buck! =)
Who would sup with the mighty, must walk the path of daggers.
Monoxide
Profile Blog Joined January 2007
Canada1190 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-04-22 01:57:49
April 22 2009 01:51 GMT
#63
On April 22 2009 04:02 meeple wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 21 2009 23:15 stenole wrote:
On April 21 2009 22:37 Chromyne wrote:
On April 21 2009 22:27 stenole wrote:
On April 21 2009 21:06 meeple wrote:
At a party, a guest asks the age of the host’s three children. The host tells the guest the following information:

Assume each child is a whole number age;

The product of their ages is 72;

The sum of their ages is the same as my house number.

The guest goes outside and looks at the house number. Upon returning, the guest indicates that he still needs additional information. The host then says "Oops, I forgot to tell you that the oldest is the only one that likes vanilla ice cream." You now have all the information to determine the ages of the children. How old is each child?
Spent some time figuring out how the house number thing could help me out...+ Show Spoiler +
72 = 2*2*2*3*3

Possible combinations:
2,2,18 = 22
2,3,12 = 17
2,6,6 = 14
2,4,9 = 15
3,4,6 = 13
3,3,8 = 14

We can assume the guest would have been able to figure it out after seeing the house number - unless more of the age combinations add up to the same house number.
Because there is an oldest child, the two others have to be younger.

Ergo, the answer is 3, 3 and 8.


stenole beat me to it. I Got the same answer.


What is my prize? There has to be a win the internet prize. The difference between this riddle/puzzle and the one in the OP is that this one is carefully worded, it tells you that you have enough information to solve it, and it practically strings you along to a single answer by stating to use whole numbers, and giving you three different clues, all of which you know need to give you some sort of info.

Here is another unsolvable problem:

Assume you have 2 herds of cows that have accidentally joined into one herd, randomly dispersed over a circular area. There are two herder teams, A and B. A tries to herd as many of his cows west of the oval.

What is the fastest way for herding team B to get all their cows to the east:
A) B sits and watches A herd their cows westward.
B) B wants to herd cows towards the east.
C) B likes A's cows.


zizi yo... here's another in the same vein,

Find positive integers a1, a2, ... , an whose sum is 100 and whose product a1a2 ... an is maximal over every possible choice of n and every possible choice of a1, a2, ... , an.

Now this one is a optimization problem.


Here is my answer
+ Show Spoiler +
product = 2^50 then the integers are all 2s


not sure if that is correct...
edit : nvm thats incorrect..
ninjafetus
Profile Joined December 2008
United States231 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-04-22 03:24:56
April 22 2009 03:09 GMT
#64
On April 21 2009 15:28 kingjames01 wrote:If you're familiar with the term POLAR coordinates then you realize that means you're talking about a 2-D circle. I've been describing a 3-D sphere, thus I need spherical coordinates.


I know we're past this, and I understand the point you're making, but I'd like to make a small correction. Yes, 'polar' tends to refer to 2d more often and 'spherical' is specifically for 3d, but for we mathematicians out there (who don't need to have pesky physical situations to justify our work) there is a generalization to n-dimensional polar coordinates. Spherical is just the 3 dimensional case.
kingjames01
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
Canada1603 Posts
April 22 2009 03:44 GMT
#65
On April 22 2009 12:09 ninjafetus wrote:
Show nested quote +
On April 21 2009 15:28 kingjames01 wrote:If you're familiar with the term POLAR coordinates then you realize that means you're talking about a 2-D circle. I've been describing a 3-D sphere, thus I need spherical coordinates.


I know we're past this, and I understand the point you're making, but I'd like to make a small correction. Yes, 'polar' tends to refer to 2d more often and 'spherical' is specifically for 3d, but for we mathematicians out there (who don't need to have pesky physical situations to justify our work) there is a generalization to n-dimensional polar coordinates. Spherical is just the 3 dimensional case.


haha, you got me there! I rescind my statement. As you said, I was just pointing out that for physical round objects the usual convention is to use polar to refer to 2-D and spherical for 3-D. But yes, you are absolutely correct for the general n-dimensional case.
Who would sup with the mighty, must walk the path of daggers.
Prev 1 2 3 4 All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 17h 20m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Serral 1342
BRAT_OK 34
MindelVK 11
EnDerr 5
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 20944
Calm 2278
Shuttle 921
Mini 523
Rush 145
Dewaltoss 130
ProTech89
Sharp 89
Yoon 43
Bale 38
[ Show more ]
hero 29
Rock 21
Movie 18
Shine 11
Noble 7
Dota 2
qojqva2868
League of Legends
Trikslyr55
Counter-Strike
gobbtv320
edward106
Other Games
tarik_tv4233
B2W.Neo1280
Grubby830
FrodaN460
Fuzer 160
ArmadaUGS123
KnowMe115
QueenE96
NeuroSwarm49
Railgan23
Chillindude17
Organizations
Other Games
ComeBackTV 286
Counter-Strike
PGL167
[ Show 18 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• 3DClanTV 67
• StrangeGG 58
• poizon28 40
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• Laughngamez YouTube
• Migwel
StarCraft: Brood War
• Michael_bg 6
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
Dota 2
• WagamamaTV719
League of Legends
• Nemesis4369
• TFBlade1009
• Jankos707
Other Games
• Shiphtur517
Upcoming Events
IntoTheTV X SOOP
17h 20m
Reynor vs Solar
ByuN vs SHIN
Clem vs MaxPax
herO vs Rogue
IPSL
23h 20m
WorsT vs nOmaD
Dewalt vs andersOn
AI Arena Tournament
1d 1h
IntoTheTV X SOOP
1d 17h
IPSL
1d 23h
Azhi_Dahaki vs ggnore13
Double vs WIZARD
Replay Cast
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
3 days
WardiTV Invitational
3 days
YoungYakov vs Lambo
SHIN vs TBD
Percival vs Shameless
Solar vs TBD
PiGosaur Cup
4 days
[ Show More ]
The PondCast
5 days
KCM Race Survival
5 days
WardiTV Invitational
5 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Proleague 2026-11-05
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
HCC Season 3

Ongoing

Acropolis #5
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 4
International ShieldBattery League
BSL Season 23
IPSL Winter 2026-27
Calamity Cup Div. A Season 8
IEM Beijing 2026
PGL Masters Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 5
1win Private Club #2
Thunderpick World Champ. '26
ESL Pro League Season 24
Stake Ranked Episode 4
1win Private Club #1
Logitech G Play Connect 2026
SL StarSeries Fall 2026
FISSURE Playground #3
BLAST Open Fall 2026

Upcoming

Sector 951
SC4ALL II: Brood War
BSL 23: Non-Korean Championship
HSC XXX
Stellar Fest 2: Lunar Cup
SC4ALL II: StarCraft II
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Offline Finals
Underdog Cup 2026 Div 2-3
PGL Bucharest 2027
BLAST Bounty Winter 2027
eXTREMESLAND 2026
PGL Major Singapore 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 6
BLAST Rivals Fall 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.