Tag Archive for 'puzzle'

Puzzle: Complete the C Code Block

A very simple and trivial question:

I am giving a C code block that you need to complete. Here it is:

if(______) {
  printf(" Fair ");
}
else {
  printf(" Isaac ");
}

The question is this:

Propose a condition for the if statement so that the output of the block is Fair Isaac.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Switch Off Your Mathematical Brain

I came across a wonderful puzzle. It presents a sequence of equalities and requires you to deduce the answer to an incomplete equality. Here’s the set of equalities :

8809 = 6
7111 = 0
2172 = 0
6666 = 4
1111 = 0
3213 = 0
7662 = 2
9312 = 1
0000 = 4
2222 = 0
3333 = 0
5555 = 0
8193 = 3
8096 = 5
7777 = 0
9999 = 4
7756 = 1
6855 = 3
9881 = 5
5531 = 0

All you have to do is to determine the value of

2851 = ?

Apparently people with good mathematical background are having difficulties solving this problem, whereas people with almost no mathematical abilities can easily figure out the answer !!! I took it as a challenge and found myself incapable of deducing the answer. I forwarded the question to a few friends of mine, and none was able to solve the question (probably thus indicating that we are good mathematicians :P ).

We gave up and decided to peek at the comments to know the solution. And the solution astonished us. Indeed, there was no mathematical logic involved in this quiz ! All that was required was a simple observation skill. Hope you have better luck solving this one than we had.

Here’s the link to the authors page : Finish This Sequence Of Equalities

Popularity: 7% [?]