Neurobics
Madame Serena's Dilemma
Russell Dear
Madame Serena, or Tessa as she was usually called, was not a madam at all (at least, not in the usual sense of that word). As she sat on her bed watching the birds squabbling over the food scraps left by yesterday's visitors to the fair, she pondered Kilo's question. Should she accept his proposal of marriage, or not?
Deep in thought she idly watched as the birds flew up to perch on the four corner poles of her little tent opposite -- one bird to each pole, two crows and two gulls -- like they did every morning after their breakfast feast.
If only she could see into her own future, she thought. Every day she gazed into her crystal ball to capture fleeting images for customers who had crossed her palm with silver. Never had she espied scenes of Kilo and herself, no future for them outlined in the glinting glass.
A sudden gust of wind straightened the flag fluttering from the centre pole of the tent, exposing the moon and stars motif, and causing the four birds to flee their perches and fly around in alarm. As they began to settle and look for a vacant pole on which to perch Tessa quickly squeezed her eyes shut and covered them with her hands.
Decision time, she decided. There are really only two different positions for the birds to settle on the poles. With the gulls side-by-side, and hence the crows too (position A), or diagonally opposite each other (position B).
Tessa quickly made up her mind. If it was the former she would say yes to Kilo, if the latter, she would say no. That seemed a fair way to decide the issue.
Assuming the birds settled at random, was Tessa correct? Is it a fair way to decide whether she should marry Kilo?
And another problem dealing with probability. Is the following statement true or false?
Most sons are eldest (first) sons.
Puzzling Parakeet
Chloe, Simon, Amy, and Gemma are the cause of much confusion at home. Each of them owns an axolotl named after one of the other three and a parakeet named after another of them. No two axolotls, and no two parakeets, have the same name.
For example, Gemmas' parakeet and Amy's axolotl are both namesakes of the owner of the axolotl Amy. The namesake of Simon's axolotl is the owner of the axolotl whose namesake owns the parakeet Chloe.
Who owns the parakeet Gemma?
Russell Dear is a Mathematician living in Invercargill
|