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Thu 10 Jan, 2008 05:16 am
Greetings from the sunny Cook Islands.
The answer to the schoolchildren question was 99, but the setter has accepted 126 although he did think that the wording implied that the 'events' were mutually exclusive. The question again was A large number of children have had their Christmas lunch at school. 40 kids had mince pies; 50 had ice cream; and 60 had Christmas cake. of these number, 11 had mince pies AND ice cream; 11 had mince pies AND Christmas cake; and 11 had ice cream AND Christmas cake. Hard to believe, but 9 little gluttons had all THREE! So how many children were there in total?
He gives the solution as: 9MP; 19IC; 29CC; 11MP + 1IC; 11MP +11IC + CC; 9MP + 1C + CC. Wow! Glad that's over!
How about this - A recently released cinema film stars an actress who is the real-life partner of an actor (who plays a role in the same film) with a professional forename which is the same as the last word of the title of this film spelt backwards! what is the title of this film? Any help appreciated. Thank you for your help.
Greetings !
If your "setter" intended a meaning other than the standard Venn Diagram interpretation, the onus was on him to depart from usage of that style. He did not. Furthermore his solution is logically inconsitent because his calculations of single item eaters (9,19.29) was obtained by SUBTRACTION (from 40.50.60) whereas his other calculations were by ADDITION. I suspect this is the same sort of mistake that lies behind "the missing dollar problem" in the well known "dishonest waiter paradox", but I will rest my case.
http://xpmath.com/forums/showthread.php?t=997
As I'm ignorant of current cinema activity I'll have to pass on the next question.
Kind regards.
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