Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site pucc-i Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!hocda!houxm!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!CS-Mordred!Pucc-H:Pucc-I:ags From: ags@pucc-i (Seaman) Newsgroups: net.puzzle Subject: Balls in Bowl (no correct answers yet) Message-ID: <210@pucc-i> Date: Sat, 18-Feb-84 12:09:38 EST Article-I.D.: pucc-i.210 Posted: Sat Feb 18 12:09:38 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 20-Feb-84 07:15:29 EST Organization: Purdue University Computing Center Lines: 40 I am reposting the original balls-in-the-bowl question, since no one has answered it correctly and there has been no discussion of it on the net. What makes this puzzle hard is that it has an answer which is simple, obvious, and WRONG. I received mail responses from several people giving the wrong answer. If you read the puzzle and dismissed it as trivial, you should think about it again. If there is no response, I will point out later why the obvious answer is incorrect. Some tried to read more into the problem than is really there. Notice that there is nothing about dividing any number of balls by N, nor was that my intention. The original posting follows... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ You see before you a large empty bowl, two machines marked A and B, and a *huge* supply of balls. 1. At one minute before noon, machine A places 100 balls into the bowl. Machine B removes one ball from the bowl. 2. At 1/2 minute before noon, machine A places 100 balls into the bowl. Machine B removes one ball from the bowl. . . . N. At 1/N minute before noon, machine A places 100 balls into the bowl. Machine B removes one ball from the bowl. . . . It is now noon. How many balls are there in the bowl? -- Dave Seaman ..!pur-ee!pucc-i:ags "Against people who give vent to their loquacity by extraneous bombastic circumlocution."