NW-Bound
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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- Jul 3, 2008
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I happened to pick up Parade, June 28 2015 issue, and saw that Marylin had another goof. Here's the puzzle.
Marylin's answer follows.
I don't know what Marylin meant for the challenge. If we assume that the opponent can also figure out and pick the best dice, then it remains 50/50 chance that we can win. So, we can only expect to break even by choosing the best dice. But of course we do not want to pick a weak dice and have a higher chance of losing, do we?
Marylin's choice of 222266 is bad, if you consider a toss against the 333333 dice. You would have 66.66% chance of losing.
So, what's the best dice? I shall leave it as an exercise.
"Say you have four specially marked dice. Two players each select one, and the player who rolls a higher number wins. The faces are 1-1-1-5-5-5, 2-2-2-2-6-6, 3-3-3-3-3-3 and 4-4-4-4-0-0. You’re given the first choice. Which die should you choose?"
Marylin's answer follows.
"Here’s a brain-bending challenge for you, puzzlers: I’ll tell you which die is the strongest (meaning that it will score more wins when played against all the other dice), and you figure out why it doesn’t matter which die you choose! The answer will appear June 29 here. OK, ready? The strongest die is 2-2-2-2-6-6."
I don't know what Marylin meant for the challenge. If we assume that the opponent can also figure out and pick the best dice, then it remains 50/50 chance that we can win. So, we can only expect to break even by choosing the best dice. But of course we do not want to pick a weak dice and have a higher chance of losing, do we?
Marylin's choice of 222266 is bad, if you consider a toss against the 333333 dice. You would have 66.66% chance of losing.
So, what's the best dice? I shall leave it as an exercise.
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