How many cookies does someone need to grab to be certain to obtain a flavor?Travellers across a desertThe Tricky Tunnels!100 chocolate bars!This ant sure is smart. But how fast is it?A jar of mixed coinsA Georgian-era riddleExpected value of a milion dollar (equal?) divisionHow many tries to roll a 6?Does the Answer Look Certain?Horror Episode #2: Not So Well

Teaching indefinite integrals that require special-casing

Are there any comparative studies done between Ashtavakra Gita and Buddhim?

Print name if parameter passed to function

Should my PhD thesis be submitted under my legal name?

How do I define a right arrow with bar in LaTeX?

Hide Select Output from T-SQL

What is the intuitive meaning of having a linear relationship between the logs of two variables?

What does this 7 mean above the f flat

Applicability of Single Responsibility Principle

How was Earth single-handedly capable of creating 3 of the 4 gods of chaos?

What's a natural way to say that someone works somewhere (for a job)?

The baby cries all morning

Short story about space worker geeks who zone out by 'listening' to radiation from stars

Why are on-board computers allowed to change controls without notifying the pilots?

Student evaluations of teaching assistants

Is HostGator storing my password in plaintext?

Is the destination of a commercial flight important for the pilot?

Hostile work environment after whistle-blowing on coworker and our boss. What do I do?

apt-get update is failing in debian

Personal Teleportation as a Weapon

How to be diplomatic in refusing to write code that breaches the privacy of our users

I'm in charge of equipment buying but no one's ever happy with what I choose. How to fix this?

Everything Bob says is false. How does he get people to trust him?

What would happen if the UK refused to take part in EU Parliamentary elections?



How many cookies does someone need to grab to be certain to obtain a flavor?


Travellers across a desertThe Tricky Tunnels!100 chocolate bars!This ant sure is smart. But how fast is it?A jar of mixed coinsA Georgian-era riddleExpected value of a milion dollar (equal?) divisionHow many tries to roll a 6?Does the Answer Look Certain?Horror Episode #2: Not So Well













5












$begingroup$


I often found this riddle in many exams but I got often confused on how to tackle it. While it involves maths. I wonder if there is a subtle or a more layman method to obtain an answer using common sense?.



The problem which I'm about to describe isn't a specific homework problem. Is just a situation which I had imagined just now based on the kind of situation which often gets me confused. Okay here it goes:




A toddler want to grab some strawberry cookies. However there are
three flavors of those cookies in a jar, which just happen to be atop
of a refrigerator. There is a ladder in the kitchen, but the height of
that ladder isn't bigger enough for him to tell the difference between
which flavor of the cookies is which, all he can do is extend his arm
and take out the cookies from the jar. The child knows from his mom
that she made 10 of those strawberry cookies in the morning. However
he knows that the jar also has leftovers which he spotted on the night
before and these were 6 of vanilla flavor and 5 of chocolate chips.




Okay now comes the part where I often got stuck at:



What is the least amount of cookies that he has to take out from the jar to be certain that he has 4 of chocolate chips, 5 of vanilla and 7 of of strawberries?.



Now a second question



What is the least amount that he has to take out to be certain that he has all the strawberries and all chocolate chips?



And finally the third one



What is the least amount that he has to take from the jar to be certain that he has 1 of each flavor.



What I do remember from this situation is that when solving this riddle you often consider the most difficult scenario, in other words. He needs to take out let's say 10 in this case so with that he is certain that has strawberries. However I'm not very sure if this reasoning is valid.



Can somebody give me some help with this?



I'm slow at catching up ideas so, I'd like the answer could show or include the most details as possible and explain why certain decision or argument is taken.










share|improve this question









$endgroup$







  • 5




    $begingroup$
    Okay, a few things. 1: if the cookies were made this morning, they are very likely on top of the other cookies within the jar, so the selection should be trivial. 2: Since when do toddlers take less than all of the cookies?
    $endgroup$
    – Ian MacDonald
    yesterday















5












$begingroup$


I often found this riddle in many exams but I got often confused on how to tackle it. While it involves maths. I wonder if there is a subtle or a more layman method to obtain an answer using common sense?.



The problem which I'm about to describe isn't a specific homework problem. Is just a situation which I had imagined just now based on the kind of situation which often gets me confused. Okay here it goes:




A toddler want to grab some strawberry cookies. However there are
three flavors of those cookies in a jar, which just happen to be atop
of a refrigerator. There is a ladder in the kitchen, but the height of
that ladder isn't bigger enough for him to tell the difference between
which flavor of the cookies is which, all he can do is extend his arm
and take out the cookies from the jar. The child knows from his mom
that she made 10 of those strawberry cookies in the morning. However
he knows that the jar also has leftovers which he spotted on the night
before and these were 6 of vanilla flavor and 5 of chocolate chips.




Okay now comes the part where I often got stuck at:



What is the least amount of cookies that he has to take out from the jar to be certain that he has 4 of chocolate chips, 5 of vanilla and 7 of of strawberries?.



Now a second question



What is the least amount that he has to take out to be certain that he has all the strawberries and all chocolate chips?



And finally the third one



What is the least amount that he has to take from the jar to be certain that he has 1 of each flavor.



What I do remember from this situation is that when solving this riddle you often consider the most difficult scenario, in other words. He needs to take out let's say 10 in this case so with that he is certain that has strawberries. However I'm not very sure if this reasoning is valid.



Can somebody give me some help with this?



I'm slow at catching up ideas so, I'd like the answer could show or include the most details as possible and explain why certain decision or argument is taken.










share|improve this question









$endgroup$







  • 5




    $begingroup$
    Okay, a few things. 1: if the cookies were made this morning, they are very likely on top of the other cookies within the jar, so the selection should be trivial. 2: Since when do toddlers take less than all of the cookies?
    $endgroup$
    – Ian MacDonald
    yesterday













5












5








5





$begingroup$


I often found this riddle in many exams but I got often confused on how to tackle it. While it involves maths. I wonder if there is a subtle or a more layman method to obtain an answer using common sense?.



The problem which I'm about to describe isn't a specific homework problem. Is just a situation which I had imagined just now based on the kind of situation which often gets me confused. Okay here it goes:




A toddler want to grab some strawberry cookies. However there are
three flavors of those cookies in a jar, which just happen to be atop
of a refrigerator. There is a ladder in the kitchen, but the height of
that ladder isn't bigger enough for him to tell the difference between
which flavor of the cookies is which, all he can do is extend his arm
and take out the cookies from the jar. The child knows from his mom
that she made 10 of those strawberry cookies in the morning. However
he knows that the jar also has leftovers which he spotted on the night
before and these were 6 of vanilla flavor and 5 of chocolate chips.




Okay now comes the part where I often got stuck at:



What is the least amount of cookies that he has to take out from the jar to be certain that he has 4 of chocolate chips, 5 of vanilla and 7 of of strawberries?.



Now a second question



What is the least amount that he has to take out to be certain that he has all the strawberries and all chocolate chips?



And finally the third one



What is the least amount that he has to take from the jar to be certain that he has 1 of each flavor.



What I do remember from this situation is that when solving this riddle you often consider the most difficult scenario, in other words. He needs to take out let's say 10 in this case so with that he is certain that has strawberries. However I'm not very sure if this reasoning is valid.



Can somebody give me some help with this?



I'm slow at catching up ideas so, I'd like the answer could show or include the most details as possible and explain why certain decision or argument is taken.










share|improve this question









$endgroup$




I often found this riddle in many exams but I got often confused on how to tackle it. While it involves maths. I wonder if there is a subtle or a more layman method to obtain an answer using common sense?.



The problem which I'm about to describe isn't a specific homework problem. Is just a situation which I had imagined just now based on the kind of situation which often gets me confused. Okay here it goes:




A toddler want to grab some strawberry cookies. However there are
three flavors of those cookies in a jar, which just happen to be atop
of a refrigerator. There is a ladder in the kitchen, but the height of
that ladder isn't bigger enough for him to tell the difference between
which flavor of the cookies is which, all he can do is extend his arm
and take out the cookies from the jar. The child knows from his mom
that she made 10 of those strawberry cookies in the morning. However
he knows that the jar also has leftovers which he spotted on the night
before and these were 6 of vanilla flavor and 5 of chocolate chips.




Okay now comes the part where I often got stuck at:



What is the least amount of cookies that he has to take out from the jar to be certain that he has 4 of chocolate chips, 5 of vanilla and 7 of of strawberries?.



Now a second question



What is the least amount that he has to take out to be certain that he has all the strawberries and all chocolate chips?



And finally the third one



What is the least amount that he has to take from the jar to be certain that he has 1 of each flavor.



What I do remember from this situation is that when solving this riddle you often consider the most difficult scenario, in other words. He needs to take out let's say 10 in this case so with that he is certain that has strawberries. However I'm not very sure if this reasoning is valid.



Can somebody give me some help with this?



I'm slow at catching up ideas so, I'd like the answer could show or include the most details as possible and explain why certain decision or argument is taken.







riddle probability word-problem






share|improve this question













share|improve this question











share|improve this question




share|improve this question










asked yesterday









Chris Steinbeck BellChris Steinbeck Bell

1514




1514







  • 5




    $begingroup$
    Okay, a few things. 1: if the cookies were made this morning, they are very likely on top of the other cookies within the jar, so the selection should be trivial. 2: Since when do toddlers take less than all of the cookies?
    $endgroup$
    – Ian MacDonald
    yesterday












  • 5




    $begingroup$
    Okay, a few things. 1: if the cookies were made this morning, they are very likely on top of the other cookies within the jar, so the selection should be trivial. 2: Since when do toddlers take less than all of the cookies?
    $endgroup$
    – Ian MacDonald
    yesterday







5




5




$begingroup$
Okay, a few things. 1: if the cookies were made this morning, they are very likely on top of the other cookies within the jar, so the selection should be trivial. 2: Since when do toddlers take less than all of the cookies?
$endgroup$
– Ian MacDonald
yesterday




$begingroup$
Okay, a few things. 1: if the cookies were made this morning, they are very likely on top of the other cookies within the jar, so the selection should be trivial. 2: Since when do toddlers take less than all of the cookies?
$endgroup$
– Ian MacDonald
yesterday










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















8












$begingroup$

Originally there are;




10 S, 6 V and 5C




For the first case where he wants to have 7 S, 5 V and , 4 C. (so we dont want to have 3S, 1V and 1C)



In the worst case scenario;




we need to think that he is very unlucky, while taking out cookies, he takes all strawberries first, where there are 10 of them, so extra 3 cookies, and etc.




so




He has to take out 10S+6V+4C = 20 cookies to guarantee he can have 7S, 5V and 4C. Put the extras back later.




I do not want to continue for the rest since the same methodology works for them too:




in the worst case scenario, take out first the type of cookie which has the most extras (number of cookies available - wanted amount of cookies), then second most and lastly the least one.




This will give you the number of cookies to guarantee to have some specific number of cookies.






share|improve this answer











$endgroup$












    Your Answer





    StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function ()
    return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function ()
    StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix)
    StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
    );
    );
    , "mathjax-editing");

    StackExchange.ready(function()
    var channelOptions =
    tags: "".split(" "),
    id: "559"
    ;
    initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

    StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
    // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
    if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
    StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
    createEditor();
    );

    else
    createEditor();

    );

    function createEditor()
    StackExchange.prepareEditor(
    heartbeatType: 'answer',
    autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
    convertImagesToLinks: false,
    noModals: true,
    showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
    reputationToPostImages: null,
    bindNavPrevention: true,
    postfix: "",
    imageUploader:
    brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
    contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
    allowUrls: true
    ,
    noCode: true, onDemand: true,
    discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
    ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
    );



    );













    draft saved

    draft discarded


















    StackExchange.ready(
    function ()
    StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fpuzzling.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f81006%2fhow-many-cookies-does-someone-need-to-grab-to-be-certain-to-obtain-a-flavor%23new-answer', 'question_page');

    );

    Post as a guest















    Required, but never shown

























    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes








    1 Answer
    1






    active

    oldest

    votes









    active

    oldest

    votes






    active

    oldest

    votes









    8












    $begingroup$

    Originally there are;




    10 S, 6 V and 5C




    For the first case where he wants to have 7 S, 5 V and , 4 C. (so we dont want to have 3S, 1V and 1C)



    In the worst case scenario;




    we need to think that he is very unlucky, while taking out cookies, he takes all strawberries first, where there are 10 of them, so extra 3 cookies, and etc.




    so




    He has to take out 10S+6V+4C = 20 cookies to guarantee he can have 7S, 5V and 4C. Put the extras back later.




    I do not want to continue for the rest since the same methodology works for them too:




    in the worst case scenario, take out first the type of cookie which has the most extras (number of cookies available - wanted amount of cookies), then second most and lastly the least one.




    This will give you the number of cookies to guarantee to have some specific number of cookies.






    share|improve this answer











    $endgroup$

















      8












      $begingroup$

      Originally there are;




      10 S, 6 V and 5C




      For the first case where he wants to have 7 S, 5 V and , 4 C. (so we dont want to have 3S, 1V and 1C)



      In the worst case scenario;




      we need to think that he is very unlucky, while taking out cookies, he takes all strawberries first, where there are 10 of them, so extra 3 cookies, and etc.




      so




      He has to take out 10S+6V+4C = 20 cookies to guarantee he can have 7S, 5V and 4C. Put the extras back later.




      I do not want to continue for the rest since the same methodology works for them too:




      in the worst case scenario, take out first the type of cookie which has the most extras (number of cookies available - wanted amount of cookies), then second most and lastly the least one.




      This will give you the number of cookies to guarantee to have some specific number of cookies.






      share|improve this answer











      $endgroup$















        8












        8








        8





        $begingroup$

        Originally there are;




        10 S, 6 V and 5C




        For the first case where he wants to have 7 S, 5 V and , 4 C. (so we dont want to have 3S, 1V and 1C)



        In the worst case scenario;




        we need to think that he is very unlucky, while taking out cookies, he takes all strawberries first, where there are 10 of them, so extra 3 cookies, and etc.




        so




        He has to take out 10S+6V+4C = 20 cookies to guarantee he can have 7S, 5V and 4C. Put the extras back later.




        I do not want to continue for the rest since the same methodology works for them too:




        in the worst case scenario, take out first the type of cookie which has the most extras (number of cookies available - wanted amount of cookies), then second most and lastly the least one.




        This will give you the number of cookies to guarantee to have some specific number of cookies.






        share|improve this answer











        $endgroup$



        Originally there are;




        10 S, 6 V and 5C




        For the first case where he wants to have 7 S, 5 V and , 4 C. (so we dont want to have 3S, 1V and 1C)



        In the worst case scenario;




        we need to think that he is very unlucky, while taking out cookies, he takes all strawberries first, where there are 10 of them, so extra 3 cookies, and etc.




        so




        He has to take out 10S+6V+4C = 20 cookies to guarantee he can have 7S, 5V and 4C. Put the extras back later.




        I do not want to continue for the rest since the same methodology works for them too:




        in the worst case scenario, take out first the type of cookie which has the most extras (number of cookies available - wanted amount of cookies), then second most and lastly the least one.




        This will give you the number of cookies to guarantee to have some specific number of cookies.







        share|improve this answer














        share|improve this answer



        share|improve this answer








        edited yesterday

























        answered yesterday









        OrayOray

        16.2k437157




        16.2k437157



























            draft saved

            draft discarded
















































            Thanks for contributing an answer to Puzzling Stack Exchange!


            • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

            But avoid


            • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

            • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.

            Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


            To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




            draft saved


            draft discarded














            StackExchange.ready(
            function ()
            StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fpuzzling.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f81006%2fhow-many-cookies-does-someone-need-to-grab-to-be-certain-to-obtain-a-flavor%23new-answer', 'question_page');

            );

            Post as a guest















            Required, but never shown





















































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown

































            Required, but never shown














            Required, but never shown












            Required, but never shown







            Required, but never shown







            -probability, riddle, word-problem

            Popular posts from this blog

            Frič See also Navigation menuinternal link

            Identify plant with long narrow paired leaves and reddish stems Planned maintenance scheduled April 17/18, 2019 at 00:00UTC (8:00pm US/Eastern) Announcing the arrival of Valued Associate #679: Cesar Manara Unicorn Meta Zoo #1: Why another podcast?What is this plant with long sharp leaves? Is it a weed?What is this 3ft high, stalky plant, with mid sized narrow leaves?What is this young shrub with opposite ovate, crenate leaves and reddish stems?What is this plant with large broad serrated leaves?Identify this upright branching weed with long leaves and reddish stemsPlease help me identify this bulbous plant with long, broad leaves and white flowersWhat is this small annual with narrow gray/green leaves and rust colored daisy-type flowers?What is this chilli plant?Does anyone know what type of chilli plant this is?Help identify this plant

            fontconfig warning: “/etc/fonts/fonts.conf”, line 100: unknown “element blank” The 2019 Stack Overflow Developer Survey Results Are In“tar: unrecognized option --warning” during 'apt-get install'How to fix Fontconfig errorHow do I figure out which font file is chosen for a system generic font alias?Why are some apt-get-installed fonts being ignored by fc-list, xfontsel, etc?Reload settings in /etc/fonts/conf.dTaking 30 seconds longer to boot after upgrade from jessie to stretchHow to match multiple font names with a single <match> element?Adding a custom font to fontconfigRemoving fonts from fontconfig <match> resultsBroken fonts after upgrading Firefox ESR to latest Firefox