“Odd or Even”

Suppose that a person take an even number of coins or counters, or any such in one hand, and an odd number in the other, there is a simple method by which to tell in which hand the even number is. Ask the person to multiply the number in the right hand by an odd number, and the number in the left hand by an even number; then tell the person to add the two products together and tell you if the sum total be odd or even. If the sum be even, the even number is in the right hand, and if it be odd the even number is in the left hand.

Miscellaneous Notes and Queries, January 1892

The Elevator Paradox

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In the 1950s, physicists George Gamow and Moritz Stern worked in the same seven-story building. Gamow, on the second floor, noticed that the first elevator to arrive at his office was most often going down. For Stern, on the sixth floor, the first elevator was most often going up. It was as if elves were manufacturing elevator cars in the middle of the building.

You can observe the same phenomenon in most tall buildings, and there are no elves involved. Do you see why it occurs?

Spud Loops

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Given any pair of potatoes — even bizarre, Richard Nixon-shaped potatoes — it’s always possible to draw a loop on each so that the two loops are identical in three dimensions.

Do you see the simple, intuitive proof for this?

Click for Answer

The Three Cards Problem

I show you three cards. One is white on both sides, one is black on both sides, and one is white on one side and black on the other. I shake them in a hat, remove one at random, and place it on a table. The side that’s face up is black. What’s the probability that the other side is also black?

Hint: It’s not 1/2.

Click for Answer

“If the Indians Hadn’t Spent the $24”

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In 1626 Peter Minuit, first governor of New Netherland, purchased Manhattan Island from the Indians for about $24. … Assume for simplicity a uniform rate of 7% from 1626 to the present, and suppose that the Indians had put their $24 at interest at that rate … and had added the interest to the principal yearly. What would be the amount now, after 280 years? 24 × (1.07)280 = more than 4,042,000,000. [The current value of Manhattan is] a little more than $4,898,400,000. … The Indians could have bought back most of the property now, with improvements; from which one might point the moral of saving money and putting it at interest!

— W.F. White, A Scrap-Book of Elementary Mathematics, 1908