Does Mandira Bedi know probability theory? Even if she doesn’t, the host of the Indian version of the game show Deal or No Deal is actually playing with it. Here is what I read in The New York Times recently, “Three scientists at Erasmus University, who conducted an exhaustive analysis of the decisions made by contestants in the Dutch version of the game, remark that ‘For analysing risky choice, Deal or No Deal has a number of favourable design features. The stakes are very high... the game show can send contestants home multimillionaires ? or practically empty-handed. Unlike other game shows, Deal or No Deal involves only simple stop-go decisions that require minimal skill or strategy. Also, the probability distribution is simple and known with near-certainty. Because of these features, Deal or No Deal seems well-suited for analysing real-life decisions involving real and large risky stakes.”

PUZZLE 1: Last Saturday, Dylan and his four friends stopped for an afternoon treat at Hoffman’s Homemade Ice Cream. Each of the five friends ordered a double-dip cone of two different flavours; no two persons ordered the same flavoured ice cream, and one of the 10 dips picked was Strawberry. Unfortunately, Hoffman’s was very busy, and when the cones came, each friend had only one of the two flavours he or she had ordered; the second scoop was one of the other’s choices. Fortunately, though, everyone liked what he or she got and ate the cone anyway. Can you find what two flavours each had ordered and what two each got, given the clues that follow?

(1) Cassie did not have French Vanilla or Rocky Road on the cone she got. (2) Bo did not have Chocolate on the cone he got. (3) Tina liked the scoop of Black Cherry she got by mistake.

(4) Cassie, the friend who ordered and got a dip of Chocolate, and the one who ordered French Vanilla but didn’t get it had chosen sugar cones for their ice creams. (5) The one who ordered and got Peanut Butter Cup, who wasn’t Bo, also got Dreamsicle. (6) One of the flavours Keri ordered was Rocky Road. (7) Neither Bo nor Cassie were the ones who had ordered the Butter Pecan. (8) The French Vanilla and the Chocolate scoops ended up on two different cones. (9) Cassie ordered Dreamsicle as one of her flavours; she wasn’t the one who got Mint Chocolate Chip by mistake. (10) Bo neither ordered nor received French Vanilla. (11) The one who ordered Black Cherry didn’t order Butterscotch Ripple as a second scoop. (12) Tina didn’t order the French Vanilla or the Mint Chocolate Chip.

Solutions on March 6

CORRECT ENTRIES

FEBRUARY 6

Nirmal Kumar Agarwala, Cal-89; Sreechandra Banerjee, Cal-1; Soumya Bit, Burdwan; Dipanjan Bhattacharya, Cal-36; Abhishek Gupta, IIT Kharagpur; Harjesh Bawa, Cal- 1

Please mail your entries to knowhow@abpmail.com within 10 days.

PUZZLE CRACKED

The response this week (February 6) was great. Here goes the solution: The order first?fifth of the cars in the train and first-fifth of the operating depots is :

First ? Great Northern log car

Second ? Armour cattle car

Third ? Cities Service barrel car

Fourth ? Lehigh Valley coal car

Fifth ? Illinois Central trailer carrier

First ? stockyard

Second ? container crane

Third ? coal station

Fourth ? lumbermill

Fifth ? oil derrick

Clues to the solution : Neither Lumbermill nor Oil Derricks is the first station. As coal station is not the first station and the first car doesn’t load at the last station, we fit coal station as the third station. Others follow the logic.