SPUG: Stick Riddle

[Fred Morris]

Adrian Hands wrote:
>
>m3047 at inwa.net (Fred Morris) writes:
>
>> my gut tells me Michael has found it.
>
>You realize it was
>the modification (norm_rand) to make the first break occur close to the
>middle that increased the probability to nearly 100%.
>Then, the modification to make it blindly choose the "left" piece,
>instead of the "longer" piece,
>for the second break, resulted in it picking the "longer" piece 1/2 the
>time...
> 1/2 of ~100% -> ~50%.

This is the crux of the djinn's counsel: to break the stick once and then
again (two whacks with one blade), instead of taking a double-headed
cleaver to it (one whack with two blades).

Hearing the djinn's call, the acolyte mutters aloud: "who's ever heard of
an axe with two heads?", forgetting for a moment that their stature as a
mathematician raises them above human concerns for practicality.

>It seems unlikely to me that the "friend" based his answer on the idea
>that it's easier to break the stick in the middle.

This is irrelevant.


(Do you know the apocryphal story of how Gauss added up the numbers from 1
to 100?)

--

Fred Morris
m3047 at inwa.net



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