måndag 26 april 2010

Discrete mathematics

A blindfolded man has a heap of 10 grey socks and 10 brown socks in a drawer. The drawer is a family heirloom. Another blindfolded man asks the first blindfolded man if he is wearing any socks, whereby the first blindfolded man replies by recursively wondering who he is referring to.
Use the principle of induction and/or the pigeonhole principle to deduce:
(i) who is referring to who
(ii) the color of the blindfolds
(iii) the number of socks in the drawer
(iiii) who's aunt Ginny died of decision agony over whichs socks to pick from the drawer
(iiiii) why are the two men wearing blindfolds? [Hint: assume it's Thursday afternoon, the sun is shining, why are you reading this?]