The theme for the month of June is Java hence the pictures from Java. I know that it is still May. We are putting up the puzzle a little in advance so that you will have more time to solve it. So your mission with the first Summer Puzzle, if you choose to accept it, is simple : just solve the puzzle below. Email your answers to : askthedelphicoracle@gmail.com with the subject "Summer Puzzle".
(1)
Mallika is in Java but can't take her mind off
football. She is trying to decide between three football teams to throw her
support behind – the University of Oklahoma Sooners, the University of Texas
Longhorns and the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. All she has to help her
is a fair coin, that is, with this coin, there is an equal probability that the
coin will show up either heads or tails. Devise a way for her to choose one of
the three teams with equal probability.
(2)
It is the next day and Mallika realizes that she
has misplaced her fair coin. She is now trying to decide between five IPL teams
- the Chennai Super Kings, the Kolkata Knight Riders, the Mumbai Indians, the
Rajasthan Royals and the Delhi Daredevils. All she has to help her is a coin with
unknown bias, that is, with this coin, there is a non-zero probability that the
coin will show up either heads or tails but we don’t know what the probability
of heads is. Devise a way for her to choose one of the five teams with equal
probability.
