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PICTURE THE SCENE: a room full of lockers, with a single word in each.
You’ve been brought here with 99 relatives to try solve a puzzle set by a rich, now dead uncle as part of his will. The first person who cracks the challenge will get his full inheritance.
Someone in the group is told to open all 100 lockers in the room. Another then has to close every second locker, before a third person closes those left open and opens the closed, in a pattern that continues until you’ve all had your turn.
The words in the lockers that are left open at the end will help you figure out the code that opens the safe – but is there a way to solve the problem before you all get started? Ted-Ed explains.
Miss Hoover, I ate my crayons
I’ve seen the answer and still can’t figure it out.
You can keep your money uncle, you were always a nut job.
My brain is melting…. Watched the video and still haven’t a clue… How many times a locker is touched is the answer… What ???
Haven’t had my locker touched in a long time…
Your synopsis is completely wrong and unintelligible. All you had to do was transcribe the video properly.
You had one job Catherine, one job!
Agree it should be that the first person opens (or changes the status of) every locker. The second closes (or the changes the status of ) ever second locker, the third person every third locker, the fourth person every 4th locker etc. etc.
The third person does not open or close every locker followed by the next and so on so on. That would leave every second locker after the first open at the end.
Taking the pattern outlined at the start and say the 18th locker, the first person would open, the second would close it and the third would open it. It being the sixth locker they open. The next two would go near it and the sixth would close it as the third locker they hit. The ninth would open it as the second locker they go to and the 18th would close it as the first they come to. After that no one would go near it again.
as they said in the video most would then be closed as they have an even number of factors accept for the squares.
I thought I had it figured out, until I watched the video and realised the author of the article had described the riddle completely wrong.
Yeah the description is embarrassingly wrong……..
Agreed the description is phrased terribly!
Your card is the Jack of Hearts
Col Mustard in the study
So in what way does this locker puzzle competition actually prevent your “nasty” relatives from coming after your money any more than if your uncle just gave you the money in the first place like he supposedly wanted to?
They’re all too busy trying to figure out what the hell just happened
Didn’t even make it through the description of what to do let alone solve the puzzle
Be the first member of the group to open all the lockers? Kill everyone else?
Seven
“Wrong key you stupid c***!”
Mind boggling stuff this early in the morning!!
I can’t solve the problem. But I can stand 10 canaries on my micky.
Ok I exaggerated. The last canary has to stand on one leg
Thanks to our vulture taxes on inheritance, most of uncle’s money will go to Noonan. Let him sort the puzzle out!
I never liked him..he can stick his will where the sun does not shine ( Cavan?)
Jaysus
Should have paid more attention in maths
Child deserves the loot , if she figured it out that quickly she probably doesn`t have friends and can now buy them
All the perfect squares surely? All have an odd number of factors where all other numbers have even pairs of factors.
Considering its impossible to deduce that from the mistranscribed information here is it really that clever to watch the video and regurgitate the answer.
By my reading (maybe I’m missing something) 2nd person opens all odd numbered lockers, 3rd opens every even (closing others) ….100th opens every odd locker. I must be reading it wrong. Am I?
The second person opens every second locker, the third person every third locker, the fourth person every fourth locker, etc etc.
Think of it like this: every number has its own number of factors (numbers it can be divided by). For most numbers (let’s pick 42), there will a number of pairs of factors (e.g. 1×42, 2×21, 3×14, 6×7). Therefore, the door will be opened and closed an even number of times (opened and closed once for each pair of factors, in this case, four people will open door 42 and four people will close it again, 1 will open, 2 will close, 3 will open, 6 will close, 7 will open, 14 will close, 21 will open and 42 will close). However, square numbers have an odd number of factors, because of the square root counting once, not twice. Take 16. Its factors (1, 2, 4, 8 and 16) will see it left open. 1 will open, 2 will close, 4 will open, 8 will close and 16 will open. Obviously the same will hold for any other square.
I didn’t watch the video
If you didn’t watch the video Ciaran, then the description in the article would’ve made it impossible for you to get the answer, as the description is completely wrong.
What !!!!!!
Oh no. I hate it when I does get discombobulated.
Who actually cares???!!,
Still haven’t a clue
The more complicated it is the easier it is to crack.
Simple problems can drive you daft.
For example.
Me as a Quizmaster:
I have three cards with a prize that I KNOW is behind one card.
You pick one .
I lift a card without the prize.
What are your chances?
You are two thirds better off changing your mind.
Why?
The Quiz master knew where the prize was already and will always lift a card without a prize.
Dead simple.
Some people suffer from a low IO
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