A swan sits at the center of a perfectly circular lake. At an edge of the lake stands a ravenous monster waiting to devour the swan. The monster can not enter the water, but it will run around the circumference of the lake to try to catch the swan as soon as it reaches the shore. The monster moves at 4 times the speed of the swan, and it will always move in the direction along the shore that brings it closer to the swan the quickest. Both the swan and the the monster can change directions in an instant.
The swan knows that if it can reach the lake's shore without the monster right on top of it, it can instantly escape into the surrounding forest.
The Puzzle: Here is a famous prize problem that Sam Loyd issued in 1882, offering $1000 as a prize for the best answer showing how to arrange the seven figures and the eight 'dots' .4.5.6.7.8.9.0. which would add up to 82
A father is locked up in jail. His wife has gone bankrupt. Their male child has to sell his hotel in order to gain some money. Yet their girl child does not care and is quite happy.
A fresh card pile is taken out of a box (the pile has 54 cards including 2 jokers). One joker is taken out and then the cards are shuffled for a good amount of times. After shuffling, two piles are made by dividing that one pile.
What is the possibility that one of the piles will have a card sequence from A to K in order?
Suppose we lay down two cups in front of you. One of the cups is filled with tea and the other one with coffee. Now we ask you to take a spoonful of tea and mix it with the coffee. At this moment, the coffee cup has a mixture of tea and coffee. You have to take that mixture (spoonful) and add it back to the tea.
Can you now tell if the cup of coffee has more tea or the cup of tea has more coffee?