Friday, February 12, 2010

Puzzler

I thought I'd quickly pose a puzzle that I read (as a comment) on one of the blogs I follow. I won't name the source, just yet, to avoid giving the answer away.

Anyway, the puzzle runs as follows:
Ten mathematicians are sitting around a dinner table. They want to figure out their average salary (total salary/10), without revealing their own individual salaries. They each have a piece of paper to scribble on, and a pot into which these pieces of papers may be put.

PS: The answer is not unique. The two people I posed this problem to, gave me two different, but acceptable answers.
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2 comments:

  1. Khalil SawantFebruary 18, 2010 at 11:50 AM

    Each mathematician i, puts up on his piece of paper Si + Ri, where Si is salary and Ri is some random number.
    Add to pot.
    Remove all ten chits from pot and sum up.
    All mathematicians now declare their random number.
    Subtract all 10 randome numbers.
    Divide by 10

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sachin ShanbhagFebruary 21, 2010 at 5:48 PM

    Bingo.

    ReplyDelete