29 September 2019

Basketball throws: a rather intriguing puzzle

I had run into this problem long time back. I ran into it again last week. Thought will post it. See if you can solve it without using Google to find the answer. If not, then Google it – pretty interesting, huh? (I will post the answer later).

A basketball player keeps track of his throws for a full calendar year. He, of course, misses a few shots and succeeds with a few more. He missed the very first shot of the year. But he ended the year with 83% successful shots. You have to prove that there had to be a point where is success rate was exactly 75%.

Hint: this is not necessarily true for any number – e.g. 60%. But it is always true for 75%.

In fact, can you guess what are the other % (other than 75%) for which this is also true?

Category: Puzzles | 26 Comments on Basketball throws: a rather intriguing puzzle
21 September 2019

Meeting Julia’s mom

Julia and I got to know each other about a year back. Over the year, I had prepared a long list of complaints about her that I had promised to deliver to her mom when I meet her. I had figured that during one of my Austin trips, I would meet her mom Cathy and just unload on her 🙂

Turns out she was visiting San Francisco last week and the three of us were able to get together for an hour at a bar next to office. It was a quick meeting since I had to run for a office dinner right after that.

Here is a problem though – I never got a chance to complain about Julia! Because Cathy and I spent all the time exchanging dad jokes and a lot of puns. She is a veritable fountain of groaners and some really witty puns.

Celeste would have been thrilled with our level of dad jokes. My two daughters? Not so much!

Category: Intersection Points | LEAVE A COMMENT