10 October 2013

Puzzle – alligation?

While it is not exactly about mixing liquids, it involves pouring liquids alright.
You have three containers whose capacity are 12 gallons, 8 gallons and 5 gallons respectively. The 12 gallon container is filled with water and the other two are empty. You have nothing else. You have to divide the water into two parts of 6 gallons each. In other words, by a sequence of pouring from one container to the other, you have to eventually have 6 gallons in the 12 gallon container and another 6 gallons in the 8 gallon container.
How would you do it?

Category: Puzzles | 18 Comments on Puzzle – alligation?
3 October 2013

Living longer? :-)

Yesterday, our corporate head of HR – a dear friend, colleague and peer of mine, traveled with me to DC to address my organization there.
She is a great speaker and was eloquently explaining our new healthcare options and the challenges companies like ours face with rising healthcare costs.
Some of the analytics she cited were very insightful. One rather innocuous one she told us was “married people live longer”. Driven by unbounded curiosity, I had to ask what I thought was a very challenging and certainly entirely relevant question: “do they live longer or does it just seem that way to them” 🙂 Then I dutifully sat down expecting an equally insightful answer 🙂
Let’s just say I am glad she tolerates my terrible sense of humor 🙂
She did get back at me during drinks that evening. But I am not going to tell you about that! This is my blog. Let her write about it in her blog 🙂

Category: Humor | 6 Comments on Living longer? :-)
2 October 2013

Puzzle: Assorted socks

Flying back from DC. Puzzle time. I am switching back to logical/math puzzles since the word puzzles were not much popular last time.
As always, send me personal messages on FB. Do not write your answer on the comment section to give others a chance to try the problem.

In a basket, there are 8 pairs (16) of black socks, 7 pairs (14) of white socks, 6 pairs of red socks, 5 pairs of blue socks, 4 pairs of green socks, 3 pairs of yellow socks, 2 pairs of purple socks and 1 pair of pink socks.
Assume that there is no difference between a right sock and a left sock.
If you are blindfolded, how many MINIMUM number of socks do you have to pick to guarantee 3 pairs (six) of socks that are of the same color (any color will do)?

Category: Puzzles | 19 Comments on Puzzle: Assorted socks
28 September 2013

Chance Meeting…

Beautiful day in Atlanta. The sun and the clouds are constantly playing peek-a-boo with each other and a light breeze is blowing. Dropped the daughter at Chattahoochee High School for a debate program and went for a run. 5K into the run, I had a vague recollection that there was this guy that I have talked to a few times after moving to ATL but never met – who I thought had told me he lived near that High school.
Fished out the phone, got his contacts from old phone records and called him. Guess what? Six years after moving to Atlanta, we saw each other for the first time and ran another 5K. Grabbed our Starbucks – which was overcrowded outside since it is a gorgeous day – and sat on the sidewalk under a tree and chatted just like we would have back in India.
Found out we have many many connections from my last three jobs. Best part – we graduated in the same year from two different colleges literally across from each other in Chennai. For all you know we had tea together in those tea stalls between the campuses. Maybe this was not the first time we had coffee sitting on the sidewalk under the trees!!!
Category: Intersection Points, Running | 2 Comments on Chance Meeting…