Questions 1:

"Five men were stranded on an island. They went around picking up

coconuts for years. One day, they saw a ship coming. They had a radio
so they sent a message to come and pick them up. The ship said "yes,
tomorrow morning!"

The five men went to sleep but the first man woke up and thought "I
don't trust my buddies," so he took 1/5 of the pile of coconuts.
Then a monkey came down and took 1 coconut.

The second man woke up and didn't trust his buddies either, so he took
1/5 of the remaining pile of coconuts. The monkey came down again and
took 1 coconut.

During the rest of the night, the third, fourth, and fifth men did the
same and the monkey took 1 coconut after each man.

In the morning, the five men tried to divide the remaining pile of
coconuts into five equal portions but had one left over, which they
gave to the monkey. How many coconuts were in the original pile?

Answers:

Understand the problem

Devising a plan
Carrying out the plan
Let be the number of coconuts to start with a. After the first man and
the monkey took their coconuts, the number left was b = (4/5)*a - 1.
After the second man and the monkey took their coconuts, the number
left was c = (4/5)*b - 1. The third man left d = (4/5)*c - 1 coconuts.
The fourth man left e = (4/5)*d - 1 coconuts. The fifth man left
f = (4/5)*e - 1 coconuts. At the end, f = 5*g + 1, where g is the
number of coconuts each man got in the morning.

Using the last equation, substitute in the previous one to get

5*g + 1 = (4/5)*e - 1,
5*(5*g+2) = 4*e,
25*g + 10 = 4*e.

Now substitute that in the equation relating d and e:

25*g + 10 = 4*[(4/5)*d - 1],

5*(25*g+14) = 16*d,
125*g + 70 = 16*d.

Now substitute that in the equation relating c and d:

125*g + 70 = 16*[(4/5)*c - 1],

5*(125*g+86) = 64*c,
625*g + 430 = 64*c.

Now substitute that in the equation relating b and c:

625*g + 430 = 64*[(4/5)*b - 1],

5*(625*g+494) = 256*b,
3125*g + 2470 = 256*b.
Now substitute that in the equation relating a and b:

3125*g + 2470 = 256*[(4/5)*a - 1],

5*(3125*g+2726) = 1024*a,
15625*g + 13630 = 1024*a,
1024*a - 15625*g = 13630.

Any positive whole numbers a and g which are a solution of this

equation will give you a solution to your original problem. The
problem has been reduced to finding the value of a.

Notice that since 5 divides 15625 and 13630, but not 1024, that 5 must
divide a, so a = 5*h. Then

1024*5*h - 15625*g = 13630,

or, dividing by 5 througout,

1024*h - 3125*g = 2726.

Similarly, since 2 divides 1024 and 2726, but not 3125, 2 must divide
g, so g = 2*i, and

1024*h - 3125*2*i = 2726,

512*h - 3125*i = 1363.

Now we can tell that i must be odd, so i = 2*j + 1, and

512*h - 3125*(2*j+1) = 1363,

512*h - 3125*2*j = 1363 + 3125 = 4488,
 256*h - 3125*j = 2244.

Next, since 4 divides 256 and 2244, but 2 doesn't divide 3125, 4 must
divide j, so j = 4*k, and

256*h - 3125*4*k = 2244,

64*h - 3125*k = 561.

Similarly, k must be odd, so k = 2*m + 1, and

32*h - 3125*m = 1843.

Similarly, m must be odd, so m = 2*n + 1, and

16*h - 3125*n = 2484.

Now n must be divisible by 4, so n = 4*p, and

4*h - 3125*p = 621.

Again, p must be odd, so p = 2*q + 1, and

2*h - 3125*q = 1873.

Further, q must be odd, so q = 2*r+1, and

h - 3125*r = 2499.

One solution to this is r = 0, h = 2499. There are other, larger

ones, such as r = 1, h = 5624, and r = 100, h = 314999, but we will
stick with the smallest one. The general solution is h = 2499 + 3125*
r, r any nonnegative whole number.

Backtracking, we get q = 1, p = 3, n = 12, m = 25, k = 51, j = 204,

i = 409, h = 2499, g = 818, f = 4091, e = 5115, d = 6395, c = 7995,
b = 9995, and a = 12495.

Looking back

Starting with 12495:

The first man took 2499 coconuts, and the monkey took 1.
This left 12495 - 2500 = 9995 coconuts.
The second man took 1999 coconuts, and the monkey took 1.
This left 9995 - 2000 = 7995 coconuts.
The third man took 1599 coconuts, and the monkey took 1.
This left 7995 - 1600 = 6395 coconuts.
The fourth man took 1279 coconuts and the monkey took 1.
This left 6395 - 1280 = 5115 coconuts.
The fifth man took 1023 coconuts and the monkey took 1
This left 5115 - 1024 = 4091 coconuts.
In the morning, each man got 818 coconuts and the monkey 1 more.
Question 2:

A zookeeper was asked how many camels and ostriches were in the zoo.
The zookeeper answered, "Among the animals there are 60 eyes and 86
feet."

How many of each kind of animal were there?

Understand the problem

Devising a plan

Carrying out the plan

I divided 60 by two and got 30 animals. What do I do with the feet?

You were correct in dividing the number of eyes by 2 to get the total
number of animals.

So number of animals = 60/2 = 30.

Now for this type of problem use a letter to represent a number you
don't know. Suppose that we let x = number of camels. Then since the
total number of animals = 30, we can say 30 - x = the number of
ostriches.

We can now write down an equation for the total number of legs, with 4
legs for each camel and 2 legs for each ostrich.

4x + 2(30-x) = 86

4x + 60 - 2x = 86
 2x = 86-60

2x = 26

x = 13

This means there are 13 camels and 17 ostriches.

Looking back

Check if this gives correct number of legs. 4 x 13 + 2 x 17 = 86

- which is correct.
Question 3

In a two-child family, one child is a boy. What is the probability that the other child
is a girl?

What if the older child is a boy? Does this information change the probability that
the second child is a girl?

Understand the problem

Devising he plan

Carrying out the plan

We can also visualize this problem using a probability tree.

In the following probability tree, the number next to each letter (B for boy, G for
girl) indicates the probability of that event. To calculate the unconditional
probability of any one combination of children, we multiply the numbers along
that combination's path.

Given no information other than that the family has two children, the four
combinations of boys and girls are equally likely to occur. Here's an unconditional
probability tree for a two-child family:

First Second Unconditional

Child Child Probability

__B(1/2)__ 1/4
 |
__B(1/2)__|
| |__G(1/2)__ 1/4
|
Family -|
| __B(1/2)__ 1/4
|__G(1/2)__|
|
|__G(1/2)__ 1/4

To turn an unconditional probability tree into a conditional probability tree, we

delete the paths that are not relevant to the new conditions given with the
problem. The unconditional probability for each combination remains the same,
but the conditional probability is calculated from the new revised sample space.
First Second Unconditional Conditional
Child Child Probability Probability

__B(1/2)__ 1/4 1/3

|
__B(1/2)__|
| |__G(1/2)__ 1/4 1/3
|
Family -|
| __B(1/2)__ 1/4 1/3
|__G(1/2)__|

Since each of the remaining three combinations of children is equally likely, the
conditional probability of each combination is 1/3. The conditional probability
creates a new revised sample space, so the probability that a two-child family will
include one girl is the sum of the probabilities of the combinations that include a
girl.
Since two of the three members of the sample space include a girl, the
probability that the second child is a girl is 1/3 + 1/3 = 2/3.

Many people imagine that this probability must be wrong since they think girls
should be as likely as boys, but given the information that one child is a boy, a
2/3 probability that the other child is a girl is correct.

Looking back

In a two-child family, there are four and only four possible combinations of
children. We will label boys B and girls G; in each case the first letter represents
the oldest child:
{BB, BG, GB, GG}

When we know that one child is a boy, there cannot be two girls, so the sample
space shrinks to:

{BB, BG, GB}

Two of the possibilities in this new sample space include girls:

{BG, GB}

and since there are two combinations out of three that include girls, the
probability that the second child is a girl is 2/3.