Solution to the Pearl Problem

thescienceofdeductionandmore:

To remind you, here’s the problem:

I’m a very rich man, so I’ve decided to give you some of my fortune. Do you see this bag? It has 5001 pearls inside it. 2501 of them are white, and 2500 of them are black. I’ll let you take out any number of pearls from the bag without looking. If you take out the same number of black and white pearls, I will reward you with a number of gold bars equivalent to the number of pearls you took.

How many pearls should you take out?

Solution:

If you take 5000 pearls, leaving either a black or a white one, there’s almost a 50/50 chance that you have the same number of black and white pearls.  And you have the most pearls you can take.  If you take fewer pearls, your odds of having the same number of black and white are lower, plus if you win you have fewer pearls.

Take 5000.

September 01, 2018 at 11:25PM