ERJ Brainteaser: July
4 Jul 2022
A clear winner this month, not least for his super sharp reply to Q2, is industry consultant John Bowen, new holder of the Brainiac of the Month title.
Question 4: Football crazy
Steve has no knowledge of football but decides, anyway, to forecast the winners in each first-round games In La Liga, the top Spanish league with 20 teams. What is the probability of him guessing the correct results for all matches?
Answer: As per the first two solutions below the answer is 0.000017, and well done to John Bowen, rubber industry consultant, Bromsgrove, Worcs, UK; and Andrew Knox, Rubbond International, The Netherlands. But, as there seemed to be an interpretation of ‘first round’ that put the number of games at 190, well done also to: Amparo Botella, responsable de Compras y Calidad, Ismael Quesada SA, Elche, Alicante, Spain; Michele Girardi, quality manager, Scame Mastaf Spa, Suisio, Italy; and everyone else who had a go
Solutions:
John Bowen
There will be 10 matches each with 3 possible outcomes - team 1 win, team 2 win, draw. So the probability of predicting all 10 is [1/3] to the power of 10 = 1.677, 10 power of -5 or 0.00001677.
Andrew Knox.
Answer: 1/59049 or 0.000016935087808
On the assumption that in each of the 10 matches the result for both teams can only be a win, lose or draw, and (to keep matters simple) that the chance of each of these three possible outcomes is 1/3, then for each match (assuming the outcome is pure chance) the chance of Steve getting the outcome right will be 1/3.
The chances of him getting the outcome right for all 10 matches will then be 1/3 x 1/3 x 1/3 x 1/3 x 1/3 x1/3 x 1/3 x 1/3 x 1/3 x 1/3, or 1/ 59049. In practice of course, the chances of each outcome for a particular match will vary, depending amongst other things on how good each team is. But if Steve is just guessing, his chance of getting it right for each match in the long term is still 1/3.
Michele Girardi
Unless there isn't some misunderstanding the answer is 2,2 E-91. La Liga is an Italian style tournament, so the number of first round games is 20*19/2=190 Considering that there are 3 possible results per match , the probability to guess right all the matches is (1/3)^190 = 2.2 E-91
Amparo Botella
With the 20 teams in the first round game we will have 190 matches so the probability to guess all the results are 1 from 190, 1/190 = 0.0052631.
New teaser on Monday.
Question 3: Fab four
What do the following fabrics items have in common?
Calico, Denim, Duffel, Jeans
Clues: Location, location, location...
Answer: They are all named after a place of origin: Calico from Calicut; India, denim from Nimes; France; Duffel from Duffel, Belgium; and jeans from Genoa. Very well done to: John Bowen, rubber industry consultant, Bromsgrove, Worcs, UK; Michele Girardi, Scame Mastaf Spa. Suisio, Italy; Jose Padron, laboratory analyst, Toyoda Gosei, Waterville, QC, Canada, and everyone else who had a go.
Question 2: Food & drink
How can you get a type of drink from Peru, Portugal, Sweden, Italy; and an Asian food dish from Argentina, Malta, Spain, Norway?
Clues: Cars, licence plate, RA = Argentina...
Answer: Hats off this week to John Bowen, who worked out - before we issued any of the helpful clues (above) - that this is to do with international vehicle registration letters: Peru = PE, Portugal = P, Sweden = S, Italy = I , giving PEPSI. Similarly, Argentina = RA, Malta = M, Spain = E, Norway = N, giving RAMEN, a type of Japanese noodle dish.
So, very well done to John Bowen, rubber industry consultant, Bromsgrove, Worcs, UK; as well as to Stephan Paischer, head of product management special products, Semperit AG Holding, Vienna, Austria; Amparo Botella, responsable de Compras y Calidad, Ismael Quesada SA, Elche, Alicante, Spain; and Andrew Knox, Rubbond International, The Netherlands, who also added this useful note: PS. Did anyone know that the code for Scotland is SMOM? No wonder they usually just use a flag!??????? P.P.S. I had never known that ramen was a type of noodle - in Dutch “ramen” means 'windows'.
New teaser on Monday
Question 1: Capital challenge
Which EU capital city completes the following series
Dublin, Riga, Copenhagen, Monaco, ____.
Answer: After all the number-crunching last month, this teaser provided a more straightforward, though seemingly tougher, challenge. The series is a list of European capital cities sorted by elevation in descending order: Dublin, 8m (above sea level); Riga, 8m; Copenhagen, 5m; Monaco (some debate about whether this is officially an EU capital), 0m; and then our answer Amsterdam, -2m.
Very well done to: Stephan Paischer, head of product management special products, Semperit AG Holding, Vienna, Austria; John Bowen, rubber industry consultant, Bromsgrove, Worcs, UK; Liz O’Donovan, sales and admin assistant, AA Tyremaster, Dublin, Republic of Ireland; Andrew Knox, Rubbond International, The Netherlands; and everyone else who had a go.
New teaser on Monday
