Hello guzzlers
Today’s puzzle is a beauty. A smash hit.
Three friends (A, B and C) are playing ping pong. They play the usual way: two play at a time, the winner stays on, and the loser waits his/her turn again. At the end of the day, they summarise the number of games that each of them played:
A played 10
B played 15
C played 17.
Who lost the second game?
Thanks to Adrian Paenza for suggesting this puzzle. Adrian is a legend in his home country of Argentina: the author of many bestselling popular maths books as well as a well-known TV presenter. He told me he learned of this puzzle recently from two maths professors at the university of Barcelona. “It’s really really cool, he says. “And kind of shocking.”
Have fun! I’ll be back at 5pm with the solution.
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I post a puzzle here on a Monday every two weeks.
If you want to propose a puzzle for this column, please email me I’d love to hear it.
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