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Saturday Teaser Curio #75: A Problem of Presidential Probability

Happy Presidents' Day! This week's teaser uses the way we most commonly interact with dead presidents: money. If you have the day off, noodle on this.

Mary has 4 modern US coins, one each of the common denominations (penny, nickel, dime, and quarter) and 4 modern US bills ($1, $5, $10, and $20). She picks up one of the coins or bills at random, looks at it, declares "Wow! That's my favorite US president!", and puts it in her pocket. John, hearing all the hubbub, comes by, picks up one of the remaining coins or bills at random, looks at it, and declares "Wow! That's my favorite US president!". What is the probability that Mary and John have the same favorite US president?

Ready for the answer?

Saturday Teaser Curio #74: Grand Romantic Words

Valentine's Day is coming! Whether you see it as a symbol of romance, bitterness, or corporate innovation, give this word puzzle a shot, by yourself or with a loved one.

Can you find two seven-letter words that are anagrams of each other and complete this sentence? Remember, an anagram is a word that is formed from scrambling the letters of another word; e.g., CAT and ACT are anagrams of each other.

As a young couple, they always         to grand romantic gestures, but as young parents, they were always buried in        .

Ready for the answer?

Saturday Teaser Curio #73: A Family Shuffle

We’re celebrating immigrants this week here at Curious, so today’s Teaser has a refugee theme, which is appropriate since I am one. I came over as a baby with my family from Vietnam in 1975 (we left in a helicopter, though a boat makes for a much better Teaser below). When we arrived here, we were sponsored by an incredible family in Illinois. They showed us love, generosity, and how to make layer salad. All three were amazing! — Thai

A family of four refugees (mother, father, a boy, and a girl) come to a river they need to cross. There is an adult fisherman there who is willing to let them borrow his very small boat. The boat is large enough to carry one adult with no passengers or two kids (the kids know how to use the boat). What's the fewest number of times the boat needs to cross the river (either direction) to get the family across and leave the boat with the fisherman?

Note: The fisherman can be left on either side of the river, as long as he has his boat. No, they can't swim the river because... um... deadly snakes.

Ready for the answer?

Saturday Teaser Curio #72: Lunar New Year Lunacy

Happy New Year! Today is the first day of the Year of the Rooster, celebrated by billions of people around the world. One tradition in Chinese and Vietnamese culture is giving money in small red envelopes, usually to children. Both the money and the red color of the envelope are said to bring good luck to the child for the new year.

This year, Anh is stuffing envelopes with cash in preparation for the new year celebration; each envelope can have any amount of whole dollars ($1, $2, $3, ...) in it. She is going to give some envelopes (one or more) to her niece Mai but she's not sure how much money she wants to give yet. She wants to be prepared to give her any whole dollar amount from $1 to $14 without putting more money in or taking money out of the envelopes she has already prepared.

What is the smallest number of envelopes she has to prepare to be able to give Mai any amount in that range?

Ready for the answer?