Emprworm's Riddle #1: Stones of Life (SOLVED)

[emprworm]

Inspired by VigilVirus, I am going to start giving the community some riddles.

Please if you know the answers to these already, DO NOT post them.

If you actually figure them out, then post your answers. Please post your thoughts too, even if you dont know the answers.

Ok, with no futher ado, Riddle #1:

EMPRWORM'S RIDDLE #1: Stones of Life

You are in a prison cell. Tomorrow morning you are scheduled to be executed at the crack of dawn by beheading (this is the middle ages you know). The governor, however, has an annual ritual he does that gives one prisoner the chance at freedom. The night before your execution, your jailer places two empty clay jugs in your cell, along with 50 black stones and 50 white stones- all of them visually the same size (meaning you cant tell them apart by looking at them- think of them as marbles). Your task for the night is to distribute the 100 stones between the 2 jugs as you see fit.

He tells you that tomorrow morning, you along with the two jugs, will be escorted to the governor. The jugs, which have been untampered since you arranged the stones, will be placed on a table. The governor will randomly pick a jug. That jug will be brought to the governor who will then reach in and randomly (blindly without looking) pull out a stone.

If there is no stone in the jug, the governor will ask for the next jug. If there is no stone in the next jug, you die.

If the stone is black, you die.

If the stone is white, the two jugs will be emptied and all the stones counted. If there are still 50 black stones and 50 white stones (including the one the governor pulled), you will be set free.

The jailer tells you that the governor may pull a stone from the top- he may pull from the bottom- or even the middle- it depends on his mood that morning.

You have 12 hours to arrange the stones in the jugs. You have every intention to go free, but you dont know if you can get your odds to be anything better than 50/50. Can you?

[rogue1896]

if anyone knows the answer can you put it in hidden text? i want to try this out.

[emprworm]

If the stone is white, the two jugs will be emptied and all the stones counted. If there are still 50 black stones and 50 white stones (including the one the governor pulled), you will be set free.

Please add:

If there are not 50 black stones and 50 white stones (including the one the governor pulled), you die.

YES PLEASE PUT YOUR ANSWERS AS HIDDEN TEXT!

Discussions/questions/thoughts about it dont have to be hidden.

[rogue1896]

if i say yes do i have to explain ;D :P

*note: i do not actually know at all*

[emprworm]

if you say yes, you need show/explain how. what would your arrangement be?

[VigilVirus]

[hide]

The only way I see to get more than 50/50 is if you place 3 in one jar and 97 in the second. In one of them the probabiliy would be more than 50/50.[/hide]

[rogue1896]

*note: i do not actually know at all*

i said i don't know. it was a joke. just forget i said anything. this is one doozie of a question. lol. i just dunno. sounds like if you try to cheat the system you die.

[Acriku]

[hide]Put one white in one jar, and the rest of the 49 in the other. 1/0 for one jar, the other is 49/50, meaning 100% if he picks one, and 49.5% (49.49%) in the other, giving you fair chances. Great riddle btw.[/hide]

[emprworm]

vigilvirus was close.

Acriku nailed it.

if anyone still wants to figure it out, dont read these guy's hidden text.

nicely done acriku.

[hide] if you arrange the stones as acriku- pointed out, you can effectively raise your odds of being set free to 74.74%. Much better than the shabby 50/50.

[/hide]

[sneezer3]

Since this is Riddle #1 is there going to be another one or two? ???

btw. This would be a good add on to your site to get people started thinking.

[VigilVirus]

vigilvirus was close.

Acriku nailed it.

if anyone still wants to figure it out, dont read these guy's hidden text.

nicely done acriku.

[hide] if you arrange the stones as acriku- pointed out, you can effectively raise your odds of being set free to 74.74%. Much better than the shabby 50/50.

[/hide]

But didn't you say that you can't tell them apart?

"The night before your execution, your jailer places two empty clay jugs in your cell, along with 50 black stones and 50 white stones- all of them visually the same size (meaning you cant tell them apart by looking at them- think of them as marbles)."

Or is it only the governor who can't tell them apart?

[emprworm]

you cant tell the sizes apart. obviously you can tell the colors apart.

[Ghosty_Square]

Huh? Why does the size matter? It's the color that is important, am i wrong?

[rogue1896]

i think he said that as a reference. he meant the king or whatever couldn't tell which marble's or stones were which. basically a white one would be the same as a black one.

[emprworm]

that is correct. the reason for saying they were all the same size was so that when the governor reached in blindfolded to pull one out, he could not purposely pull out a particular stone based upon how it 'felt'. Obviously if all the black stones were cubic and the white ones were spherical, then the whole riddle would be corrupted since there could not be any true randomness when the governor reached to pull out a stone. So it was important to clarify that they were all the same shape.

[Acriku]

Thanks empr, it was just a guess and got the idea from Vigil's post partially, so team effort baby :D

[VigilVirus]

Oh, ok. I would have gotten it, I just thought that the prisoner himself couldn't tell the color of the stones.

[emprworm]

well then, give a crack at riddle #3.