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| Wednesday, May 10, 2006 |
| Well known Puzzle |
A monk leaves at 8AM on day one from his monastery, at the feet of a tall mountain, and follows a trek to the summit, which he reaches at 8PM on the same day, after 12 hours spent walking, looking at the landscape, or sitting in prayer. On the following day, the monk leaves the summit at 8AM and follows the same trek down to reach his monastery at 8PM, again after 12 hours.
The question is: Is there at least a point along the trek where the monk has been at the same time of the day, on day one and on day two? Substantiate your answer.
In all possibility, this could be your question in your next interview. |
posted by Ramkumar @ 8:50 PM   |
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| 2 Comments: |
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The probablity of the monk being on the same place on both the days at the same time, in my opinion, follows a normal distribution curve (the bell curve), with the base being the time and the other vector being the distance from the origin. There are 3 different activities the monk does on his tour - Walking (W), LandscapeLooking (LL) and Prayer (P).
Why i say the probablity follows a normal distribution curve:
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Assuming that the situation does not have non-ideal conditions (something like a huge area of landscape around the end of the tour where the monk spend around 9 hours dong LL or something similar to this does not happen) the highest probaility of the monk being in the same place on either days occurs around the 6th hr of the trip (this is the ideal situation with equal and symmetric time spent on either sides of the 6th hour on W, LL and P). When the ideal situation does not happen, the time of meeting gets shifted to either sids of the curve - based on the asymmetry of the activities.
The answer to your question is a "Yes" - as i propose the above theory about the probability of the monk being in the same place on either days!!!
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I can't be more creative... they might have won the govt's bid after ambassador's regime.
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The probablity of the monk being on the same place on both the days at the same time, in my opinion, follows a normal distribution curve (the bell curve), with the base being the time and the other vector being the distance from the origin. There are 3 different activities the monk does on his tour - Walking (W), LandscapeLooking (LL) and Prayer (P).
Why i say the probablity follows a normal distribution curve:
------------------------------------------------------------
Assuming that the situation does not have non-ideal conditions (something like a huge area of landscape around the end of the tour where the monk spend around 9 hours dong LL or something similar to this does not happen) the highest probaility of the monk being in the same place on either days occurs around the 6th hr of the trip (this is the ideal situation with equal and symmetric time spent on either sides of the 6th hour on W, LL and P). When the ideal situation does not happen, the time of meeting gets shifted to either sids of the curve - based on the asymmetry of the activities.
The answer to your question is a "Yes" - as i propose the above theory about the probability of the monk being in the same place on either days!!!