The Mixed Bag

It is time for the new puzzler. This one isn't really automotive in nature. But we will set it in the back seat of a car, so that way, it will be kind of automotive. Quasi-automotive, if you will.

This is a cute little puzzler, I think. A wonderful little riddle, kind of.

So, you're in the back seat and have three little felt drawstring bags. In each of these bags, you have 10 marbles. 10 marbles total, in each bag.

One bag is filled with 10 black marbles.

One bag is filled with 10 white marbles.

And the last bag is filled with half and half, 5 black and 5 white.

Each bag has a little label on it. However, the labels are incorrect. None of them are right.

So, you are allowed to reach your hand into a bag, but you are not allowed to look at the colors of the marbles in the bags. You are allowed to reach in and remove one marble from a bag, and then you can look at that marble. But then you have to return that marble back to its bag without looking at the rest of them. You can only have one marble out of a bag at a time. So, you take one out, look at it, then return it. You are then allowed to pull a marble from another bag, look at it, and then return it. And so on and so on.

So, here is the question.

How many times do you have to do this to identify each bag? In other words, how many peeks do you get of one marble from one bag at a time, before you can clearly identify which bag is the all black bag, which is the all white and which is the mixed bag?

Good luck my friends.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

A Dark and Stormy Puddle

We have yet another automotive puzzler! We are doing well with these recently. Okay, here it is.

There is this guy, we will call him Fred.

Fred and his wife are driving along one day and they are in their automobile in a rainstorm, and they come to a portion of the road that has been flooded out. There is a huge puddle. Fred immediately comes to a halt in front of the puddle and his wife says, "What's the matter, Freddie?"

Fred is looking at this lake in front of him, this huge puddle and he says, "I can't drive through this...It looks really deep. So, I'll tell you what. We are going to sit here and wait until another car comes, from either direction and see how that car does crossing this amount of water."

So that is what they did. They wait and wait. It is a dark and stormy night, more water comes down. Finally, they see the headlights of another car approaching from ahead. So they watch this car as it eases into the puddle trying to cross. And they watch as the car gets deeper and deeper into the puddle. It is getting really serious. The water is getting over the door sills, that is how deep they are.

Sure enough, after a time the car emerges from the puddle and comes out the other side. And his wife says, "See Fred, I told you. We can make it. Now let's go."

So, Fred is just about to go and try to cross the puddle, he watches as the car that's coming out of the puddle goes on by. He notices something about that car that makes him stop dead in his tracks. He does not cross the puddle.

What did he see? What did he notice about the other car that made him decide not to enter the puddle to cross to the other side? Why did he change his mind and decide not to try to cross himself?