The Rookie Bet That Didn’t Add Up

Puzzler time.

Here it is.

At the start of a baseball season, two rookie players make a bet.

They bet $20 on who will have the better batting average by the end of the season.

We’ll call them Bluto and Popeye.

Now it’s the last day of the season.

Neither one is playing, and they’re standing around watching batting practice.

Bluto says, “Hey Popeye, what did you hit before the All-Star break?”

Popeye says, “.250.”

Bluto says, “Ha! I hit .300.”

Then Bluto asks, “What about after the All-Star break?”

Popeye says, “.375.”

Bluto says, “That’s good—but I hit .400. You owe me 20 bucks.”

But just then, the bat boy wanders over and says,

“Don’t pay him. I think you won.”

Now here’s an important fact:

They both had the **same total number of at-bats for the entire season**.

So the puzzler question is:

How could Popeye have the higher overall batting average—even though Bluto had the higher average in both halves of the season?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

The Town of 20,000 Boots

Puzzler time.

In a small, hard-to-find country, there are two neighboring towns separated by a mountain.

We’ll call them Abba and Bubba.

Now in Abba, there are exactly 20,000 people.

Some interesting things about the folks in Abba:

1% of them have only one foot, so they wear just one boot.

Of everyone else, half don’t wear boots at all.

The remaining half wear two boots, like normal people.

So far, so good.

Now, over in Bubba, things are a little different.

We don’t know how many people live there—call it X.

But we do know this:

20% of the people have only one foot and wear one boot.

Of the rest, half go barefoot.

The other half wears two boots.

And here’s the twist:

If you walked through Bubba and counted every boot being worn, you’d count exactly 20,000 boots.

So the puzzler question is:

How many people live in Bubba?