Henry Ernest Dudeney/Modern Puzzles/81 - Pussy and the Mouse/Solution
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Modern Puzzles by Henry Ernest Dudeney: $81$
- Pussy and the Mouse
- "There's a mouse in one of these barrels," said the dog.
- "Which barrel?" asked the cat.
- "Why, the five hundredth barrel."
- "What do you mean, the five hundredth? There are only five barrels in all."
- "It's the five hundredth if you count backwards and forwards this way."
- And the dog explained that if you count like this:
1 2 3 4 5 9 8 7 6 10 11 12 13
- so that the seventh barrel would be the one marked $3$ and the twelfth barrel the one numbered $4$.
The story goes on laboriously to its inevitable conclusion that the mouse escapes before the cat has finished counting, until:
- Now, which was the five hundredth barrel?
- Can you find a quick way of arriving at the answer without making the actual count?
Solution
Barrel no. $4$.
Proof
Let $n$ be the count.
Let $m$ be the number of the barrel the mouse is in.
By the method of counting, all we are concerned about here is the value of $n \pmod 8$.
If $n \pmod 8 = 0$, then $m = 2$.
If $1 \le n \pmod 8 \le 5$, then $m = n \pmod 8$.
Otherwise $m = 10 - n \pmod 8$.
Here $n = 500$, and so $n \pmod 8 = 4$.
$\blacksquare$
Sources
- 1926: Henry Ernest Dudeney: Modern Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): Solutions: $81$. -- Pussy and the Mouse
- 1968: Henry Ernest Dudeney: 536 Puzzles & Curious Problems ... (previous) ... (next): Answers: $164$. Pussy and the Mouse