Picking Red Balls

A bag contains 64 balls of eight different colors. There are eight of each color (including red).
What is the smallest number you would have to pick, without looking, to be sure of selecting 3 red balls?

59. The first 56 balls could all be non-red colors. If that happened, you’d have to choose from the 8 remaining balls, all of which would be red.

Posted in Brain Teasers

 

2 Comments on "Picking Red Balls"


Mark W Allen says
September 1, 2019 @ 22:33

Hi Dan,

By your wording, I believe the answer should be: 56( “To be sure of selecting….” )

Love these puzzles!

Thanks!


Peter says
January 13, 2021 @ 00:06

The smallest number to be absolutely sure of selecting three red balls is 59. 56 of every other colour and then the three red ones.


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