Comments on: Can anyone figure out this riddle about math teachers?

By: some_loser

some_loser — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:51:37 +0000

no, it isn’t possible

the third teacher went to room 2 thus we can assume that the 2 teachers in first room are the first and second teacher.

Then she takes the twelfth teacher to the room #11 and the first (or second) teacher to room 12#.

Notice here that the THIRTEENTH TEACHER IS NEVER MENTIONED, thus the thirteenth teacher never got the room.

The trick to the question it making you assume that the “extra teacher” is the thirteenth teacher, when it is actually the first or the second.

By: MorrallyCorrupt

MorrallyCorrupt — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:29:31 +0000

its a trick its says the third teacher to room #2 making you call the first two teachers 1&2

as you transfer teacher 2 to room twelve you either eliminate number 2 or 13 essentially eliminating a teacher look the answer is in the skip between 1 and 3 once your done moving them

1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
teacher 2 is missing because now your calling it 13

or if you keep it as 2 when you move it you still only have 12 people
1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 2

By: babybollaha07

babybollaha07 — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:49:27 +0000

She takes two of the teachers to room #1 and promises to come back in a few minutes and take one of them to another room.
AND
She then returns to room #1 and escorts the extra teacher waiting there to room #12.

not possible for 1 person to get 2 rooms

By: Puppy

Puppy — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:46:54 +0000

there has to be a 13th room somewhere but it doesnt HAVE to be 13 consecutive rooms… does it?…

By: Thinker_

Thinker_ — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:19:31 +0000

First two teachers are taken to room#1 and rest of all get one room each.

Point to be noted that of the first two teachers taken to room #1, one is taken to another, this room is not numbered as yet.

So it is possible, twelve teachers in Room# 1 to 12 and one teacher in another room.

By: smokey

smokey — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:15:40 +0000

No it is not, here is why.

When you move the second teacher out of the first room into the twelfth room, it is no longer the second teacher, moving all of the them up 1. Understand? Probably not, I’ll explain more.

Room Teacher (before moving) Room Teacher (after moving)
1 1&2 1 1
2 3 2 3
3 4 3 4
4 5 4 5
And So On And So On
11 12 11 12
12 2

It just seems like it works because of the setup of the question, hopefully I explained it enough. You can see how there isn’t 13 teachers in the rooms.

(Hmmm, there was a problem with my table I made when I was posting this. Hopefully it didn’t screw up so bad that you couldn’t tell what it was trying to say.)

By: Wayne

Wayne — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:13:05 +0000

1st room had 2 teachers -and room #2 – #11 had 1 teacher and then there was room#12 empty so a teacher from the 1st room was moved to room #12 = the teachers messed up there math and miscounted # of rooms needed or 1 teacher didn’t show-up !

By: janet_a

janet_a — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:10:31 +0000

It won’t work because she is taking the 12th teacher to room #11. She then takes the 13th teacher to room #12. So teacher 1 and 2 are stuck in room #1.

The problem is “she takes the 12th teacher to room #11. She still has the 13th teacher left.

By: readpetspoetry

readpetspoetry — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:07:57 +0000

when i wrote it out on paper it showed it was possible. because 2 teachers start out in a room in a way it illiminates counting an extra one

By: Ronald

Ronald — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:46:34 +0000

No. It said there are thirteen teachers but there are only 12 in rooms.