378 Frequently Asked Questions In Quantitative Finance
average compensation among themselves, but are too
embarrassed to disclose their own salaries. How can
they determine the average compensation of their
group? They do not have pens or paper or any other
way of writing down their salaries.
(Thanks to Arroway.)
Solution
One of the quants adds a random number to his salary.
The total he then whispers to his neighbour on the
right. This person adds his own salary to the number
he was given, and whispers it to the person on his right.
This continues all around the table until we get back
to the first quant who simply subtracts his random
number from the total and divides by the number of
quants at the table. That is the average compensation
of the group.
Einstein’s brainteaser
There are five houses of five different colours. In each
house lives a person of a different nationality. Those
five people drink different drinks, smoke cigarettes of a
different brand and have a different pet. None of them
has the same pet, smokes the same cigarette or drinks
thesamedrink.
We know:
- The Englishman lives in the red house.
- The Swede has a dog as a pet.
- The Dane drinks tea.
- The green house is on the left of the white one.
- The person who lives in the green house drinks
coffee.
- The person who smokes Pall Mall raises birds.
- The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
