THE ANSWER:
FOUR.
Jerry has socks of three different colors, so even if the first three he picked were each a different color, the fourth would match one of them.
(And no, we don’t know the location of Jerry’s missing blue sock.)
Comments (5)
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Ah, but four is the MAX that he’d have to pull out. The question was “what’s the MINIMUM number of socks” he’d have to pull out. The answer is TWO!
posted by SlackJack on 9-22-2008 at 7:27 am
i agree with Slack. two is the min.
posted by Grant on 9-22-2008 at 7:45 am
4 is correct. The requirement was the minimum # to ENSURE a matching pair.
posted by bud on 9-22-2008 at 7:50 am
The word ENSURE requires 4 to be the minimum number. 2 would provide a pair, but not ENSURE it.
posted by Kevin on 9-22-2008 at 7:55 am
Exactly, Kevin — he has to pull out four socks to ENSURE that he has at least one pair.
There’s no way he could pull or two or three socks and be certain that he had a pair. Yes, odds are he’d have a pair of black socks, but there’s no guarantee until the number reaches four.
posted by Sandy on 9-22-2008 at 8:29 am