Cat Trivia

This week, let's celebrate Vice President Kamala Harris with some amusing cat facts! In case you're wondering about the link, it stems from Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance describing her as a 'childless cat lady.' So, let's keep that in mind while we delve into some fun cat trivia!

The format of this newsletter will be organized in the following manner:

1. 1. Cat trivia questions
2. 2. Sep 26 puzzle question
3. 3. Sep 26 puzzle answer
4. 4. Oct 3 puzzle question
5. 5. Cat trivia answers

Questions

1. 1. What do cats have tails?
2. 2. Why do cats have whiskers?
3. 3. What does it signify when a cat's tail resembles the shape of a question mark?
4. 4. What is a group of cats called?
5. 5. What is a group of kittens called?
6. 6. Is it true or false that feral cats reside at Disneyland?
7. 7. How many toes does a cat have?
8. 8. In the US, are there more cats or dogs?
9. 9. What color are kittens' eyes immediately after they are born?
10. 10. What breed of cat has no hair?
11. 11. What breed of cat has no tail?
12. 12. Which breed holds the title for being the largest domestic cat?
13. 13. What was the name of the feline companion of Bill Clinton during his presidency?
14. 14. In the classic movie from 1965, That Darn Cat, what color was the cat featured?
15. 15. Which Disney film included two cats as the main antagonists?
16. 16. What was the name of the feline antagonist in Cinderella?
17. 17. What unique ability did the Cheshire Cat possess in Alice in Wonderland?
18. 18. Which fictional cat was the first to receive a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade?
19. 19. What term is used to refer to the cat employed as an example to clarify a concept in quantum mechanics?
20. 20. What color of cat is usually male?
21. 21. What color of cat is usually female?

September 26, 2024 Puzzle Question

You have a flashlight and a total of eight batteries. To operate the flashlight, you need two functional batteries. Out of the eight, four are working well, while the other four are faulty. Unfortunately, they all look identical, which makes it impossible to distinguish the good from the bad just by looking. How can you manage to turn on the flashlight with a maximum of seven attempts?

September 26, 2024 Puzzle Solution

Before I reveal the method to activate the flashlight within seven attempts, I’d like to discuss some alternative approaches that may take longer.

If you take the approach of systematically trying every possible combination to pick 2 out of 8 batteries, you'll find that the total number of combinations is represented by 8!/(2!*6!) = 28. Out of these, only 6 combinations would actually power the flashlight. Therefore, in the worst-case scenario, you could end up testing 22 combinations with at least one defective battery before finding a good pair, leading to a total of 23 attempts.

However, there's a more efficient way to tackle this problem. You can segregate the 8 batteries into two groups of 4 each. Then, explore the 4!/(2!*2!) = 6 possible combinations to select 2 batteries from the first group. If none of these combinations succeed, it indicates that at least 3 batteries in the first group are faulty. Consequently, the second group must contain at least 3 functional batteries. You can then try any two batteries from the second group. If the flashlight doesn’t power on, at least one of them is bad, which means the remaining two batteries must be good. This method would require a total of 6 tests for the first group and up to 2 for the second group, totaling 8 attempts.

Now, let’s look at a strategy that allows you to solve this with a maximum of seven tests.

First, label the batteries 1 to 8.

First, test all three combinations of batteries numbered 1, 2, and 3. If none of these combinations work, it indicates that either 2 or all 3 batteries are defective.

Next, check all three combinations for batteries 4, 5, and 6. If these combinations don’t yield any results, that implies that 2 or all 3 of those batteries are faulty.

At this point, if you’ve reached this stage, it implies that the four functioning batteries must consist of one from the first group (1 to 3), one from the second (4 to 6), and both 7 and 8. Insert batteries 7 and 8, as they are guaranteed to work.

Acknowledgements

I got the flashlight puzzle from the Mind Your Decisions YouTube Channel . This channel is among my top favorites, and I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys exploring math puzzles and logical challenges.

October 3, 2024 Puzzle Question

Imagine you’re a chef in an isolated location without clocks or any way to track time except for a four-minute hourglass and a seven-minute hourglass. You also have a stove with a pot of water already boiling. Someone requests a perfectly timed nine-minute egg, and you know this person is a stickler for precision, able to tell even if the eggs are slightly undercooked or overcooked by a few seconds. How can you cook the egg to perfection in exactly nine minutes?

Trivia Answers

1. 1. Balance
2. 2. To gauge whether they can fit into a confined space, it's important to note that whiskers extend to approximately the edge of a cat’s head.
3. 3. The cat is in a playful mood.
4. 4. A clowder
5. 5. A kindle
6. 6. True. They help to catch mice.
7. 7. 18 (10 in front and 8 in back)
8. 8. Cats (96 million) vs 83 million dogs.
9. 9. Blue
10. 10. Sphynx
11. 11. Manx
12. 12. Maine coon
13. 13. Socks
14. 14. Siamese
15. 15. Lady and the Tramp
16. 16. Lucifer
17. 17. He could disappear
18. 18. Felix the Cat
19. 19. Schrodinger’s Cat
20. 20. Orange
21. 21. Calico