You have 3 baskets of fruits. One basket contains Apple, other contains Oranges and the third basket contains both Apple and Oranges. These baskets are mislabelled and You can't peep into basket to find what it contains.
You have to label basket correctly. You are allowed to pick as many fruits as you want from each basket to fix the labels on baskets. What is the minimum number of fruits that you have to pick and from which basket to correctly label them?
ANSWER
Need to pick 1 fruit from basket labelled as Apples&Oranges
SOLUTION
We have three baskets with labels as below
Basket-1 ==> Apples
Basket-2 ==> Oranges
Basket-3 ==> Apples & Oranges
Since here odd one is 3rd basket since it mentions that it has both Apples and Oranges.
Pick one fruit from Basket-3.
It will be either Apple or Orange
Case-1 (Apple is Picked)
if the Basket-3 contains Apple then Basket-3 should be labelled as Apples
We know all baskets are mislabelled and Basket-2 labelled as Orange
Since it is wrong the other remaining label is Apples & Oranges
so Basket-2 contains mix of both Apples and Oranges
and obviously Basket-1 will have Oranges
So finally correct labels are
Basket-1 ==> Oranges
Basket-2 ==> Apples & Oranges
Basket-3 ==> Apples
Case-2 (Orange is Picked)
if the Basket-3 contains Oranges then Basket-3 should be labelled as Oranges
Same logic as Case-1 is applicable here, with that logic we can conclude Basket-1 will have Apples&Oranges
and Basket-2 will have Apples
Basket-1 ==> Apples & Oranges
Basket-2 ==> Apples
Basket-3 ==> Oranges
In both cases if we pick single fruit from Basket-3 which is labelled as Apples & Oranges
This is one of the category of river crossing puzzles. There are various name for this problem like Bridge and Torch problem , Dangerous crossing etc....
PUZZLE
Four people come to a river in the night. There is a narrow bridge, but it can only hold two people at a time. They have one torch and, because it's night, the torch has to be used when crossing the bridge. Each person walks at different speed. Assume 4 persons are A,B,.C,D.
Person A can cross the bridge in 1 minute,
B in 2 minutes,
C in 5 minutes,
and D in 8 minutes.
When two people cross the bridge together, they must move at the slower person's pace.
The question is, What is the minimum time to cross the bridge?
ANSWER
Minimum time to cross the bridge is 15 Minutes.
SOLUTION
This problem can be extended for more than 4 people with different crossing times.
So to solve this kind of problems we need to keep some points in mind
Always slowest persons should cross together . and same goes for fastest persons
Before slowest persons cross the river make sure there are some fast people on other side to return torch so Fastest persons should cross in first to return torch.
While returning the torch to other side always try to use the fastest person
