Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2008 April 1

= April 1 =

Socks
You have a basket containing a mix of short socks and long socks. How many socks do you need to pull out to be certain of having a matching pair? --67.185.172.158 (talk) 05:24, 1 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Pulling out three socks would be enough!A Real Kaiser (talk) 07:10, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
 * If you like long words, see pigeonhole principle. --Tango (talk) 09:00, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Well, assuming there are only short and long socks, and that all short and long socks are identical, and that there is no difference between left and right sock... -mattbuck (Talk) 01:17, 2 April 2008 (UTC)


 * This reminds me of a similair question but with gloves instead of socks. Then is a matched two gloves of the same hand? Or a pair of one of each left and right? Mensa had this in a test and the answer was the probability for pullign out two identical, not one of each left and right....--Dacium (talk) 02:11, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

If you have n feet and c different kinds of socks, you'll need to pull out $$(n-1)c+1$$ socks. :) George (talk) 01:47, 6 April 2008 (UTC)