#581 - Chances Of Survival Probability Puzzle
You are trapped into a death trap by the famous jigsaw killer. As usual, a screen flashes in front of you and explains you the trap game.
There are 100 pearls kept in a bowl in front of you and an empty bowl. Among the 100 pearls, 50 are white and 50 are black. You can divide them as you like into the two bowls. Once you are done, you will pull a lever, which will turn the room pitch black. The bowls will move and shuffle around. In the dark, you have to pick up one pearl from any bowl. Once you do that, the room will flood with lights again. If the peral you have in your hand is white, you will be allowed to live, but if the pearl you picked is black, the room will be filled with poisonous gas and you will die.
How will divide the pearls to increase your chances of survival?
For best probability of living, you must place one white pearl in a bowl and all the rest into another bowl.
This gives you a 1/2 probability of choosing a bowl which has just a white pearl. If you choose that, you will live.
If you choose another, you will still have an almost 1/2 probability of picking up a white pearl. (49 white pearls and 50 black pearls).