Ed Surge – Tony Wan
“Let’s say that three students—we’ll call them Donald, Hillary and Michael—are running for class president. Fifteen percent of the class like Michael, 40 percent root for Hillary, and the rest cheer for Donald. In this simple scenario, the outcome is clear: Donald would win. Now let’s add a few variables: Donald’s camp would never vote for Hillary, and would rather have Michael; the similar is true for Hillary’s camp, which would prefer Michael over Donald any day. Michael’s supporter would rather have Donald than Hillary. Assuming people vote rationally, who should win? This is a beginner problem from a set of weekly math teasers crafted by Po-Shen Loh, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University and founder of Pittsburgh, PA-based startup, Expii. Each of the five math teasers get progressively tougher; Loh admits even he finds the final question in each set quite difficult.”(more)