Can things be equal without being the same? This week’s Microsofty addresses that question.

Bob and Connie are in their 70s. For exercise, they like to walk at the Georgetown Park Mall in Washington, D.C. They hold hands while they’re walking. After an hour, Connie looks at her fitness tracker and announces that she’s walked four miles. Bob checks his fitness tracker and announces he’s walked six miles. Neither is surprised by the difference in results.

They then walk to the Auntie Anne’s in the mall, where they split a cinnamon sugar pretzel and a large diet Dr Pepper.

This week’s question is, how can this be? How can Bob walk six miles and Connie walk four miles at the same time while they are always holding hands?

Solution to Monday Microsofty 100: How to win at poker all the time

Picture of cards generated by ChatGPT by Robert Marks.

A standard deck of 52 cards is spread face up on the table so that every card is visible. I choose an initial five-card poker hand. Then it’s your turn. You choose any five-card poker hand you like from the remaining 47 cards.

After seeing your hand, I may discard as many cards from my original hand as I wish and replace them with cards still left on the table. So the question is, how can I guarantee always ending up with a better poker hand than yours?

There are a number of interesting solutions, but here’s the simplest one: I choose four aces. There is now no way that you can get a royal flush. If you respond with a weaker straight flush, I can always choose cards to make my hand a royal flush and therefore beat you. If you choose four kings to block me from getting a royal flush, I keep my cards. Four aces beats four kings.

Here’s extra credit. Could I still always win if the poker hand I first chose is four kings and the ace of spades?

The Monday Microsofty is a weekly feature of Mind Matters News. Here are the links to all the puzzles and answers to date:

Monday Microsofty 100: How to win at poker all the time. Choose any hand you want and I will still win. But why? The solution to the puzzle about cutting the fan belt is to remember that there is only ever one side.

Monday Microsofty 99: Fan belt cutting technology. The world of geometry features some strange elements, even in everyday things. The answer to last week’s puzzle lies in determining how many sides a belt must have. You can find links and answers to Microsofties 92 through 99 here as well.

Monday Microsofty 92: When the nerd enters a room… Shaking hands is expected. Here’s a math question about the custom, to delight the true nerds among us. A hint for Microsofty 91: Where might Jimmy the Mooch have found some spare energy? You can find links and answers to Microsofties 91 through 87 here as well.

Image Credit: Aleksandr Ugorenkov - Adobe Stock

Monday Microsofty 87: Are you as good a detective as you think? Here’s a test from the world of codebreaking To solve last week’s puzzle, look up the definition of “calorie.” Are we using the word to mean the same thing? You can find links and answers to Microsofties 77 through 86 here as well.

Monday Microsofty 76: The Smoking Gun explains a computer scientist or engineer, a law enforcement officer often relies on abductive reasoning to crack a case, so with this in mind, you will have to crack last week’s puzzle. You can find links and answers to Microsofties 55 through 75 here as well.

Monday Microsofty 55: “It happens every spring.” Baseball, that is. Here’s a puzzle that takes in baseball’s summer. To solve last week’s puzzle, you don’t need to know the distance. Check the problem again for the number you do need to know. You can find links and answers here to Microsofties 51 through 54 as well.

Monday Microsofty 50: Cutting through the cornbread. How did Yuri Senior cut the cornbread into eight identical portions using only three straight cuts? You can guess the answer to Microsofty 49 if you try the test question yourself at home, using a small mirror. You can find links and answers here to Microsofties 46 through 49 as well.

Image Credit: BUDDHA - Adobe Stock

Monday Microsofty 45: Can Tony beat the fast-food curfew? An early curfew on fast food service motivated a boy to exercise more vigorously. But how fast was he pedalling? To solve Micro Softy 44, recall that Tony doesn’t need to take the individual pills each day, only the prescribed amount of each. You can find links and answers here to Micros Softies 41 through 44 as well.

Monday Microsofty 40: The fate of a false prophet. He wasn’t actually fired for being a false prophet but for something that his prophecy unintentionally revealed. The solution to Micro Softy 39 lies in considering an alternative possible meaning of a word commonly used in sports. You can find links and answers here to Micro Softies 30 through 39 as well.

Monday Microsofty 29: A funeral lament in four lines. The funeral director was puzzled by Dan’s description of his relationship to the deceased but there was no question that his grief was sincere You can find links and answers here to Microsofties 22 through 29 as well.

Monday Microsofty 21: Finding More of the Deadly Fentanyl Pills. You can find links and answers here to Microsofties 11 through 20 as well.

Monday Microsofty 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar? You can find links and answers here to the first ten Micro Softies. Have fun!