document.write( "Question 1204579: Peter has many socks, all the same except that they are in nine different colours. He is leaving to catch an early train to go on a business trip, and he does not want to wake his wife, so he must pack in the dark. He needs six pairs of socks, each sock in each pair the same colour. How many socks must he take from his drawer to be sure of achieving this? \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #840921 by Edwin McCravy(20060)![]() ![]() You can put this solution on YOUR website! \r\n" ); document.write( "I misread and thought there were 6 colors and said the answer is 17. Here was my\r\n" ); document.write( "1st answer, which would have been correct if there had only been 6 colors. The\r\n" ); document.write( "correction is posted below. It's the same way to look at it, it just changes the\r\n" ); document.write( "numbers.\r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( "The worst case is that he picks his first 6 pairs all of different colors. Then\r\n" ); document.write( "he keeps picking socks of the same color as the 7th sock, and the sock it\r\n" ); document.write( "matched, until he has 12 of that same color and only 1 sock of each of the other 5\r\n" ); document.write( "colors. So he must pick 17 socks to be absolutely sure that he has 6 pairs of\r\n" ); document.write( "matching socks. \r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( "Edwin\n" ); document.write( " |