On 17 Jan 00 at 12:16, Hawkins, Darwin wrote:

> Sorry, Murray, right idea but wrong. Puzzle cannot be solved as written.
> Suppose the father asks for $0? The way the problem is worded, there must be
> an envelope containing no money!
>
> Therefore, I believe it takes eleven envelopes to accomplish.
>
Darwin, I thought about this and decided it could be a trick question
since he is asking for dollars (plural).  This might be interpreted to
mean he could not ask for nought or for one dollar (singular).
However the one dollar envelope would still be a necessity for requests
like $3.00 or $5.00 etc.  If he could not ask for nought then ten
envelopes would suffice..... The statement " When the father asked for a
sum of money" tends to indicate that he is asking for money
(eliminating the eleventh envelope containing no money)... This could
go on and on something like when is the millenium...........

It would appear we both need something better to occupy our time...
cheers .......... murray

> A man told his son that he would give him $1000 if he could accomplish
> the following task. The father gave his son ten envelopes and a thousand
> dollars, all in one dollar bills. He told his son, "Place the money in the
> envelopes in such a manner that no matter what number of dollars I ask for,
> you can give me one or more of the envelopes, containing the exact amount I
> asked for without having to open any of the envelopes. If you can do this,
> you will keep the $1000."
>
> When the father asked for a sum of money, the son was able to give him
> envelopes containing the exact amount of money asked for. How did the
> son  distribute the money among the ten envelopes?
>
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