WOO logo

Wizard Recommends

Cosby Show Trivia

This week we honor the life of Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who died of drowning in Costa Rica on July 20, at the age of 54. Warner is probably best known as a child actor for playing Theo on the Cosby Show. It was one of my favorite television shows of the 1980’s. In his honor, I present a Cosby Show trivia challenge. However, as usual, I present our weekly logic puzzle.

Logic Puzzle

A blind man has two tables in front of him. One table has 20 coins and the other has 30. The blind mind is told that between the two tables, 20 of the coins are heads up and 30 are tails up. His task is to flip as many coins as he wishes so that the number of tails is the same on both tables. He can't tell the coins apart based on feel. How can he do it?

malcom
Image source: IMDb

Questions

  1. Name the five Cosby children.?
  2. In which season was actress Phylicia Rashad, who played Claire, pregnant?
  3. Which character has dyslexia?
  4. How many years apart in age are the actresses who play Claire and daughter Sondra?
  5. What was the spinoff of the Cosby Show?
  6. What new character was added to the Cosby family in season 6?
  7. What was the name of Denise’s husband?
  8. What is Cliff’s occupation?
  9. What is Claire’s occupation?
  10. Which of the Cosby children get into trouble for getting their ear pierced?
  11. The Cosby’s had a funeral for whose pet and what kind?
  12. What celebrity do Denise and Theo meet as a result of a car accident with him/her?
  13. What was Cockroach’s real name?
  14. Where did Theo and Vanessa lose Rudy?
  15. Clair won second place in a contest for what?
 
family

Answers

  1. Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy.
  2. The third season.
  3. Theo.
  4. Ten.
  5. A Different World, which focuses on Denise’s time at fictional Hillman College.
  6. Olivia, who was the stepdaughter of Denise.
  7. Lt. Martin Machael Kendall
  8. Doctor
  9. Attorney
  10. Theo
  11. Rudy’s goldfish
  12. Stevie Wonder
  13. Russell
  14. The mall
  15. Her garden squash
 
family
Image source: CNN

Logic Puzzle Answer

Flip all the coins on the table with 30 coins.

Logic Puzzle Solution

Let table 1 = table with 20 coins.

Let table 2 = table with 30 coins.

Let h1 = heads on table 1.

Let t1 = tails on table 1.

Let h2 = heads on table 2.

Let t2 = tails on table 1.

We are given:

h1+h2 = 20

t1+t2 = 30

h1+t1 = 20

h2+t2 = 30

To put everything in terms of h1:

h2 = 20-h1

t1 = 20-h1

t2 = 30-h2 = 30-(20-h1) = 10 + h1 (although we don’t need this bit of information)

Note that h2=t1.

By flipping all the coins on table 2, the previous number of heads on that table will become the number of tails. So, after the flip:

t2 = t1