English and Logical Reasoning Prep GuideLogical ReasoningArithmetic Reasoning
A man wears socks of two colours - black and brown. He has altogether 20 brown socks in a drawer. Supposing he has to take out the socks in the dark, how many must he take out to be sure that he has a matching pair.
Options
- A3
- B39
- C5
- DNone of these
Correct answer
A. 3
Step-by-step solution
It is given that he has socks of 2 colours only. It is obvious that if he only takes out one sock then he can’t have a matching pair (since by definition a pair is 2 socks). If he takes out 2 socks, he could select 2 that are the same colour, but he could also select one of each colour — which is not a matching pair. Therefore, 2 socks are not enough to guarantee that he will have a matching pair If he takes out 3 socks then there are 2 scenarios — the first being that the first two socks he selec