One person out of Ten Thousand will answer this correctly!?

Question

You have 20 pigs and 5 days in which to kill them. But you can only kill an odd number of pigs in a day, you must kill at least 1 pig a day!
Does anyone know how?
Hint>> Time of day does not matter. 1 day is a 24 hour period! Good luck :)

Answer 1

Given the strict wording and the standard assumptions that most people will (and probably should, heh) make for such a mathematical puzzle, then the others are absolutely correct: There is no answer, because the sum of an odd number of odd numbers is always an odd number, and therefore can never be 20.

So we must assume that one or more parts of your original question cannot contain one or more of these assumptions. This usually falls into the category of "trick questions", or more politically tactful, "lateral thinking puzzles". ^.^ There are several areas which may be thought of "laterally" in your question. Here are three.

[Answer #1.]
The definition of an "odd" number. The mathematical assumption is that this is any natural number not evenly divisible by 2. Basically, any number by which the observer can reason to be outside of some logical framework can be considered to fall under this category. This solution is far too open to individual interpretation, however... given any amount of twisted logic, you can look at any number (e.g. 6 pigs) and say to yourself, "Hmm... that's odd." (I HATE THIS ANSWER, but sadly enough, alot of people will say that it is a valid one.)

More along the lines of logical trickery but without the ambiguous individual interpretations, i.e. an "odd number" is actually what people believe is an odd number as defined mathematically:

[Answer #2.]
One can read the limitations of the question more clearly as, "During any given 24-hour period in this 5-day time frame, no even number of pigs may be killed." We must also clarify what we mean by "in 5 days", which most likely means that there must be at least 1 killing on the 1st day and on the 5th day, i.e. the kills must extend through all 5 days.

Under these restrictions, there are many possible solutions. One is, "On the first day, kill 1 pig in the afternoon (say, 6pm). On the 2nd through 4th days, kill 2 pigs in the morning (say 6am) and 1 pig in the afternoon (6pm). On the 5th day, kill all 10 remaining pigs in the morning (6am)." With this schedule, for any given 24-hour period, one will always find an odd number of pigs killed. An easy way to notate this solution is:

0-1, 2-1, 2-1, 2-1, 10.

To find ALL solutions, simply divide all 5 days into 12-hour segments (10 segments total) and begin killing in the 2nd segment (afternoon of the first day). Then alternate kills every 12 hours with even and odd numbers of kills. Any even or odd numbers will work as long as you do not run out of pigs to kill on the morning of the 5th day, where a number must remain to be killed.

(We must end the time frame midway through the 5th day, or there is no solution. To make the solution more symmetical, we can also eliminate the morning of the first day, but this is entirely optional. We also cannot begin killing on the morning of the first day, whether with an even or odd number, or once again there will exist at least one 24-hour period with an even number of kills.)

[Answer #3.]
Finally, the answer which is the most commonly accepted. ^.^ The methodology is very similar to #2, above, except that we also extend the definition of the 5 days to include both 12am at the *start* of the 1st day as well as 12am at the *end* of the 5th day. If allowed, then we can stagger our kills similarly along 12-hour periods, except that they will begin at 12am at the start of the first day and end at 12am at the end of the 5th day. Again, there are several answers, one of which is:

1-2,1-2,1-2,1-2,1-2-5.

To put it in words: At midnight and noon at the start of the first through fifth days, kill 1 and 2 pigs respectively. Then on midnight at the end of the fifth day, kill all 5 remaining pigs.

Although this adds another restriction beyond that to solution #2, above, it seems to be more agreeable to people because it doesn't require cutting off the 5th day at noon. I suppose more people would rather have the 5th day be inclusive of the starting moment of the 6th day. ^.^

Again, the entire solution set may be derived my simply alternating odd and even numbers at every time boundary, beginning with an odd number and not running out of pigs by the end of the 5th day.

Answer 2

The question doesn't say you have to kill all 20 by day 5, only that you have 5 days to kill them. So I guess the maximum number of pigs killed would have to be 19 if you have to kill an odd number of pigs each day.

Answer 3

We are required to kill 20 pigs in 5 days .The time in hours is equivalent to 120 hours.
There are number of possibilities . One of them is :
1st Day : 3 Pigs
2nd Day : 3 Pigs
3rd Day : 3 Pigs
4th Day :7 Pigs
4th Day + 5th Day : 1 Pig (From 1200 Hrs (4th Day) to 1200 Hrs (5th Day)
5th Day : 3 Pigs (After 1200 Hrs)

As such there are number of possible answers.
The hint given is sufficient. The question asks days but does not specifies time. Therefore any 24 hours in five days make one day.

Answer 4

Other answers are correct in saying that it is not possible to kill all 20 in that manner, since the sum of five odd numbers is itself odd. However, since the question does not clearly indicate that all 20 are to be killed, the solution is that an odd number (anywhere from 1 to 15) are still alive after 5 days. :-)

On second thought, perhaps you simply START with 20, and an odd number of piglets are born during this time period. Then it becomes possible. :-)

Answer 5

what if tyou can kill half of a pig then you can kill 7.5 pigs in two days which gives you15 dead pigs then on the next day you 3 pigs now there are 18 pigs and for the last two days you kill 1. and now all the pigs are dead. but if you can't kill half then it is impossible because if you add by odd 5 times then it willalways bs an odd

Answer 6

Kill a pig every 6 hours and 20 seconds....

Answer 7

it is impossible unless you get an extra pig so i have two answers for you
answer 1: you buy an extra pig and then you kill 5, 7, 3, 3, 3

answer 2: one of your pigs is pregnant and it has a baby pig then you kill 5, 7, 3, 3, 3

I hope i am right
by the way, did you get it right?

Answer 8

It's completely impossible, there is absolutely no way you can kill an even number of pigs by an odd number every day for an odd number of days.

Answer 9

Does anyone know how to do what? You haven't even asked a proper question here. You also haven't specified whether pigs must be killed on all 5 days. 19 on day one and 1 on day two is a reasonable answer, given your question.

Answer 10

kill 3 a day for the 1st 4 days, then give the one of the pigs CPR and kill him again the next day with the last 8.