Three Englishmen and three Frenchmen work for the same company.Each of them knows a secret not known to others

Question

Three Englishmen and three Frenchmen work for the same company.Each of them knows a secret not known to others.They need to exchange these secrets over person-to-person phone calls so that eventually each person knows all six secrets.None of the Frenchmenknows English, and only one Englishman knows French.What is the minimum number of phone calls needed for the above purpose?
(a) 5
(b) 10
(c) 9
(d) 15

Answer 1

C: 9. The solution is as follows:

1: Englishman 1 calls the guy who knows french, and tells his secret
2: Englishman 2 calls the guy who knows french, and tells his secret
3, 4: The guy who knows french calls two of the frenchmen and collects their secrets
5: The guy who knows french calls the last frenchman and collects his secret (thus gaining all the secrets) and tells the frenchman all the secrets he knows (so the frenchman has all the secrets).
6-7: the frenchman calls his fellow frenchmen and discloses all the secrets
8-9: The guy who knows french calls his fellow englishmen and discloses all the secrets.

Answer 2

On either side, you need 2 calls so that 1 person knows all 3 secrets (4 calls)
1 call between French & English to exchange
2 more calls on either side to exchange the new 3 secrets (4 calls)

Total = (c) 9 calls

Answer 3

c) 9

five calls so that one person (let's take the bilingual one) knows all secrets. He can use the last of these calls to inform his partner. Then 4 more calls to inform the other four.

Answer 4

Being 1/2 Irish and 1/2 English by heritage, I don't know if I am amused or offended... :) Awesome joke, though.

Answer 5

10 Phone calls are required...

I didn't have the need of 2 multilanguage workers... One could be enough...

Answer 6

There are many people who would make fun of the prospect of altering their destinies. This is due to the fact that it believes that no one gets more that what is put in his fate.

Answer 7

c) 9

It's like the number of fence posts question, but in reverse

Answer 8

I tried 3 times. In each of the times the answer was (c) 9.

Each of the people's knowledge is seperated by spaces. The first three from the left are the Englishmens. The other three at the right are the Frenchmens. The Third from the left is the Englishmen who knows French. A-F are the secrets of each person.

These are my answers:
1.
A B C D E F
AC B AC D E F
AC B ACD ACD E F
AC ABCD ABCD ACD E F
AC ABCD ABCD ACDE ACDE F
AC ABCD ABCD ACDEF ACDE ACDEF
AC ABCD ABCDEF ABCDEF ACDE ACDEF
ABCDEF ABCD ABCDEF ABCDEF ACDE ACDEF
ABCDEF ABCD ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ACDEF
ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ACDEF
ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF

2.
A B C D E F
AB AB C D E F
AB AB C D EF EF
AB ABC ABC D EF EF
AB ABC ABC DEF DEF EF
AB ABC ABCDEF ABCDEF DEF EF
ABCDEF ABC ABCDEF ABCDEF DEF EF
ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF DEF EF
ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF EF
ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF

3.
A B C D E F
AB AB C D E F
AB AB C D EF EF
ABC AB ABC D EF EF
ABC AB ABC DEF EF DEF
ABC AB ABCDEF ABCDEF EF DEF
ABCDEF AB ABCDEF ABCDEF EF DEF
ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF EF DEF
ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF DEF
ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF ABCDEF

Answer 9

the answer is (b) 10 because

F <> F<> F
^v
E<> E<> E

Where F = French men
E = English men
<> ^v = the phone calls