Weird problem!!

[vishal205]

This is an adaptation of an actual gmat problem.

In a jar,there are 50 blue ,50 green and 50 yellow berries.What is the minimum number berries that need to be taken out so that there are at least 14 berries of the same color?

I don't really understand the question, the obvious answer should be 14 but I'm guessing there is probability and combinatorics involved in this problem..I m not really sure how to approach a problem like this.

[tim]

i disagree that 14 is the obvious answer. how many berries do you have to pick? well, you could get unlucky and keep picking berries that don't give you 14 of the same color for a long time. in fact, you could get really unlucky and pick 39 berries - 13 of each color - and still not have 14 of any one color. but once your unluck (?) has run out, it is guaranteed that the 40th berry will complete a set of 14 of one type. so the answer is 40. notice that this problem involved no combinatorics, just simple arithmetic and logic..