Multiple choice general knowledge math & puzzles

Mr. Brown has 8 black gloves and 8 brown gloves in his closet. He blindly picks up some gloves from the closet. What is the minimum number of gloves Mr. Brown will have to pick to be certain to find a pair of gloves of the same color?

  1. 4

  2. 3

  3. 5

  4. 6
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
B Correct answer
Explanation

By the pigeonhole principle, with only 2 color options (black and brown), picking 3 gloves guarantees at least one matching pair. The worst case is picking one black and one brown first, but the third glove must match one of those colors.

Keep practicing — related questions