Radio 4’s flagship news programme “Today” came live from the Chapel at the University of Glasgow, and in front of an audience of around 100 people, from 0600-0900 on Tuesday 13th March. The outside broadcast, presented by Justin Webb, was the third in a series of programmes from UK universities – and the only one from Scotland. You can read more about the day at https://bit.ly/2HmsUsx. 

Our own Head of School, Prof Adrian Bowman, set a problem in the popular “Puzzle for Today” feature.

Puzzle No. 181 – Tuesday 13 March‌

A space mission is planned to the planet Pebblon. This is mostly a boring place, covered in pebbles, with one terrific exception. 10% of the pebbles contain a substance called Justinite, the most precious and useful mineral in the known universe. A clever chemist has been able to devise a quick test for the presence of Justinite. With pebbles which do contain Justinite, the test will be positive 90% of the time. With pebbles which don’t contain Justinite, the test will be negative 90% of the time. The plan is to bring back to earth pebbles which test positive. What proportion of the pebbles returned to earth do we expect to contain Justinite?

Click HERE for the answer.

First published: 24 April 2018

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