Brainteasers & Puzzles

Two Bullets, One Spin

A revolver is loaded with two bullets in adjacent chambers, spun once, and fired on an empty click. Before the next pull, are you safer spinning again or pulling straight away?

solvedhard1 min

A revolver has six chambers. Two bullets are loaded into two adjacent chambers, the cylinder is spun once, and the trigger is pulled. It clicks on an empty chamber. The cylinder is not reloaded. For the next pull, are you safer spinning the cylinder again first, or pulling straight away?

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#Spinning again

A fresh spin erases the past. Two of the six chambers hold a bullet, so

P(firesspin)=26=13.(1)\PP(\text{fires} \mid \text{spin}) = \tfrac{2}{6} = \tfrac13. \tag{1}

#Pulling without spinning

Number the chambers 11 through 66 around the cylinder with the bullets in the adjacent chambers 11 and 22, so the empties are 3,4,5,63, 4, 5, 6 and each pull advances by one. The first pull was empty, so it sat on one of 3,4,5,63, 4, 5, 6, all equally likely. The next chamber holds a bullet only when the current one is 66, which advances to 11. That is just 11 of the 44 empty positions,

P(firesno spin)=14.(2)\PP(\text{fires} \mid \text{no spin}) = \tfrac14. \tag{2}
123456next pull fatal
so do not spin
Bullets sit in chambers 1 and 2, leaving 3 through 6 empty, and each pull steps forward one chamber. After an empty click you are equally likely to be on any of the four empties, but only chamber 6 steps into a bullet, so pulling again fires with probability one quarter against one third for a fresh spin.

#Result

Since 14<13\tfrac14 < \tfrac13, do not spin. Surviving one empty chamber means you are probably deep in the run of four empties, and only the single empty just before the two bullets leads into danger.