Puzzle

MookJong said:
Well I don't know the answer but I guess your going to have to break the 1000 bottles into groups of say 50 or 100 and then once someone dies from a particular group narrow it down.

So lets see, say 10 servants taste 100 allotted bottles each and once one dies you can rule out 900 bottles then give 11 bottles each the 9 remaining and see who dies and then split the bottles from the next dead person with the 8 survivors, then one would die and you would be pretty much there.

So the answer is less than 10, can anyone be bothered to work it out correctly?
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Doesn't work if it's a week before the banquest, and it takes 6 days to kill the person though.
 
is it something like 50 servents each drink 40 bottles and when some servents die you just see which bottle the dead servents have in common?

Obviously it needs to be cleaned up but is that the general principle?
 
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kidkhaos said:
is it something like 50 servents each drink 40 bottles and when some servents die you just see which bottle the dead servents have in common?
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I'm thinking along these lines. But you need to figure out the minimum nuber of people that allows you to work out the one bottle they have in common.
Also, from the wording of the puzzle, you could start some people drinking on the next day and still work it out within the 7 day limit.
 
tripitaka said:
Also, from the wording of the puzzle, you could start some people drinking on the next day and still work it out within the 7 day limit.
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yeah its probly something like 500 drink 2, one today and then another one the next day and when a sevent dies on the sixth or seventh day you know which bottle it is, now combining that with grouping them together and you get your answer, now to just work it out :confused:
 
Spoiler (highlight to see):

Wine bottle 1 (00000001) is tasted by person 1
Wine bottle 2 (00000010) is tasted by person 2
Wine bottle 3 (00000011) is tasted by person 1 and 2
.
.
Wine bottle 1000 (1111101000) is tasted by persons 4,6,7,8,9 and 10

Depending on which people die, you can always work back to identify and individual bottle




Answer (don't highlight unless you want to know):

10


I think that's the right answer.
 
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kidkhaos said:
yeah its probly something like 500 drink 2, one today and then another one the next day and when a sevent dies on the sixth or seventh day you know which bottle it is, now combining that with grouping them together and you get your answer, now to just work it out :confused:
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Afraid you only get 1 try - Let's say the timing's rough estimate, and you'll need to have time to prepare the wine.
 
10 soldiers were captured and thrown into a prisoner’s camp towards the end of a war. The captain of the camp, a kind man, was ordered by his superior to execute all 10 of the prisoners the next day, as the war is due to be over any days now.

He decided to offer the prisoners seats at the captain’s table during the last supper. They all hit off really well, the captain realised that they were all very intelligent men, and they would have been good friends if not for the war.

After supper, he brought the prisoners out in the open so that everyone at the camp could see and hear his announcement.

He told the prisoners that they were due to be executed the next day, however due to the imminent end of the war, he felt that the killing was senseless. However orders were orders, and he could only offer them a way out through a game of chance.

He explained that come next day, he would line the prisoners up so that they’d all face the same direction, as such that they would only be able to see the prisoners standing in front of them.

The prisoners shall be blindfolded, and a hat would be placed on top of each of their heads. On each hat would be a black or a white banner chosen at random. Then all the prisoners’ blindfolds shall be removed.

They would not be able to see their own banners, but they would be able to see all the banners in front of them clearly. They’re not allowed to turn around either to see the banners behind.

Then, he shall approach each of the prisoners, from the back to the front, and ask each one to guess what colour their own banner is. The prisoner is only allowed to say the colour of their banner and nothing else, or all the prisoners will be executed.

If the prisoner can correctly guess their own banner, they would be free to go; otherwise they’d be executed on the spot.

Overnight, the 10 prisoners sat together and discussed a strategy.

The puzzle is - what strategy should they use to save most of their lives? What’s the minimum number of prisoners they could save?
 
to me you would not have enough parameters to solve the puzzle as its purely random in which case they would have a 50/50 chance as a guess.

The odds for all to survive would be low, but you could not say they would not all guess correctly.
 
Bribe a guard with a hooker from Chiswick, get him to signal the prisoner with an elaborately devised method of semaphore using a shaving mirror and some potatoes, profit.
 
sound like a probability question, the first guy at the back will say the colour opposite to the one on the guy in front, if he is correct the next guy says the opposite otherwise he repeats what the dead guy behind him says, the next guy can then use probability for his guess. Of course this is assuming that there are equal amounts of the two banners, and that the executioner isn't colour blind
 
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