The If.... Would... Thread

Fall_Child42 · Post by **Fall_Child42** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 12:27 pm

Oh yeah for the same reason I always give my credit card and bank information to the rich arabic princes with swiss bank accounts that will give me money when i help them get to america.

If: You are the ruler of a medieval empire and you are about to have a celebration tomorrow. The celebration is the most important party you have ever hosted. You've got 1000 bottles of wine you were planning to open for the celebration, but you find out that one of them is poisoned.

The poison exhibits no symptoms until death. Death occurs within ten to twenty hours after consuming even the minutest amount of poison.

You have thousands of prisoners at your disposal and just under 24 hours to determine which single bottle is poisoned.

Then: What is the smallest number of prisoners you must have to drink from the bottles to be absolutely sure to find the poisoned bottle within 24 hours?

Flint the Dwarf · Post by **Flint the Dwarf** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 2:00 pm

1000. Any less would mean at least one person drank from more than one bottle, so if he were poisoned, you couldn't be sure which bottle it was.

I can't think of a good one, someone else take it.

godix · Post by **godix** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:47 pm

Flint the Dwarf wrote:1000. Any less would mean at least one person drank from more than one bottle, so if he were poisoned, you couldn't be sure which bottle it was.

I can't think of a good one, someone else take it.

BZZT WRONG ANSWER.

Lets take a simplified example. 10 bottles, one is poisoned:

Person A drinks from bottle 1 2 and 3
B drink 3 4 and 5
C drinks 5 6 and 7
D drinks 7 8 and 9
E drinks 9 10 and 1

If two people die it must be the bottle they shared. If only one croaks it's the bottle that wasn't shared. So lets say person E and A die, the poison must be in bottle 1. OTOH if only C dies you know it's bottle 6. So you can cut the number of slaves in half at least. If you up the number of bottles each drinks I'm sure you can cut down on required slaves even more. Glancing at the problem I think the minimum slaves required would end up always being somewhere around 30% of the number of bottles but I haven't thought about it enough to be sure and I certainly am not bored enough to turn it into pure math to figure it out.

godix · Post by **godix** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:55 pm

Ok. I wasn't bored enough to figure it out but I was bored enough to google the answer. I had the right idea with sharing the bottles but boy was I way off on my guesstimate of the answer. If anyone cares to figure it out a hint is to think of the slave living or dying as a binary 0 and 1.

As of note FC, if you really want to annoy people then change the phrasing of the question to make googling harder.

Fall_Child42 · Post by **Fall_Child42** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:12 pm

yeah yeah i know...

stupid google....

i did like the solution though.

Orwell · Post by **Orwell** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:06 pm

I would have just poisoned the rest and taken their duchies and counties, then tell the middle class that they could have everything their predecessors did if they can levy a army enough to conquer the rest of Europe, all the while putting loyalist agents inside to watch for insurrection. Mare Nostrum shall be ours yet.

Flint the Dwarf · Post by **Flint the Dwarf** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 9:00 pm

I'd just poison everyone cuz I'm a sadist.

guy07 · Post by **guy07** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 8:04 am

Right. back on track.

IF: you could make you could make a living making $2000 everyday simply by having sex with two of the ugliest people you have ever seen (one female ...one male, to make it even grosser

) each, once a day

WOULD: you take the job? Keeping in mind the job has a two month contact.

Think about it, that adds up really quick, in 10 days you would have $20,000.

Orwell · Post by **Orwell** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:42 am

God damn it, you mean I've been doing that shit for next to free? They probably don't even have Dementia!

godix · Post by **godix** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:46 am

guy07 wrote:Right. back on track.

IF: you could make you could make a living making $2000 everyday simply by having sex with two of the ugliest people you have ever seen (one female ...one male, to make it even grosser ) each, once a day

WOULD: you take the job? Keeping in mind the job has a two month contact.

Think about it, that adds up really quick, in 10 days you would have $20,000.

You're willing to pay 2 grand a day to get laid? Damn guy07, I knew you were desperate but shit. Just go get some nappy ass ho drunk instead.