Comments | joshua_green: Not Really a Chess Problem

joshua_green

Not Really a Chess Problem

Feb 21, 2010 11:52

Two prisoners are being forced to play a "game" with the warden. One will be brought into the warden's office where there will be a chessboard with a coin on each square (oriented heads-up/tails-up randomly). The warden will have already chosen a "special square" on the board and will reveal this choice to the prisoner. The prisoner will ( Read more... )

Comments 8

gee_tar February 22 2010, 16:48:44 UTC

Alright, I give up. What's the solution?

gee_tar February 23 2010, 03:50:19 UTC

Okay, I've thought about it a little more and I think I have something. I don't know if it's the solution, but I feel I have to be on the right track, though I haven't completely thought it out ( ... )

joshua_green February 24 2010, 05:25:03 UTC

It seems unlikely that that can work. The first prisoner would only have 36 coins to consider flipping but would have to deal with 64 possible special squares.

joshua_green February 24 2010, 05:27:14 UTC

On the other hand, you are close, at least in some sense.

gee_tar February 24 2010, 18:23:01 UTC

Are you telling me that you don't know the answer either and have posted this just to torture us?

Thread 7