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Posted

ok...

 

A king has 1,000 barrels of wine stored in his cellar. Unfortunately the guards found an assassin that had snuck in last night and poisoned exactly one of the barrels. Even 1 drop of poisoned wine would be enough to kill a man, but the poison takes 30 days before becoming fatal, plus or minus a few hours. The poison is colorless, odorless, and victims show exactly 0 signs of being poisoned in the 30 days prior to dying. There is absolutely no way to detect the poison.

 

 

 

In 31 days time, there will be a grand feast in which the king will need as much of the wine as possible. He has 10 prisoners on which to test the wine. His first idea is to give each prisoner a drop from 100 barrels of wine, and then when 1 prisoner dies, throw out all 100 barrels of which the dead prisoner drank from. However his jester speaks up and explains a solution that will pinpoint exactly which barrel is poisoned using only the 10 prisoners.

 

What is that solution?

And now the answer please?

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Posted

ok...

 

A king has 1,000 barrels of wine stored in his cellar. Unfortunately the guards found an assassin that had snuck in last night and poisoned exactly one of the barrels. Even 1 drop of poisoned wine would be enough to kill a man, but the poison takes 30 days before becoming fatal, plus or minus a few hours. The poison is colorless, odorless, and victims show exactly 0 signs of being poisoned in the 30 days prior to dying. There is absolutely no way to detect the poison.

 

 

 

In 31 days time, there will be a grand feast in which the king will need as much of the wine as possible. He has 10 prisoners on which to test the wine. His first idea is to give each prisoner a drop from 100 barrels of wine, and then when 1 prisoner dies, throw out all 100 barrels of which the dead prisoner drank from. However his jester speaks up and explains a solution that will pinpoint exactly which barrel is poisoned using only the 10 prisoners.

 

What is that solution?

 

not even google has an easy answer

Posted (edited)

And now the answer please?

 

 

not even google has an easy answer

 

 

found the answer via google and still don't know the answer

 

 

hahaha yeah, the answer is more confounding than the question.

 

Basically binary numbers are assigned to each barrel.

 

eg

 

Barrel #1 = 00 00 00 00 01

Barrel #2 = 00 00 00 00 10

...

Barrel #427 = 01 10 10 10 11

...

Barrel #1000 = 11 11 10 10 00

 

Each prisoner then represents one of the binary place holders

 

Eg.

 

Prisoner #1 = 00 00 00 00 01

Prisoner #2 = 00 00 00 00 10

...

Prisoner #5 = 00 00 01 00 00

...

Prisoner #10 = 10 00 00 00 00

 

 

 

Now each barrel is tested by the prisoners with the corresponding place holders to the barrel's binary number.

 

Eg.

 

Barrel #10 is number 00 00 00 10 10, so prisoners 2 and 4 will take a sip from it.

Barrel #879 is number 11 01 10 11 11, so prisoners 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 10 will take sips.

 

Once all barrels are tested, wait the 30 days (provided none of the prisoners have does of alcohol poisoning, haha).

 

Then see which combination of prisoners die. Based on the binary place holders they represent, you will be able to pin point the poisoned barrel.

 

Make sense?

Edited by patches
Posted

hahaha yeah, the answer is more confounding than the question.

 

Basically binary numbers are assigned to each barrel.

 

eg

 

Barrel #1 = 00 00 00 00 01

Barrel #2 = 00 00 00 00 10

...

Barrel #427 = 01 10 10 10 11

...

Barrel #1000 = 11 11 10 10 00

 

Each prisoner then represents one of the binary place holders

 

Eg.

 

Prisoner #1 = 00 00 00 00 01

Prisoner #2 = 00 00 00 00 10

...

Prisoner #5 = 00 00 01 00 00

...

Prisoner #10 = 10 00 00 00 00

 

 

 

Now each barrel is tested by the prisoners with the corresponding place holders to the barrel's binary number.

 

Eg.

 

Barrel #10 is number 00 00 00 10 10, so prisoners 2 and 4 will take a sip from it.

Barrel #879 is number 11 01 10 11 11, so prisoners 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 10 will take sips.

 

Once all barrels are tested, wait the 30 days (provided none of the prisoners have does of alcohol poisoning, haha).

 

Then see which combination of prisoners die. Based on the binary place holders they represent, you will be able to pin point the poisoned barrel.

 

Make sense?

Thats awesome - elegant 

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