Timeline for Math puzzles for dinner
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 7, 2021 at 21:23 | comment | added | polfosol | Just passed by this and remembered waitbutwhy blog posting another version of the same puzzle. | |
| Mar 6, 2011 at 23:55 | comment | added | Eric Naslund | @Anixx: Well that is the interesting thing, and why this problem is popular. At first glance "no effect" seems to be right, but after some thought, we can deduce that all the blue eyed people kill themselves after a some number of days. | |
| Jan 28, 2011 at 14:11 | comment | added | Anixx | What's the point here? Obviously, no effect: the islanders already know that there are many people with blue eyes on the island. Even if they do not know statistics, they know that such people exist there. | |
| Jul 31, 2010 at 23:22 | vote | accept | CommunityBot | ||
| Jul 31, 2010 at 23:22 | history | bounty ended | Richard Dore | ||
| Jun 26, 2010 at 17:29 | comment | added | Pete L. Clark | I remember the blue-eyed islanders puzzle fondly from my teenage years, so about 20 years ago now. I am pretty sure it is not due to Prof. Tao. In fact I wonder is its provenance can be tracked down. (A version appears early on in Spivak's Calculus, for instance...) | |
| Jun 24, 2010 at 19:28 | comment | added | Nate Eldredge | The wikipedia link in the blog post is quite a revelation. | |
| Jun 24, 2010 at 14:13 | comment | added | Roland Bacher | I have heard the following, politically less correct, version of this: A cruel custom on an island demands that every husband kills his wive at midnight if informed that she has cheated on him. All inhabitants of the island are married and all cheat. A newly arrived priest has heard of this scandalous lifestyle and, during his sermon, announces to the whole tribe that at least one (and thus at least two) inhabitant has been unfaithful. | |
| Jun 24, 2010 at 13:00 | history | answered | Malik Younsi | CC BY-SA 2.5 |