Timeline for Math puzzles for dinner
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 6, 2010 at 22:22 | comment | added | Dave Futer | Actually, they can escape before they are old. Many generalizations of the problem here: segerman.org/prisoners.pdf | |
| Jul 12, 2010 at 17:52 | comment | added | Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine | This went around when I was in undergraduate, as a two-stage problem: posed first with the initial state of the switches known, then with it unknown. Among mathematician friends, we all got the first stage fairly quickly, but couldn't find the extension to the second case. My engineer housemate couldn't do the first part, and eventually asked for the solution; then immediately said “oh, you just need to add error-tolerance”, and extended it to the second case! | |
| Jul 1, 2010 at 15:14 | history | edited | Nate Eldredge | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
Incorporated clarifications mentioned in comments.
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| Jun 30, 2010 at 2:19 | comment | added | Tony Huynh | @Nate: That is correct. | |
| Jun 29, 2010 at 19:33 | comment | added | Nate Eldredge | I suppose that each prince is able to observe the state of the switches only when he is called to the room (not from his cell), but before he chooses which switch to toggle? | |
| Jun 26, 2010 at 16:41 | history | answered | Tony Huynh | CC BY-SA 2.5 |