you die and the devil says he'll let you go to heaven if you beat him in a game. the devil sits you down at a round table. he gives himself and you a huge pile of quarters. he says "ok, we'll take turns putting quarters down, no overlapping allowed, and the quarters must rest on the table surface. the first guy who can't put a quarter down loses." you guys are about to start playing, and the devil says that he'll go first. however, at this point you immediately interject, and ask if you can go first instead. you make this interjection because you are VERY SMART, and you know that if you go first, you can guarantee victory. explain how you can guarantee victory...................................................
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LET THE GAME BEGIN!!!
2006-11-03 11:08:05 · 6 answers · asked by mr. fancy pants 3 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Jokes & Riddles
First, put the first quarter exactly in the center of the (perfectly circular) table.
Next, for each quarter the opponent places, place one directly opposite it. That is, place it so that the center of the table is halfway between your piece and the opponent's previous piece.
This will generate a completely symettric (about the center) layout of quarters on the table. This means that whenever the opponent selects a free space to place a quarter in, the space opposite is guaranteed to be free as well. Since we are always guaranteed an open space, we will never lose with this strategy (and thus win when there are finally no more spaces for the opponent to use).
2006-11-03 11:13:39 · answer #1 · answered by Fortytipper 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
place your first quarter anywhere on the table. now, the devil will place his quarter. imagine a line draw that splits the table Exactly in half. now, wherever the devil placed his quarter, place yours in the Exact same spot on the other half of the table (like mirror image). Do this every single time the devil places his quarter. With the table theoretically sliced in half like that, there are an even number of available places to put down quarters, minus one (the first one you placed). Since you are always mirroring the devil's move, there will always be a spot to place a quarter exactly opposite where the devil places his until it comes down to the last placement. However, since you placed the first quarter, which was unmirrored by the devil, the last of the original available spaces (which has to be even because we have the table split exactly in two) will eventually be used on an odd number turn. Since you are turn one, three, five, etc., this will be you. The devil will be out of luck.
2006-11-03 19:27:16 · answer #2 · answered by eternallythirsty 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because the devil will run out of quarters to put down first?
2006-11-03 19:10:54 · answer #3 · answered by Alana B 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you lay them out diagonally and go first, the devil will not be able to put down a quarter at the intersection because yours will already be there. You will also have more quarters to put down since you're going diagonally.
2006-11-03 19:11:54 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well you forgot to mention that you can choose to put down as many quarters as you like....so you can either cover the table or use all the quarters on your first turn.
2006-11-03 19:10:18 · answer #5 · answered by pelenpuppy 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the first person got it
2006-11-03 19:13:36 · answer #6 · answered by Erica 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋