You are the ruler of a medieval empire and you are about to have a celebration tomorrow. The celebration is the most important party you have ever hosted. You've got 1000 bottles of wine you were planning to open for the celebration, but you find out that one of them is poisoned.
The poison exhibits no symptoms until death. Death occurs within ten to twenty hours after consuming even the minutest amount of poison.
You have thousands of prisoners at your disposal and just under 24 hours to determine which single bottle is poisoned.
What is the smallest number of prisoners you must have to drink from the bottles to be absolutely sure to find the poisoned bottle within 24 hours?
2006-11-13 18:26:01 · 6 answers · asked by longshank38 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Homework Help
999.
Does anyone else find this question a bit disturbing?
2006-11-13 18:42:11 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am the ruler and I am filthy rich. I throw out the thousand bottles of wine and get another thousand bottles of good wine. Since I am the king I get instant service. I am also a lazy king and don't want to bother with figuring out the exact combination of prisoners drinking certain bottles, creating an overlap, revealing the poisoned bottle with less than any answer you will get. Rank has its privilege.
2006-11-14 02:36:33 · answer #2 · answered by pshdsa 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I'm sure that there is a better answer to this, but my common sense says 1 bottle per prisoner, 1000 prisoners, have each sip from only one bottle, so when one falls over dead, you know which bottle he drank from and it is the poisoned one.
2006-11-14 02:37:07 · answer #3 · answered by Star G 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
off the top of my head, i'd say 999...one prisoner for each of the first 999 bottles, and if none of them die within 20 hours after consumption, then the 1000th bottle can be determined as the poisoned one.
i'm curious to see how others will respond. i'm kind of certain there is a better method....hopefully someone will think of it:)
2006-11-14 02:36:29 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
put 500 prisoners in one cell
cell 1
put 500 prisoners in another cell
cell 2
tell them they get to celebrate early
give all the prisoners a bottle each
.....wait a minute
a king will not drink from the same bottle as a prisoner anyway so
just have a alcohol free party your majesty
2006-11-14 03:10:17 · answer #5 · answered by coogle 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
1000
2006-11-14 02:35:15 · answer #6 · answered by the wise one 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋