You are hot on the trail of an enemy, who is hiding in one of 17 caves.

The caves form a linear array, and every night your enemy moves from the cave he is in to one of the caves on either side of it.

You can search two caves each day, with no restrictions on your choice. For example, if you search (1, 2), (2, 3), ..., (16, 17), then you are certain to catch him, though it might take you 16 days.

What is the shortest time in which you can be guaranteed of catching your enemy?

(In reply to Where's Paulo? by ed bottemiller)

The solution is already posted. Two alternative ways are Dej Marīs and KSīs solutions. In all of them, the minimum number of days is 14 days.

What else?

Posted by pcbouhid on 2008-09-06 19:01:19