There are cards labeled from 1 to 2000. The cards are arranged and placed in a pile.

The top card is placed on the table, then the next card at the bottom of the pile.

Then the next card is placed on the table to the right of the first card, and the next card is placed at the bottom of the pile.

This process is continued until all the cards are on the table.

The final order (from left to right) is 1, 2, 3, ... , 2000.

In the original pile, how many cards were above card labeled 1999?

(In reply to computer solution (spoiler) by Charlie)

According to my program (here) the card at 928th position has value of 1953 and not 1999.

Posted by elementofsurprize on 2009-01-04 20:09:04