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 re(2): computer solution (spoiler) by Charlie)

Top! Thanks for pointing out where I erred... I would have been right had the number of cards been 2048 instead of 2000 :p lol!

Posted by elementofsurprize on 2009-01-05 22:07:20