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Mathematician Versus Detective (Posted on 2003-11-05) Difficulty: 3 of 5
The police commissioner hired a mathematician to help at a crime scene. At the scene were between 100 and 200 glasses of wine. Exactly one glass was poisoned. The police lab could test any sampling for poison. A group of glasses could be tested simultaneously by mixing a sample from each glass. The police commissioner desired only to minimize the maximum possible tests required to determine which exact glass was poisoned.

The mathematician started by asking a detective to select a single glass at random for testing. "Wouldn't that waste a test?", the detective asked. "No, besides I'm in a gambling mood.", the mathematician replied. How many glasses were there?

See The Solution Submitted by Ravi Raja    
Rating: 3.4444 (9 votes)

Comments: ( Back to comment list | You must be logged in to post comments.)
re(3): Waste a test | Comment 9 of 21 |
(In reply to re(2): Waste a test by Saso)

Saso, I repeat, the question asked "to minimize the maximum possible". The likelihood of wasting a test doesn't come into play.
  Posted by SilverKnight on 2003-11-06 12:33:59

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