IIT JEE , AIEEE Forum - Mathematics , Algebra

arvind1990

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?

master_purav

I think its 1000...

(What else could it be?)

arvind1990

Justify ur answer pls!!!

nunoxic

i dunno for sure but i think its 1000 too

the poison takes 10-20 hours to activate....but we are unsure whether its 10 or 20......since the king wants to be absolutely sure about the poison he will have to consider higher limit....20 hours...
now, the king has just under 24 hours at his disposal......so the only thing he can do is give one bottle to every prisoner and wait..

master_purav

I think its 999.

The emperor can give wine from 999 bottles and wait for 10 - 20 hours. If anybody dies then he will find out from which bottle did he drink. If nobody dies then the bottle which was not given to any prisoner would be having poison...

Whats the answer anyway????

break_the_neck_of_jee

in my opinion also it should be 999

Ryuu

Ryuu

Yes 999 is the right answer.
@arvind_1990 isnt it?

@master_purav great job dude.

shine

YA IT SHOULD B 999
GOOD JOB PURAV

nunoxic

lolz.....wat a fool i am to have not thought of that.....

puneet

hii

Well ya it is indeed 999 ..

But have a look at this .. see, suppose we had a lot of time then this wud not be the case ..

Make one drink 500 and other 500 .. so now u know that which 500 are poisoned .. thus u have been able to reduce the prob in one half just by making two drink ...

So, in almost log.n steps u can do this .. but as i said only if u have enuf time .. otherwise it has to be 999 .. no option ..

cheers

arvind1990

dont get disappointed with the answer!!!!!!

the answer is 10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

arvind1990

fine i hve given the answer,can anyone come out with justification???

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