5 Jan
2004
5 Jan
'04
4:48 p.m.
Scott asks: << ... Then two mathematicians iterate for awhile, A: I can't deduce the answer. B: Neither can I. A: I still can't deduce the answer. ... and after a few rounds of this one of them can deduce the answer. Can anyone supply some puzzles of this flavor? (without answer :-)
I vaguely recall one of this type (in a 1958 book, "Puzzle-Math", by G. Gamow & M. Stern) which concerned determining which wives were cheating on their husbands, but I can't recall the details -- except that it took 40 days to deduce who the cheaters were. The book is, I fear, out of print, but many local libraries may have copies. Dan Asimov