Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Nice Puzzle

There are coins of various denominations laid out in a row. Two player play a game where they take turn one by one to pick either of the two coins at the ends of the row. They play till no coin is left and the person whose coins add up to greater amount wins. Show that player who starts first has a strategy such that he cannot lose if the number of coins initially is even.

This is one of those Aha! puzzles where you just need a single insight to solve it and once you know the solution it seems completely obvious. Really nice though

5 comments:

Saurabh Joshi said...

well,

Nice puzzle viked. I already posted it along with solution on my blog long ago. Not writing the solution so that fun for other readers is not spoiled :-)

viked said...

what other readers? :)
but yeah the solution is amazing in its simplicity

viked said...

well just saw the entry on your blog and was surprised that Sambuddha was the one who told you this puzzle as even I got to know about this from Sam but then I remembered that you used to be here

Anjaan Shayar said...

seriously,it is "Aha" puzzle. It took me 4-5 hours to find the solution..answer is too simple.

Now I got why people says that industry ruins your mind.

viked said...

Yeah in industry there is more Aah! than Aha!