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Another puzzle guys. This one is kinda neat, but pretty simple.
You're playing a two-player turn based game. You have a circular table, 1 meter in diameter. You and your opponent take turns putting 1 centimeter pennies on the table. The pennies cannot overlap each other, and they must stay completely on the table.
If you cannot put down a penny on your turn, you lose the game.
Would you rather go first or second, and what would your strategy be?
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On February 06 2008 08:14 Daveed wrote:+ Show Spoiler +I would Go first/put the penny right on the center.
+ Show Spoiler +ahh, that's sweet! And then just put pennies exactly on the opposite side of the centre penny as his pennies I guess?
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On February 06 2008 08:15 Cascade wrote:+ Show Spoiler +ahh, that's sweet! And then just put pennies exactly on the opposite side of the centre penny as his pennies I guess? breakable aint it? I mean this would rely on PRECISION placement. No would have to be dead on, every time. There must be more effective ways
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just play retardedly, its a 50/50% chance unless your opponent is einstein or somethin
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there's gotta be a mathematical solution to how many pennies can be on the table. can you move pennies that are already on the table?
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On February 06 2008 08:23 DamageControL wrote:Show nested quote +On February 06 2008 08:15 Cascade wrote:On February 06 2008 08:14 Daveed wrote:+ Show Spoiler +I would Go first/put the penny right on the center. + Show Spoiler +ahh, that's sweet! And then just put pennies exactly on the opposite side of the centre penny as his pennies I guess? breakable aint it? I mean this would rely on PRECISION placement. No would have to be dead on, every time. There must be more effective ways I don't think it would work. What if the second player put a penny down 0.7 cm away from yours, at a 25º angle?
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+ Show Spoiler +Actually, if the coin overlaps the exact center of the table at all, you've won.
A few replies to the people above:
@ DamageControL:
In mathematical games like this, you usually assume exact movements from yourself, as well as perfect strategy from the opponent. At any rate, if you carry this out correctly, there's no way you can lose.
@ fight/flight- I don't understand what you mean. At a 25 degree angle? With respect to... what?
@ meta- sure, you could figure out what the max number of pennies are that could fit on a table. But this would require that the pennies be put on in a specific pattern; what if one of the players placed their penny out of position for this "perfect arrangement"? That would mess things up.
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On February 06 2008 08:14 Daveed wrote:+ Show Spoiler +I would Go first/put the penny right on the center.
Cool.
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Take the pennies and run.
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Daveed's solution is correct. Congratulations!
+ Show Spoiler + Once you take the center, you know that anything your opponent does, there's always a mirror move on the other side that's open. There's no way for the opponent to "block" your move, because the only place where that would be possible is in the middle, which you already took.
For anyone who doubts the solution, you could always find a circular table, break out a lot of pennies, and test for yourself .
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wow, thats actually pretty clever
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United States1654 Posts
On February 06 2008 11:22 EmeraldSparks wrote: Take the pennies and run.
This one looked like a better solution!
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