Well I thought it was super cool and it made me wish I knew all these special and cool maths answers because then, probably, I would score with all the hot chicks.

Elvin_vn

Vietnam2038 Posts

May 16 2008 21:14 GMT

#43

+ Show Spoiler +

now let's replace poison milks with aids chicks

Slayer91

Ireland23466 Posts

May 16 2008 21:15 GMT

#44

From the top of my head
+ Show Spoiler +

100 jars

10 x 10 would be
12345678910
11xxxxxxxxx
12xxxxxxxxx
13xxxxxxxxx
14xxxxxxxxx
15xxxxxxxxx
16xxxxxxxxx
17xxxxxxxxx
18xxxxxxxxx
19xxxxxxxxx
20xxxxxxxxx
So each rat would drink 10, but if one got sick you could tell from the way the other rats who drank the same column/row..
So if you did the same with 100 x 10 it would make 110 rats.

EDIT: Sqrt of 1000 ~=32 so if you manage a 32 x 32 grid and you have 64 rats. ?

Gandalf

Pakistan1905 Posts

May 16 2008 21:29 GMT

#45

nvm my solution si wrong, I forgot the time it takes for the poison to work. My math knowledge is rudimentary, but I think you could create overlapping mixtures, feed them to the rats, and find out which jar it is in one go.

eg with 3 jars, you could create mixtures 12, 23, 13, and feed each to 3 rats. Based on which rats die, the culprit should be identifiable.

Slayer91

Ireland23466 Posts

May 16 2008 21:36 GMT

#46

On May 17 2008 06:29 Gandalf wrote:
11 rats

+ Show Spoiler +

split the jars into two groups of 500. mix a small amount of milk from every jar in each group to form a mixture that represents each group, and feed it to two rats. One rat will die and eliminate 500 jars. Then divide the remaining 500 into two groups of 250 and so on.

The rat that doesnt die gets recycled for the next cycle. So we have:

first two rats: 500 jars left
one more rat: 250 left
one more rat: 125 left
one more rat: 63 left
one more rat: 32 left
one more rat: 16 left
one more rat: 8 left
one more rat: 4 left
one more rat: 2 left
one more rat: jar is identified, one rat stays alive, 11 used in all

Does that work with the time limit? It takes 2-3 hours for the poison to work you have 3 hours.

Luddite

United States2315 Posts

May 16 2008 22:19 GMT

#47

this is a very clever puzzle. My first thought was also "oh it must be like those weighing problems where you have to keep dividing in half 10 times" so 10, but I couldn't think of any way to make it work, so all i could think of was 999. I'm glad elements explained it so well.

xmShake

United States1100 Posts

May 16 2008 22:19 GMT

#48

Fuck the rats, just get one of your friends to drink a small sip of each milk jar until he finds one that tastes funny. Problem solved.

fusionsdf

Canada15390 Posts

May 16 2008 23:07 GMT

#49

On May 17 2008 05:12 travis wrote:

Show nested quote +

ur like 80 years late

yeah well Im like 600 years awesome

Day[9]

United States7366 Posts

May 17 2008 00:28 GMT

#50

log(n) where n is the number of poisoned bottles

Cascade

Australia5405 Posts

May 17 2008 00:37 GMT

#51

ahh, sweet problem! Me like.

A better formulation may have been that you are allowed to feed each rat only one bowl of milk (in which you then could mix), then you wouldnt have the confusion on the instantaneous milk-mixing.

And cuter things like bunnies wouldnt work very well, since people would just find a safe sort of milk and keep feeding the bunnies (from the infinite amount of milk) and cuddle with them.