Thursday, April 15, 2010
100 Prisoners in Solitary Cells
100 prisoners are stuck in the prison in solitary cells. The warden of the prison got bored one day and offered them a challenge. He will put one prisoner per day, selected at random (a prisoner can be selected more than once), into a special room with a light bulb and a switch which controls the bulb. No other prisoners can see or control the light bulb. The prisoner in the special room can either turn on the bulb, turn off the bulb or do nothing. On any day, the prisoners can stop this process and say “Every prisoner has been in the special room at least once”. If that happens to be true, all the prisoners will be set free. If it is false, then all the prisoners will be executed. The prisoners are given some time to discuss and figure out a solution. How do they ensure they all go free?
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can u plz provide the solution.............
ReplyDeleteOne person is chosen as the counter. If the light switch is on, no prisoner will touch it. If it is off, and a prisoner who has never flicked the switch enters, then he flicks the switch on. It stays like that until the counter returns. The counter never flicks it up, only flicks it down. Once he notices that it's been flicked up 99 times, he says that 100 prisoners have visited, and they go free.
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