Puzzled: Solutions and Sources
Last month (August 2014), we presented three puzzles concerning the Path Game and the Match Game, each of which can be played on any finite graph.
Peter Winkler
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Consider two simple games played by Alice and Bob on a checkerboard or, more generally, on a graph. The games look different, but, as we know, looks can be deceiving . . .
Puzzled: Solutions and Sources
Last month (May 2014) we posted three puzzles in which you were asked to sort several cards using three stacks on a table.
Sorting is one of the most fundamental, and most studied, computational tasks. The problem is typically to put n items in order. The objective is to minimize time, space, number of comparisons, or number of rounds of comparisons.
Puzzled: Solutions and Sources
Last month (February 2014) we posted three games in which you were asked to pick a positive integer. The question in each was: What is the highest number you should think about picking? Here, we offer solutions to all three.
Each of these puzzles involves a symmetric game. You will be asked about your best strategy, but what does "best strategy" mean?
Puzzled: Solutions and Sources
Last month (November 2013) we posted three tricky puzzles concerning coin flipping. Here, we offer solutions to all three. How did you do?
Each of these puzzles involves coin flipping. Simple stuff, right? Not necessarily . . . though solutions will indeed be provided in next month's column.
Puzzled: Solutions and Sources
Last month (Aug. 2013) you needed to win several chess games in a row, alternately playing white and black, and had to decide with which color you should start.
Each of these puzzles involves game-playing strategy. If you are sufficiently clever — and sufficiently unmotivated to work hard at being clever — you can solve them all without resorting to algebra.
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