Pennies on a Table
You pass away and, though you have not been a particularly bad person in life, you have not been a particularly good one either. Waiting in the reception room of hell, the devil comes out to meet you. “Well,” says the devil, “Since you have not been that bad, I am going to give you a chance to get out of here.” The two of you then enter another room off to the side of the reception. In the middle of the room is a giant circular table and next to the walls are many sacks of coins. The devil continues, “We are going to play a game. We will take turns putting coins down flat on the table. I will put down a coin and then you will put down a coin, and so on. The coins cannot overlap and they cannot hang over the edge of the table. The last person to put down a coin wins, or equivalently, the last person who can no longer put a coin down on the table loses. Since you have never played this game before, I will also let you decide if you want to play first.” Can you think of a winning strategy for the game?
Problem (and phrasing) communicated by Justin Bledin.
OK, but going first ensures you win….
I do not want to play first or second, I don’t want to play at all.
there’s a soln that’s easy to state //s (email me at [email protected])
I have a solution but you would need a ruler to measure distances exactly…
dean: correct — email me at sjm1 AT williams.edu
You go first and put a coin in the center.
After that, you mirror every move he makes through your first coin.
This way, the table will end up perfectly symmetrical and you have the last move.
You can do it with them flat. /s
obvious. put the coins on their sides. it doesnt say that they have to be flat on the table
I’ll send a hint first. //s
can u email me the answer pls?
[email protected]
monkey68pl: well done, not posting as it’s the soln
Play [[deleted]] I hope that you can understand my english – I know it’s not very good.
Great riddle, anyway:]
To Anonymous
98.251.65.153
Submitted on 2012/03/08 at 12:06 am: correct, well done! not posting as it’s the soln. //s
both bags have the same number of coins //s
Can I choose more than one bag of coins?
If not then just pick a bigger bag of coins so you know you’ll have more than the devil so you can play more
To anonymous; correct (not posting as it’s the soln)
not quite — what if the devil goes in the middle earlier?
wait until theres room for only like three or four coins and put down one in the middle, since they cannot overlap he should not be able to put another one down.
you can’t move coins, but there is a way to win if you go first
can i move the other coins? if so then i should go first. if not then i’m screwed since the devil has had all of eternity to practice this retarted game.
You’re on teh right track, but not there yet — email me at [email protected] if you want to discuss more.
Circles of coins tend to be made of odd numbers. If the circular table is to be filled without gaps then the person who placed the first coin would always win. (is the devil allowed to place a coin so that it would screw up my logic?)
The devil is being very kind and giving you a chance to play a game of skill and not luck — take him/her up on the offer!
Can’t we just play battleship like in Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey?
there are more than enough coins to cover the table 1000 times over. email me ([email protected]) if you want another hint. /s/
if there are less coins than the whole table then just let the devil play first, right? if there are more… isn’t it impossible to say, since it relies on fact who starts? i guess not, cause it has a solution, i just cant think of one.
Ross: correct, well done! Not posting as it’s the soln.
Bryan: correct! not posting as it’s the soln
Can you send a few more details to [email protected] — the table doesn’t have to be entirely filled, as there can be gaps. You might have the soln, just have to be careful how you phrase it.
The table will be fully filled by ‘odd’ number of coins.
Hence winning strategy is to play first
Whomever just posted: Submitted on 2011/11/07 at 8:00 pm: correct!
You can do this without being so violent….
easy. in the end, if u cant put the coin just put the coin and push others off the table.
No and no.
is each coin put down after the 1st required to touch the first? Is each coin required to be touching a coin preceding it? I think I have the answer but only if these 2 assumptions are true.
You don’t need to count the number of coins. You know their sizes and you can see the whole table. What is the winning strategy?
Can the guy count the number of coins before he choose?
Since you said the table is giant, I assume that it is possible to put all coins on the table. In this case, if the number of coins is odd then the guy should start first, otherwise he should let the devil start first.
You pick first. The devil will always start a new ring from a coin placed in the exact center.
This is an example of a WordPress comment, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many comments like this one or sub-comments as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.