Difficult puzzle
- From: none <""john\"@(none)">
- Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 22:34:31 +0000
Below is whats seems to me as a very difficult puzzle. I'm not writing
here to get the solution (but please share any ideas). What I'm
interested in is if this kind of problems can be translated to any kind
of math? If yes, what kind of math? If not, might such math appear in
the future? Or will this kind of puzzles never be modelled by mathematics?
There was an island inhabited just by seagulls. Some of them
caught a lethal but non-contagious disease. The only symptom of the
disease is a dark spot on the neck. The neck shows no protuberance
or increased sensibility so that it is not possible for a given
seagull to know whether it has one. A few months after contracting
the disease, all infected seagulls die in a terrible way. Therefore,
to minimize its suffering, when a seagull is sure of being infected,
it commits suicide exactly at 11 pm on the day that it learns of its
illness. The seagulls are highly intelligent, but they are unable to
communicate with each other. They know how to count and they know
the total number of seagulls on the island. Once a day, exactly at
noon, all of them meet so that some of them see the spots on the
other seagulls' necks, but they never see the spot on their own neck
or find out from other seagulls whether they have one or not. A
seagull with a spot on its neck always carries the disease. During
the first 39 meetings, none of the seagulls commit suicide. After 39
days and as many meetings, all of the seagulls with a spot on their
neck commit suicide at 11 pm. The seagull population is constant
from the first meeting until the day the suicides occur. How many
seagulls commit suicide and how do they find out about their spots?
(To be honest, I actually _do_ want the solution. :)
.
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