In my closet stand two brooms; one is 4 feet long, the other 6 feet long.
One leans against the left wall, the other leans against the right wall, forming a kind of an X pattern.
The base of each broom is directly below the top of the other broom, so it's an X with unequal lengths.
Someone asked how wide my closet is.
I told him that my brooms cross exactly two feet above the floor.
That's not what I want to know, he replied.
I told him to drop by BrainDen and watch this thread.
Take the digits 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 in order and insert + and - signs to get 100.
1 + 2 + 3 - 4 + 5 + 6 + 78 + 9 = 100.
OK that's the easy way.
Now do it using only 3 + and - signs.
A list was born; the storm took its toll.
Conversion claimed what survived.
Lowly zero took out the trash.
0, 0, 0, 0, 4, 9, 5, 1, 1, 0, 55, ___
Method, please, and use spoiler.
An MG golden oldie I thought I'd pass along: In a stunning upset last Saturday, Paige beat Graham in the final set of their match, 6-3. There were five service breaks in the set. Who served first?
Oh ya, show your work in a spoiler.
Hi Charlie, and welcome to the Den.
In your solution, the first prisoner would only have a 50/50 chance - no one gives him any guidance so he can only guess.
That is a necessary characteristic of any solution.
While your solution helps the other 19 with their colors, so does the parity-based solution.
So it's only "just as good."
But actually your solution gets everyone killed. So it really can't be called perfect.
The OP stipulates that ...
He will be only allowed to answer “BLACK” or “RED”.
If he says anything else you will ALL be executed immediately.
A simpler alternative solution, if saying more than just BLACK or RED were permitted,
would be to have the first prisoner simply recite all nineteen of the other prisoners' colors.