Bob Bixler

Yes, you have the basic procedure which is to start at or near one end and move 3 holes each time until you reach the end and repeat at or near the start. There are subtle modifications as you describe but they all give about the same result. The interesting point is that there is an enormous difference between this approach and offhand initial guesses.

Yes to all your questions. There are better ways than your initial guess.

As this is an open challenge question I want to give other people plenty of time to respond.

Looking in a middle hole every date has an expected time of over 1,000 days to find the rat. There's a way to do it in less time.

A rat is in one of 100 holes that are in a line. Each night he moves to the left or right 0,1, or 2 holes randomly selected. You pick one hole each day to look in until you find him. What procedure do you use in order to minimize the expected number of days before you find him?

I'm using the generally accepted usage of logical terms: 1. "or" means and/or 2. "if" means "if" ---- I do not mean "if and only if" 3. Given: if A then B. If A is false then nothing can be determined about B. However the contrapositive condition should also be considered: if not B then not A.

You are the detective in a crime. From your research you know that Jill and John are lying however the others may be telling the truth or lying. What can you deduce from the statements below? Jill said: IF John is not involved and Joe told the truth THEN Mike is not involved John said: IF Abby is involved or Sue is involved THEN Joe is involved Abby said: IF Cindy is not involved or Joe is not involved THEN Mike is involved or Jill is not involved Cindy said: IF Mike is involved and Joe told the truth THEN John is not involved or Jill is involved Sue said: IF Joe is involved or Sue is not involved THEN Cindy is involved or Abby is not involved Mike said: IF Cindy is not involved and Abby is involved THEN John is not involved or Jill is not involved Joe said: IF Jill is telling the truth or Cindy is lying THEN Sue is telling the truth or Mike is telling the truth

I looked at just a few basic strategies. Best I could do was to bet .57 x money-in-hand each bet. What's your best?