Fair Rope Pulling
Problem:
The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is bolstering privacy
protection in general and for biometric features in particular.
We would like to hold a competition, but to make it fair we'd like to have all the
participants be of similar strength.
Let's assume (for the sake of the challenge) that all the men can apply exactly the same
force in a rope-pulling contest, and all the women can apply a different force, but again,
same for all.
We want to make sure that all the participants have the same gender.
The simple way to do that (asking for gender in the application form) is not an option
(since it might be regarded as a biometric feature), so instead we use a rope-pulling
contest.
We have time for four such contests, where we can chose any two equal-sized disjoint
subsets of participants and let them compete. If any of these four contests ends not in a tie
(i.e., one group wins) then, of course, we've proved that our group is not mono-gender.
We need to find four contests that can prove that all the N participants have the same
gender.
For example, here is such a solution for a group of N=16 people:
A;B
AB;CD
ABCD; EFGH
ABCDE FGH;IJKLMNOP
The challenge, this month, is to find a solution for N at least 27. Bonus '*' for bigger Ns.
Use "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789" to mark the participants.
Solution:
All the solutions we present are built on splitting the N persons into groups and running
the rope-pulling contest in subsets of these groups.
Here's an N=27 solution:
- ABCDEFGHI WXY Z ; JKLMNOPQ RSTUV
- ABCDEFGHI Z 0 ; JKLMNOPQ WXY
- ABCDEFGHI ; RSTUV WXY Z
- JKLMNOPQ Z ; RSTUV WXY 0
An N=30 solution:
- ABCD EFGHI JKLMNO ; PQRSTUV WXYZ0123
- ABCD PQRSTUV ; EFGHI JKLMNO
- JKLMNO PQRSTUV ; EFGHI WXYZ0123
- ABCD WXYZ0123 ; EFGHI PQRSTUV
To verify that the last solution works, you need to show that the integer solutions for the
following equation set
( 1 1 1 -1 -1 ) (x4) (0)
( 1 -1 -1 1 0 ) (x5) (0)
( 0 -1 1 1 -1 ) (x6) = (0)
( 1 -1 0 -1 1 ) (x7) (0)
(x8)
are multiple of (4,5,6,7,8), which means that all the participants are from the same gender
as required.
An N=114 solution for five rope-pulling contests can be achieved by
1 -1 -1 1 -1 1
-1 1 0 1 -1 0
1 1 0 -1 -1 1
1 0 1 1 -1 -1
1 1 -1 0 1 -1
with the only integer solution as follows:
9 12 20 22 25 26
Game of 12 months chefs
Problem:
12 chefs (one for each month of the year) each has N sous chefs.
The chefs divide the sous chefs into three shifts: N1, N2 and N3 where N=N1+N2+N3
and no two numbers are the same.
After this partition, the three sets of sous chefs are randomly assigned to prepare the three
daily meals (morning, lunch, and dinner).
For each meal, the chef who has more sous-chefs wins. If both chefs chose the same
number - the result is a draw. When comparing two chefs, the one who won more meals
wins.
For example: if N=9 and January's chef decided to split to 1,2,6 and February's chef
decided to split to 2,3,4 then there are six possible permutations:
Jan Feb meals winner overall winner
1 2 6 vs 2 3 4 Feb, Feb, Jan Feb
1 6 2 vs 2 3 4 Feb, Jan, Feb Feb
2 1 6 vs 2 3 4 Draw, Feb, Jan Draw
2 6 1 vs 2 3 4 Draw, Jan, Feb Draw
6 1 2 vs 2 3 4 Jan, Feb, Feb Feb
6 2 1 vs 2 3 4 Jan, Feb, Feb Feb
So the end result is that February wins. On the other hand, if the March chef chose 0,4,5,
then he will win against February, but will lose to January.
IBM's Chef Watson analyzed the situation as a restaurant critic, and found that in every
duel, the chef who wins is the one whose month appears first after a random date, i.e.,
when the June and July chefs are competing, June will win, but April will lose to
December. In the event of a tie (like April and October), the culinary match ends with a
tie as well.
Find the minimal N and a possible choice of the 12 chefs that can allow such a situation
to occur.
Supply your answer as a set of 12 triplets of integers.
Update (1/11): To clarify which month wins:
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Jan = > > > > > = < < < < <
Feb < = > > > > > = < < < <
Mar < < = > > > > > = < < <
Apr < < < = > > > > > = < <
May < < < < = > > > > > = <
Jun < < < < < = > > > > > =
Jul = < < < < < = > > > > >
Aug > = < < < < < = > > > >
Sep > > = < < < < < = > > >
Oct > > > = < < < < < = > >
Nov > > > > = < < < < < = >
Dec > > > > > = < < < < < =
Solution:
You can solve this challenge by writing a computer program, but Motty Porat (Thanks!)
sent us a great solution - solving it without a computer. Here is his solution:
This challenge looks crazy, but some observations can simplify it.
First and foremost, to match two chefs, we don't have to check all their six permutations
but only the sorted ones. That is, if chef1 divides the shifts to x1<y1<z1 (x1+y1+z1=N)
and chef2 divides to x2<y2<z2, then:
If they are equal in one dimension, they draw, e.g., 1,2,6 and 0,2,7
Otherwise, the chef that surpasses the other in two dimensions wins, e.g., 2,3,4 beats
1,2,6 (because 2>1 and 3>2. It doesn't matter that they both contain 2, as it's in different
places).
We can draw each chef on the XY plane, with the boundaries:
0<x<y
y < z = N-x-y => 2y < N-x => y < (N-x)/2
I won't draw the boundaries yet, for convenience.
Fix chef1 (Jan) at some point. The chefs that lose to him (such as Feb) must satisfy
exactly two of these relations:
x2 < x1
y2 < y1
z2 < z1 => N-x2-y2 < N-x1-y1 => x2+y2 > x1+y1
Let's assume that
z1 = z7
(we'll check the
other options too)
Thus x1+y1
= x7+y7.
Chefs 2-6 (Feb-June) must be in the green-only areas, because they lose to Jan and beat
July. Similarly, chefs 8-12 (Aug-Dec) must be in the blue-only areas. Depending on the
direction of chefs 1 & 7, the green areas lie beyond the left and right sides of the 1-
7 square and the blue areas are above and below the square (case I), or vice versa. Since
the year is cyclic, we can assume case I, w.l.o.g.
Corollary: All the pairs that draw, draw at the same dimension
Chefs that draw are equal in one dimension. We assumed that Jan & July have z1 = z7,
and found that the valid points for Feb share neither x nor y coordinate with those of Aug,
so they must have z2 = z8.
As for the direction between chefs 2 & 8, they again have two options: parallel to 1-
7 (case I.a) or antiparallel (case I.b).
The valid areas for chefs 3-6 (and 9-12), are the intersection of the green (and blue) areas
that are induced by the 1-7 square and by the 2-8 square.
If we place all the pairs in parallel (case I.a), then in order to take the minimal area, we
should move just one unit down-left each time. The solution will look like this: (The
numbers are month, in Hex)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
A
B
C
If we choose to apply case
I.b, we can do it only once,
and the solution will look
the same but with rotated
order, e.g.,
3
4
5
6
1
2
9
A
B
C
7
8
Now, at which
dimension do the
pairs draw?
We assumed that all the
pairs drew at Z (z1=z7),
and sketched the projection
on the XY plane. Clearly, if
we examine the
other two options, the
diamond shape of the
solution won't change. But
now let's see
what the boundaries
(0<=x<y<z, x+y+z=N)
look like.
So the solution is: N = 42
Sous chefs:
5, 18, 19
4, 17, 21
3, 16, 23
2, 15, 25
1, 14, 27
0, 13, 29
11, 12, 19
10, 11, 21
9, 10, 23
8, 9, 25
7, 8, 27
6, 7, 29
And if you want to add another constraint that all N1,N2,N3 are non-zero, then the best
solution (thanks, Aviv Nisgav) is
1,14,30
12,13,20
11,12,22
10,11,24
9,10,26
8, 9,28
7, 8,30
6,19,20
5,18,22
4,17,24
3,16,26
2,15,28
The Best Five Digit Number
Problem:
Three printers print the following: the first prints the digits of e
(2.71828182845904523536...), the second prints the digits of pi
(3.14159265358979323846...), and the third the digits of the square root of two
(1.4142135623730...). Every second, exactly one and only one of these printers prints its
next digit. You have a five-digit number, and when all three printers show your number as
the most recently printed five digits - you win.
Assuming you can control the order in which the three printers print their digits, what
five-digit number should you choose to win as fast as possible?
For example, if we play this game for two-digit numbers, you can win after 47 seconds
by selecting 23 as your number: let the first printer work for 18 seconds, then the second
one for 18 seconds, and then the third for 11 seconds and we get "23" on all three. This is
not the best solution, by the way - there is an even faster one.
Provide your answer as the five-digit number you selected and the length of time it took
you to win in hh:mm:ss format.
Solution:
After computing the three constants accurate enough, all that's left to do is verify the five-
digit number 46652 can appear first, after 00:36:06. Several of you solved for other
lengths, like Andreas Stiller:
1 digit: 1: 0:00:06 (3 + 2 + 1 = 6)
2 digits: 35: 0:00:38 (19 + 11 + 8 = 38)
3 digits: 459: 0:05:01 (13 + 63 + 225 = 301)
4 digits: 1384: 0:13:38 (325 + 385 + 108 = 818)
5 digits: 46652: 0:36:06 (1154 + 381 + 631 = 2166)
6 digits: 029095: 5:00:32 (2599 + 8579 + 6854 =
18032)
7 digits: 1718077: 9:28:10 (2802 + 12162 + 19126 =
34090)
8 digits: 39668259: 90:12:04 (103091 + 156219 + 65414 =
324724)
9 digits: 941873747: 557:22:48 (1188806 + 105732 + 712030 =
2006568)
10 digits: 2087746140: 1568:05:17 (4378359 + 11711 + 1255047 =
5645117)
11 digits: 38898554239: 4864:11:13 (10363250 + 4123950 + 3023873 =
17511073)
