How will Y lose the game  ?X and Y are playing a game. There are eleven coins on the table and each player must pick up at least one coin but not more than five in a turn. The person picking up the last coin loses. X starts. How many should X pick up to start to ensure a win no matter what strategy Y employs 

X picks 4.
Y picks N coins.
X removes 6N coins.
There is now 1 coin on the table because we removed 4+N+6N=10.
Generalization.
There are K coins on the table and one player can pick as many as M coins at once.
Case 1:
M >= K. This is trivial. Player 1 picks K1 coins, leaving 1 coin and wins.
Case 2.1:
M<K and K1(mod (M+1))
player 1 picks P coins in such a way that (KP)=K11(mod (M+1))
player 2 picks N coins (N<M).
Player 1 picks M+1N coins leaving again the number of coins on the table K21(mod (M+1))
Repeat this process until Kq=1 and player 1 wins.
Case 2.2
M<K and K1(mod (M+1))
Player 2 can follow the same strategy as player 1 followed in case 2.1 and win.

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