Brain Teasers
Wine Bottles
In a land far away, a kingdom was famed for its wine. In one month, the king was scheduled to throw a huge banquet in honor of his birthday. Unfortunately, the king had many enemies. One day, about a month prior to the banquet, he went down to the wine cellar and found a spy poisoning one of the wine bottles. Unfortunately, the king did not notice which of the bottles was poisoned. The spy was interrogated and questioned, but refused to answer. He said that since they didn't know which bottle was poisoned, they were all rendered useless. Since they couldn't get anything out of him, they killed the spy for his treachery. Before he died, however, the spy did tell them a few things about this particular poison:
1.) The poison is so strong that any amount of dilution will have no effect on it, so if they tried to dilute the wines, it would still be poisonous.
2.) The poison would take 1 month to work. Only if after 1 month someone dies, then you know he was poisoned.
This made the king very upset. Three brave men came forward and said they would sacrifice their lives to honor the king.
In short:
You have 8 wine bottles, 1 month, and 3 expendable men. Since you have 1 month, you only have one shot at this. At the end of the month, you have to know EXACTLY (without guessing) which wine bottle is poisoned and what other 7 are good. Obviously this will require arranging the 3 men to drink the bottles in a certain fashion.
1.) The poison is so strong that any amount of dilution will have no effect on it, so if they tried to dilute the wines, it would still be poisonous.
2.) The poison would take 1 month to work. Only if after 1 month someone dies, then you know he was poisoned.
This made the king very upset. Three brave men came forward and said they would sacrifice their lives to honor the king.
In short:
You have 8 wine bottles, 1 month, and 3 expendable men. Since you have 1 month, you only have one shot at this. At the end of the month, you have to know EXACTLY (without guessing) which wine bottle is poisoned and what other 7 are good. Obviously this will require arranging the 3 men to drink the bottles in a certain fashion.
Hint
Think about all the possible outcomes that can happen at the end of the month. See if you can map that back to the bottles.Answer
Let's call the 3 men A, B and C.Here's how you should assign them to drink:
1.) A
2.) B
3.) C
4.) A, B
5.) A, C
6.) B, C
7.) A, B, C
8.) None
in other words, if the 5th bottle was poisoned, then at the end of the month, A and C would die. The rule to help you here would be the power rule. It states that any set of items can be combined to form 2^n combinations. 2^3 = 8.
Hide Hint Show Hint Hide Answer Show Answer
What Next?
View a Similar Brain Teaser...
If you become a registered user you can vote on this brain teaser, keep track of which ones you have seen, and even make your own.
Solve a Puzzle
Comments
Great puzzle. Wish I'd thought of it. Rather a Maths teaser don't you think - binomial combination.
They should have used the spy as one of the three.
Fasil, it says in the first paragraph that they killed the spy for his treachery. Poison has no effect on a dead person, does it?
really goood teaser
Hahaha.
I just hope none of the volunteers has like, a heart attack during that month...
I just hope none of the volunteers has like, a heart attack during that month...
good puzzle, nice solution....
but it would be better just to throw the wine away... one missed banquet isn't worth the lives of 3 people...
but it would be better just to throw the wine away... one missed banquet isn't worth the lives of 3 people...
To post a comment, please create an account and sign in.
Follow Braingle!