A little riddle for your enjoyment

[Duke Diablo]

Well, thought I'd place this really hard problem here, to challenge the minds of fellow Theatrians.

So, the situation is like this: you are a king of a country, and it is your birthday. As such, you decide to hold a grand celebration, with big feast at your castle. For this celebration you order, among other things, 1000 bottles of special wine.
However, a day before celebration you get a note saying one of the wine bottles is poisoned. It doesn't tell which one it is, just that the slightest sip from the wine can kill a man, and that the poison takes about 24 hours to take effect. So, since you can't order a new batch of wine in such a short period of time, you decide to find out which bottle is poisoned by having the prisoners drink it.
So, how many minimum prisoners are needed to find out exactly which bottle of wine is poisoned? Assume that any prisoner can drink as many times as it needs, and that any bottle of wine can be drank from infinite times.

 

[Bashiku]

I KNOW I KNOW... but I won't tell 🙂

 

[N/A]

9

 

[FeatherDaemon1]

You would need one just taking sips until he hit the poisoned bottle. Granted he would be shitfaced and going to the bathroom often, but yeah just one.

 

[N/A]

How would you tell which bottle killed him?
You only have one day, and it takes roughly 24 hours to kill.
If you eat a whole can of beans, which one made you fart?

 

[TyrantRaveAB]

You would need one just taking sips until he hit the poisoned bottle. Granted he would be shitfaced and going to the bathroom often, but yeah just one.

but the poison takes 24hrs to take effect. so even if he did drink from all of them, when he was dead in the morning you still wouldnt know which one it was b/c he drank from all of them.

 

[Journia]

I think it would be five hundred. each prisoner gets two bottles. the prisoner drinks some of each bottle, and the prisoner keeps both bottles. in the morning the prisoner is found dead, then both bottles are thrown away.

Or, the king might not have any one and just serve the wine and see who dies.

Or you could have ten prisoners.

 

[Duke Diablo]

No, it's definitely more than 1 that you said, Feather, for reasons pento and tyrant said.

And it's definitely less than 500, Journia🙂

 

[melanie2]

what is this hell week???

ten...

 

[Duke Diablo]

ten...

Interesting. How did you get to this number, Izzy?

 

[N/A]

10 is correct; I counted my fingers wrong counting to 512.
The conflict between decimal and binary.

 

[melanie2]

i'm like Little Man Tate..i saw the number 10

 

[Dr. Bill Kobb]

what is this hell week???

ten...

I blame myself. 🙁

 

[Duke Diablo]

10 is correct; I counted my fingers wrong counting to 512.
The conflict between decimal and binary.

Aye, m8. That is correct. Please do tell us how you came to that, as I think you got it right. And Izzy, 10 is correct🙂

 

[N/A]

You have 1000 bottles.
Number them in binary (base 2) from 0000000000 (0) to 1111100111 (999).
Give a thimblefull of each bottle to the poor victims whose location corresponds to a "1" in the binary number.
For example, bottle 31 goes to the last 5 guys. If it is poison, only those 5 victims die.

 

[FeatherDaemon1]

It would still work with only one. Just have someone recording the the time of each sip down to the second. Then put the time on the bottle. It wouldn't take too long for the prisoner to get through a 1000 sips. As bottles pass the 24 hour mark they can be marked safe. When the prisoner first feels symptoms then grab the bottle marked 24 hours earlier. Yeah its a bit fuzzy, but it could work. :laughing:

 

[melanie2]

thank you so much Dukey...i dreamt of binary numbers all night..and trying to multiply two to the power of...ackkkkkkkkkkk i woke up screaming..i actually did dream of these things..

 

[jts963]

You have 1000 bottles.
Number them in binary (base 2) from 0000000000 (0) to 1111100111 (999).
Give a thimblefull of each bottle to the poor victims whose location corresponds to a "1" in the binary number.
For example, bottle 31 goes to the last 5 guys. If it is poison, only those 5 victims die.

Actually the poisoner lied: he poisoned bottles 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16. Bottle 31 gets eliminated when the last five guys die. Then the party becomes a legendary disaster when guest after guest dies the next day. Many plans to overthrow or assassinate you are born. :dead:

 

[N/A]

To Featherdaemon: the original rules stated "approximately 24 hours" to kill, so timing won't work.
To jts963: if you can't trust a psychopath to stick by his posted rules (only one bottle spiked), whom can you trust?

 

[J.Apolo6541]

Screw that,
Just get some pretty maidens to stomp some grapes for more wine, then clean their feet, place them is stocks... ( C'mon, you know the rest ! )

J😛aw:

And a great time will be had by all !

 

[N/A]

Why clean their feet? The volunteer tickler brigade can be trusted to lick the juice before drying with feathers.

 

[Duke Diablo]

You have 1000 bottles.
Number them in binary (base 2) from 0000000000 (0) to 1111100111 (999).
Give a thimblefull of each bottle to the poor victims whose location corresponds to a "1" in the binary number.
For example, bottle 31 goes to the last 5 guys. If it is poison, only those 5 victims die.

Aye, mate. That is correct. I'd like a big applause to pentode for solving this really tough riddle.

Also, a worthwile mention to Izzy, who also got the number right.

And Feather... it states 'around' 24 hours. And you only got a day.