Reply To: Puzzles
Hi all,
To clarify matters on Q9, I have provided a more specific version that links more directly to the solution I had in mind. Hope this helps!
9) (v2) 52 cards are meant to be distributed to A,B,C,D,A,… as described above. However, this series of deals stops after n cards, and no-one knows the value if n. You need to come up with an algorithm of the form “For all x in [fixed list of people in {A,B,C,D}], deal one card to x until all cards have been dealt”, such that everyone ends up with 13 cards by the end and it is independent of n.
For instance, a sample list could be [A,C,D,B,A,C,D,B,A,…]. In this case, if 3 cards have not been dealt, they go to A,C,D in turn. If 5 cards have not been dealt, they go to A,C,B,D,A in turn, and so on. (Obviously this list is not the answer!)