THE ULTIMATE RIDDLE PART TWO.

Hello Super Nintendo Chalmers

You won't find an answer on the Internet because there is no answer.

This is a probablility riddle, and the random factor in picking the prisoners completely negates 100% certainty. Any plan the prisoners agree on will not be 100% accurate. Also, there is nowhere near enough information in the riddle to even begin to postulate a theory.

Some things to think about as to WHY there can be no answer:

1. They are in solitary and cannot communicate with other, so they can't discuss it.

2. Their cells are windowless and soundproof, making it impossible to see daylight/night time, preventing them from counting days. (One could not make the assertion until at least 100 days had passed, and in that time frame

3. Will any of the prisoners be released, or are they all in for life?

4. I suppose that someone just need make a marking on the living room wall, and at the hundreth mark, then the assertion could be made, but the riddle makes no allowances for a marking instrument.

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&q=cache:wZGr7_-6sC8J:math.stanford.edu/~pdehaye/papers/100%2520prisoners%2520and%2520a%2520lightbulb/prisoners.ps+riddle+100+prisoners+

Pamela Anderson's Left Nipple wrote:

4. I suppose that someone just need make a marking on the living room wall, and at the hundreth mark, then the assertion could be made, but the riddle makes no allowances for a marking instrument.

you could us your nail, as in your finger nails

how about this:

the first prisoner removes the lightbulb from its housing and smashes it. gathers all the pieces into a pile and then removes one piece and puts it aside from the others. next prisoner removes a second piece and puts it in line with the first. this goes on until the 100th prisoner goes into the room and counts 99 pieces of bulb in a row. declares that all 100 prisoners have been in the room.

hardly MENSA worthy, but effective.

againtocarthage wrote:

Each day...

There's your answer right there. After 100 days, all the prisoners have visited the cell. The light bulb in this case is a red herring.

You make sure everyone changes the light once. If the prisoner goes into the room and the light is off, and he has never turned it on, then he turns it on. If the light is off, and he has turned it on once already, he leaves it alone. You designate one person the "On" person. This is the only person who can turn the light on. Every time he walks into the room and the light is on he will turn it off. Once he turns it off 99 times than every has been in the room.

Pamela Anderson's Left Nipple wrote:

but the riddle makes no allowances for a marking instrument.

deeprunxc wrote:

you could us your nail, as in your finger nails

You're not the sharpest tool in the shed, are you? What part of "but the riddle makes no allowances for a marking instrument" is not clear to you?

oh... the warden picks prisoners at random. Sorry.

deeprunxc wrote:

You make sure everyone changes the light once. If the prisoner goes into the room and the light is off, and he has never turned it on, then he turns it on.

You designate one person the "On" person. This is the only person who can turn the light on.

So who gets to turn on the light, the prisoner who goes into the room and the light is off, or the designated person?

Houston, we have a problem....

Not a MENSA member wrote:There's your answer right there. After 100 days, all the prisoners have visited the cell. The light bulb in this case is a red herring.

There's a reason you're not a MENSA member (nor am I...). The prisoners are randomly selected each day. There's a good chance it will take many years for all prisoners to have had at least one turn. In fact, I'd wager it's probable they will have all served their full sentences before the 100th prisoner makes it into the room (whether they have a smart plan or not). Anyone want to run a Monte Carlo simulation (or work it out mathematically) to see the likely time for all 100 to get their chance?

Nor does the riddle disallow marking with your nail, noob.

The smashing of the light bulb is the only solution postulated that will work (or the nail mark on the wall but i prefer the light bulb one as it at least uses the light bulb in some way!!)

The only rule the prisoners must folow is that if the person is in the room for the second or third time etc they do not move one of the pieces to the corner. they simply leave the room exactly as it was.

If some one enters and counts 99 pieces in the corner of the room and it is that prisoners first time in the room then he knows this is the time to call the warden.

Very well done

Well the riddle doesn't disallow the prisoners from communicating by slipping notes under their cell doors either, Einstein.

Solve the riddle with only what you have been given, f-tard, not the stuff that you make up as you go along.

Assumes you can get at the lightbulb. The only information regarding the light bulb is that it starts in the off position, and that it can be toggled back and forth. Nowhere does it say that it is accessable enough for you to break it.

Hello, people, this is a mathematical probability problem, not a McGyver episode. If it's not in the riddle, then it is not an option.

even if the bulb could be accessed and smashed, wouldn't it be difficult to line up pieces in the dark?

Pamela Anderson's Left Nipple wrote:

Well the riddle doesn't disallow the prisoners from communicating by slipping notes under their cell doors either, Einstein.

No allowance for a writing instrument, remember? That was your call, genius.

u r wrong again wrote:

No allowance for a writing instrument, remember? That was your call, genius.

You must be the village idiot.

If you're going to quote me to make a point, then quote the entire post, which was:

Well the riddle doesn't disallow the prisoners from communicating by slipping notes under their cell doors either, Einstein.

Solve the riddle with only what you have been given, f-tard, not the stuff that you make up as you go along.

It's clear to anyone with even a smidgen of reading comprehension that the first sentence was in reply to someone who was attempting to solve the puzzle with information they have not been given.

They should agree to wait five years regardless of flicking light switches, and then have someone tell the warden they've all been there. After five years, the odds that there is still a prisoner who has never visited the room is less than one in a million, a chance well worth taking. After three years, their chance of death is about one in one thousand if they wanted to play it a little more risky