Contestants on the TV show “Survivor” faced off in a series of challenges for a grand prize of $1 million. Most of the challenges were physical like hiking many miles or diving underwater. But one challenge was mathematical. The game had 21 flags and contestants were organized on two teams A and B. The two teams took turns removing flags, with team A going first. Each team had to remove 1, 2, or 3 flags on a turn. The team that took the last flag won the game. One of the teams, with proper strategy, can always win the game. Which team is it, and what is the winning strategy?
Blog post:
Survivor Thailand (2002) clip available at Critical Commons:
Mathologer video on the topic:
If you like my videos, you can support me at Patreon:
Connect on social media. I update each site when I have a new video or blog post, so you can follow me on whichever method is most convenient for you.
My Blog:
Twitter:
Facebook:
Google+:
Pinterest:
Tumblr:
Instagram:
Patreon:
Newsletter (sent about 2 times a year):
My Books
“The Joy of Game Theory” shows how you can use math to out-think your competition. (rated 4/5 stars on 23 reviews)
“The Irrationality Illusion: How To Make Smart Decisions And Overcome Bias” is a handbook that explains the many ways we are biased about decision-making and offers techniques to make smart decisions. (rated 5/5 stars on 1 review)
“Math Puzzles Volume 1” features classic brain teasers and riddles with complete solutions for problems in counting, geometry, probability, and game theory. Volume 1 is rated 4.5/5 stars on 11 reviews.
“Math Puzzles Volume 2” is a sequel book with more great problems.
“Math Puzzles Volume 3” is the third in the series.
“40 Paradoxes in Logic, Probability, and Game Theory” contains thought-provoking and counter-intuitive results. (rated 4.9/5 stars on 7 reviews)
“The Best Mental Math Tricks” teaches how you can look like a math genius by solving problems in your head (rated 4.7/5 stars on 3 reviews)
“Multiply Numbers By Drawing Lines” This book is a reference guide for my video that has over 1 million views on a geometric method to multiply numbers. (rated 5/5 stars on 1 review)
Nguồn: https://newblurayrelease.com/
Xem thêm bài viết khác: https://newblurayrelease.com/game/
I solved this , who gives me 1 million?
If team A stars , b always win if b starts a always win
None of the contestants watched this video before hand.
Nice job explaining!
They should've watched this video before competing…
What if this is asked to you all of a sudden and you don't even have a paper?
It’s like Honeycomb Havoc from Mario Party 2 but you can choose from 1-3 items.
dude you've plagiated this solution from a book and didn't even credited it.
boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Vsauce2 have almost same thing in a video ”A game you can always win”
Here a strat if your starting after team a just subtract the the number they said by 4 and you’ll make 5e a team go to four and that how you win as team b i’ve done this before and it amazing
There is a by far easier explanation. The team that can always win is A and this is how:
A first move is to remove 1 flag and then if (i) B removes 1 A removes 3, (ii) B removes 2 A removes 2, (iii) B removes 3 A removes1. By doing that you easily check that at the end B have to play with 4 flags not being removed and then A always win.
A is Winning,
Here is the explanation
A pull 1 flag
B can pull 2-4
A will can pull 3-5 flag so A will pull till 5th flag and force B to pull the 6th one.
B can pull 6-8 flag.
Now A will pull 9th, 13, 17 flag to force B to pull the 18 flag.
Now B can pull 18-20 flag
So
A will pull the last flag.
You can see that if a team ( let’s say B ) has to remove flags and their are 4 remaining, team B will always lose because they can only remove 3 out of 4 total, so team A to win every time just need to make the number of flags a multiplier of 4 (4,8,12,16,20), so firstly they remove only 1 flag, team B can remove how many they want, and than we simply remove a number of flags that in the end will leave 16 flags, and if we will keep this strategy, Team B will not stand a chance.
I didn’t watch the video yet.
This is easy if you just take time to think about it
Dumbasses.
It's Nim. There, saved you about 7 minutes.
Its similar for the strat for 21 dares, but try get 1 minus the strat
Team A removes 1 flag and keep it at a multiple of 4 for Team B. Team A wins.
Ah, yes, Survivor Thailand, a season scorned by many as bland and boring in part because of drama-free challenges as action-packed as picking up flags. I liked it though, and Brian was a good winner.
I worked backwards and realised that the team which picks the 17th flag wins.. Working backwards the picker of 13th, 9th, 5th and 1st flag wins.. so team A should only pick one flag at the start and then be the picker of 5th, 9th, 13th and 17th flag as the last flags
Have solved his other puzzle similar to that…how to reach 31 December is its name
Easy one…
That's just a very tricky challenge indeed.
What Season of Survivor was this played?
Is like DR. NIM
always leave a number of flags divisible by four to the opposing team
I saw a puzzle in professor Layton which goes off the mechanics of this but is about water spouts instead
I'm trying to remember it
5:10 there's something wrong presh
It’s just reverse 21 dares
TL;DR People on TV are dumbasses!
For team A to win, they only have to pick so that the sum of the flags picked by B team on the previous turn and the ones team A picks is even
This is just nim.
I remember this riddle with pennies and the one who picks up the last one loses.
at 0:35 I called NIM
Pretty sure this is a mario party minigame also
on 8 if A goes 4 then that makes A pick up 1,2, or 3, this would leave 1, 2, or 3 for us to pick up. A would win.
I bet the hosts laughed at this
Actually, you could lose with 7
B if you get it to where there is a multiple of 4 on their go you win by taking whatever will when you add it to their go give you 4.