10.4k views
5 votes
An evil king has n bottles of wine, and a spy has just poisoned one of them. unfortunately, they do not know which one it is. the poison is very deadly; just one drop diluted even a billion to one will still kill. even so, it takes a full month for the poison to take effect. design a scheme for determining exactly which one of the wine bottles was poisoned in just one month's time while expending o(log n) taste testers.

User Naren
by
5.8k points

1 Answer

5 votes

Have the taste tester consume a drop from each bottle 1 day after the other. He'll die exactly 1 month after he consumes the poisoned one.

User Chris Wheadon
by
5.2k points