January 2011
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Teacher: Let me teach you the order of letters.
Student: That's boring.
Teacher: So we'll do it using a game.
Student: That's better.
Teacher: You see the pile of 45 beans on the table?
Student: Yes.
Teacher: Choose a letter from the phrase "IBM RULES" and take beans while counting from 'A' to the letter you've selected.
Student: OK. I choose 'B', so counting 'A', 'B', I'll take two beans.
Teacher: Right! Now it's my turn, and I choose 'L' Counting 'A', 'B',...,'L', I'll take 12 beans.
Student: Got it. Now it's my turn. I also choose 'L', taking 12 beans.
Teacher: Now it's my turn again. I choose 'R' and counting 'A','B',...,'R', I'll take 18 beans.
Student: Aha! Now it's my turn, but I can't play since there's only one bean left.
Teacher: So I win.
Student: OK. Let's play again, but this time we'll start with 71 beans.
Teacher: Fine. You start.
Student: If I play 'B', I can guarantee winning.
Teacher: Good work! You are learning fast. Let's play with another phrase: "XXXXXX XXXX".
Student: OK. Write the number 204193/178481 + 2**-40 at base 8 (octal) and I'd like you to start if the N-th digit after the octal point is 1, otherwise I'll start. For example, the 19th octal digit is 7, so I'll start if N=19.
Teacher: Wow, that was fast - you solved the game.
Find a possible crossed-out phrase ("XXXXXX XXXX" above) that would make the above dialogue true.
To clarify: "**" above means exponentiation; so 2**-40 is one over 2 to the 40th power.
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Challenge:
12/31/2010 @ 05:00 PM EST
Solution:
01/31/2011 @ 05:00 PM EST
List Updated:
12/31/2010 @ 05:00 PM EST
People who answered correctly:
Puzzlet Chung (01/01/2011 08:16 AM EDT)
Dmitry Sotnikov (01/02/2011 08:00 AM EDT)
John T. Robinson (01/03/2011 12:26 AM EDT)
Tom Sirgedas (01/03/2011 10:48 AM EDT)
Nyles Heise (01/04/2011 02:04 AM EDT)
Dan Dima (01/04/2011 12:27 PM EDT)
Luke Pebody (01/04/2011 03:54 PM EDT)
Austin Shapiro (01/04/2011 04:58 PM EDT)
Clive Tong (01/04/2011 07:06 PM EDT)
Franza Cavalcante Jr (01/04/2011 07:21 PM EDT)
Daniel Bitin (01/04/2011 07:23 PM EDT)
Letao Wang (01/04/2011 11:54 PM EDT)
Prateek Agarwal1 (01/05/2011 02:44 AM EDT)
Adam Daire (01/03/2011 04:29 AM EDT)
Joseph DeVincentis (01/05/2011 11:52 AM EDT)
Nick McGrath (01/05/2011 11:58 AM EDT)
Piet Orye (01/05/2011 02:52 PM EDT)
Chuck Carroll (01/05/2011 04:15 PM EDT)
John Duffield (01/06/2011 12:50 PM EDT)
Adam M. Mosquera (01/06/2011 02:46 PM EDT)
Mark Mixer (01/07/2011 06:40 AM EDT)
Mark Mammel (01/07/2011 04:58 PM EDT)
Ashutosh Mahajan (01/07/2011 05:57 PM EDT)
John Tromp (01/07/2011 07:31 PM EDT)
Álvaro Begué (01/07/2011 07:33 PM EDT)
Dmitry Litvinenko (01/08/2011 11:06 AM EDT)
Thijmen Krebs (01/08/2011 11:14 AM EDT)
Dejan Stakic (01/09/2011 11:49 AM EDT)
Kerry M. Soileau (01/11/2011 07:58 PM EDT)
Daniel Chong Jyh Tar (01/12/2011 05:36 AM EDT)
Tamir Ganor (01/12/2011 10:16 AM EDT)
Mathias Schenker (01/12/2011 01:50 PM EDT)
Gale Greenlee (01/12/2011 02:18 PM EDT)
Alex Wagner (01/12/2011 04:26 PM EDT)
Chris Shannon (01/13/2011 09:23 PM EDT)
Chris Lewis (01/14/2011 01:52 PM EDT)
Andrew Buchanan (01/15/2011 08:09 AM EDT)
Amrith Raghavan (01/15/2011 01:57 PM EDT)
Sevag Papazian (01/16/2011 07:09 PM EDT)
Aviv Nisgav (01/17/2011 01:06 PM EDT)
Amir Sarid (01/23/2011 08:40 AM EDT)
Vitaly Stakhovsky (01/23/2011 08:09 PM EDT)
Mayowa Aregbesola (01/23/2011 09:29 PM EDT)
Prathu Bharti Tiwari (01/24/2011 04:46 AM EDT)
Vivek Nema (01/24/2011 06:08 AM EDT)
Naji Ashry (01/24/2011 09:20 AM EDT)
Thomas Rohr (01/25/2011 09:07 AM EDT)
Kipp Johnson (01/25/2011 12:54 PM EDT)
Adriana Clerici (01/26/2011 09:02 AM EDT)
David Friedman (01/28/2011 05:37 PM EDT)
David Greer (01/29/2011 12:46 PM EDT)
Rajendran Thirupugalsamy (01/29/2011 07:38 PM EDT)
Andrew Marut (01/30/2011 06:14 AM EDT)
Albert Stadler (01/31/2011 05:16 AM EDT)
Nikhil Sahasrabudhe (01/31/2011 12:15 PM EDT)
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