Can you solve it? Prisoners and boxes
by Alex Bellos from Science | The Guardian on (#683B5)
Using brain cells in prison cells
UPDATE: Read the solution here
Today's puzzle involves two prisoners. Let's call them Piper and Alex. You will be asked to find a strategy that wins them their freedom.
Puzzles about prison escape strategies are a relatively new genre of mathematical challenge, only a few decades old. They emerged from computer science. A prison - a place where access to information is limited - is a perfect venue for puzzles about the efficient communication of information.
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