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If you enjoy the discussion of permutations and cycles in this article, there's a puzzle you might also like:

Prisoner A is brought into the warden’s room and shown a faceup deck of 52 cards, lined up in a row in arbitrary order. She is required to interchange two cards, after which she leaves the room. The cards are then turned face down, in place. Prisoner B is brought into the room. The warden thinks of a card, and then tells it to B (for example, “the three of clubs”).

Prisoner B then turns over 26 cards, one at a time. If the named card is among those turned over, the prisoners are freed immediately. Find a strategy that guarantees that the prisoners succeed. (If they fail, they must spend the rest of their lives in prison.)

Needless to say: The two prisoners have the game described to them the day before and are allowed to have a strategy session; absolutely no communication between them is allowed on the day of the game. Notice that at no time does Prisoner A know the chosen card.

(Taken from https://www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/44h3tu/interesting_pu..., but quoting since that link has the answer in the top comment.)




That one is genius!




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