Hi Neil.

14-May-04 12:56:02, Neil Heller wrote to All

 NH> Given that:

 NH> You are put in charge of 25 horses. You need to determine which 5
 NH> horses are the fastest runners. Each horse runs any race at exactly
 NH> the same speed. The speed of any one horse may be different from the
 NH> speed of any other horse. You have access to a race track with only 5
 NH> lanes. Any race can involve at most 5 horses.

 NH> question #1:

 NH> What is the fewest number of races that need to be run to
 NH> determine which are the five fastest horses?

if you can time the horses 5 races would suffice in all cases.

if you can only determine the order in which the horses finish
In some cases the answer can be determined by only 6 races

I get the feeling that you want the number of races that will suffice to
determine the 5 fastest in all cases.

in my first attempt I can do it in 26 races, but I don't think that's
anything special. there is probably away to do this with far fewer than 26
races.

if acurate relative spacing is also available (by a nose, two lengths begind etc)
is available the answer is again 6 races.

 NH> question #2:

 NH> How would you show your progression in a matrix?

I have no idea what that means.




 -=> Bye <=-

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