The dreadful lunch

Asked Sep 19 '17 at 04:44

Active Sep 19 '17 at 04:46

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There are $100$ cakes for lunch at $1$pm. One of them is poisoned. The poison takes exactly $1$ hour to kill the person who ate it. But still, some people have to taste it (just through a small piece) to make sure the lunch can be held safely. It is now $11$:$30$am. What is the minimum amount of people that have to risk their lives?

I have no idea what the answer is. Someone can eat multiple cakes so I know the answer is not 100.

By the way, can someone change the tags? I actually don't know what tag(s) it belongs to.

edited Sep 19 '17 at 04:46

asked Sep 19 '17 at 04:44

abc...

4,904

Like I said, I have no idea how to do this. – abc... Sep 19 '17 at 04:47
Try answering the question for 1 cake, then 2 cakes, 3 cakes, etc. as a start. – Qiaochu Yuan Sep 19 '17 at 04:47
1 cake 1 person 2 cake 2 persons 3 cake 2 persons... – abc... Sep 19 '17 at 04:49
Well here we have two different types of people: "Alive" people and "Posioned (Dead)" People. Can we make a ratio between the alive and the dead? This is not a hint, this is just a comment, sort of like adding to the discussion, because I too don't know how to answer this problem. – Mr Pie Sep 19 '17 at 04:53
Your answer for 2 cakes is incorrect. – Qiaochu Yuan Sep 19 '17 at 04:54
Well yes 2 cakes 1 person – abc... Sep 19 '17 at 04:55
So write 100 in binary and 2^7>100, so the answer is 7? – abc... Sep 19 '17 at 04:57

The dreadful lunch

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