NYCPHP Meetup

[Urb LeJeune]

>This is trivial:
>number of matches required to get a winner = number of players - 1
>explanation:
>one match eliminates one player
>every player but one must be eliminated to have a winner
>therefore.......

         I didn't know someone has actually solved the problem when I
posted the last message.

         The answer is elegant, not trivial. I gave this problem to people
in a first programming class over a period of 15 years. Maybe 10
people solved it correctly in the approximately 1,000 students who
took it. Almost everyone did something like.

N = N /2 rounded up.
M = N /2 rounded down.
If N = 1 display Matches

about half tried it with an example of N being a power of two and 
never rounded.
This is an emulation of an actual tournament.

Another variation was:

N = decrement N
M = increment M
If N = 1 display Matches.

         Your answer required a different philosophical approach.
You are asking, how is a looser determined? The above two
approaches ask how is a winner determined?

Urb
Urb

Dr. Urban A. LeJeune, President
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