Sinister: possible solution to the prisoner riddle

[Thomas Tollefsen]

Hey all, 

I'm sorry to say that this post has virtually no Belle
and Sebatian conten; so if you don't like this riddle
stuff, you'd best not waste your time and read
further.    

O.K., so after racking my brain (is that even an
expression?) for many a moon, here is what I would do
if I were one of those prisoner types in the riddle:

They designate one prisoner as the "counter". I know,
we could call him Stuart or The Major (now there's
some content!).

(Alternatively, and slightly more efficiently, they
agree that the 
person
who goes in on day 2 as the counter, for reasons which
shall soon be
apparent.)
(Even more efficiently, they can designate the person
who goes in on
day 3. More on that later.)

The prisoners (other than the counter) follow the
following rules:
If the bulb is off, and if they have never turned the
bulb on before, 
they
turn in on. Otherwise, they do nothing with the light.

The counter does this:
If the light is on, he turns it off and adds one to
his count.
If the light is off, he does nothing.
If he has turned the light off 99 times, he declares
that everyone has
been in the room and they all go free.

I haven't worked out the average time this will take,
but I'm quite 
sure
it's something over 9,900 days. (9,900 days is the
average amount of 
time
it will take for the counter to enter the room 99
times. Since some 
times
he enters, the light will be off - because no one new
has entered since
his previous visit - the average time will be longer.)

The slight efficiency improvement has to do with
modifying the rules 
for
the first two days and naming the person on day 3 as
the "counter".
The first day, the person turns the light on.
On the second day, if it's a new person, he leaves the
light on. If 
it's
the same person as day 1, he turns if off.
The counter arrives on day 3. If the light is on, he
starts his count 
at
2. If the light is off, he starts his count at 1.

Voila and they all go free to discuss the merits of
Storytelling!

Well maybe not quite so voila, seeing how this would
still take at a minimum over 27 years.  Maybe they all
have life sentences though and 27 years seems like a
happy enough alternative.  Whadya think, eh?  

Again, sorry for no B and S content, but I thought
that there might be some people who would find even a
highly inefficient solution at least interesting to
gnaw on for a while.

"And now we rise, and we are everywhere"
Tom  


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