Table of contents | |
Introduction | |
Clarifications | |
Solution | |
Execution Plan | |
Conclusion |
In a medical laboratory, there are 240 injections, and one of them is for anesthesia for a rat. The task is to find the anesthesia injection within 48 hours with the help of 5 rats.
1. If a rat faints after receiving an injection, it cannot be used again.
2. If a rat receives the anesthesia injection, it can faint at any point within a 24-hour window.
To solve the problem, we can number each injection with a unique 5-digit number consisting of only 0, 1, and 2. We can also number the rats as 1, 10, 100, 1000, and 10000.
Each digit in the injection number will correspond to an action to be executed by a specific rat. For example, the digit in the unit place will be executed by rat numbered 1, the digit in the tenth place by rat numbered 10, and so on.
Number 0 on an injection means that the injection will not be used for the test. Number 1 on an injection means that the injection will be tested on the first day, and number 2 means that the injection will be tested on the second day (after 24 hours).
Suppose an injection is numbered 11201. This means that it will be injected on the first day to rats numbered 10000, 1000, and 1. It will be injected on the second day to rat numbered 100, and it will not be injected to rat numbered 10.
If rats numbered 10000, 1000, and 1 faint within the first 24 hours, rat numbered 100 faints in the next 24 hours, and rat numbered 10 does not faint, then the anesthesia injection has to be 11201.
We can test all the injections in this way, and the total number of injections that can be tested is 35, which is equal to 243 injections.
With the help of 5 rats and within 48 hours, we can find the anesthesia injection among 243 injections.
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