Related papers: Coins of Three Different Weights
In this paper, we will present an algorithm to resolve the counterfeit coins problem in the case that the number of false coins is unknown in advance.
A cube is used as a fair die of 6 faces. However, there are many dice of different shapes on the market. To make them fair, most of them usually have some symmetric shapes. We here classify these variants of dice on the market into two…
Two possibly unfair $n$-sided dice, both labelled $1, 2, \ldots, n$, are rolled, and the sum is recorded. How should the dice's sides be weighted so that the resulting sum is closest to the uniform distribution on $2, 3, \ldots, 2n$? We…
We investigate the structure of the currencies (systems of coins) for which the greedy change-making algorithm always finds an optimal solution (that is, a one with minimum number of coins). We present a series of necessary conditions that…
We consider the unbalanced allocation of $m$ balls into $n$ bins by a randomized algorithm using the "power of two choices". For each ball, we select a set of bins at random, then place the ball in the fullest bin within the set.…
For positive integers $n\geq k\geq t$, a collection $ \mathcal{B} $ of $k$-subsets of an $n$-set $ X $ is called a $t$-packing if every $t$-subset of $ X $ appears in at most one set in $\mathcal{B}$. In this paper, we give some upper and…
In the standard ball-in-bins experiment, a well-known scheme is to sample $d$ bins independently and uniformly at random and put the ball into the least loaded bin. It can be shown that this scheme yields a maximum load of $\log\log n/\log…
We investigate a coin-weighing puzzle that appeared in the all-Russian math Olympiad in 2000. We liked the puzzle because the methods of analysis differ from classical coin-weighing puzzles. We generalize the puzzle by varying the number of…
How many fair coin tosses to choose 1 of $n$ options with uniform probability? Although a probability problem, the solution is essentially number-theoretic, with special roles for Mersenne numbers, Fermat numbers, and the haupt exponent. We…
A family of $\omega$-circulant balanced weighing matrices with classical parameters is used for the construction of optimal constant weight codes over an alphabet of size $g+1$ and length $n=(q^m -1)/(q-1)$, where $q$ is an odd prime power,…
Given a set $P$ of $n$ points in the plane and a multiset $W$ of $k$ weights with $k\leq n$, we assign each weight in $W$ to a distinct point in $P$ to minimize the maximum weighted distance from the weighted center of $P$ to any point in…
Given a dollar, how many ways are there to make change using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters? What if you are given a different amount of money? What if you use different coin denominations? This is a well known problem and formulas…
We consider the problem of packing a family of disks "on a shelf", that is, such that each disk touches the $x$-axis from above and such that no two disks overlap. We prove that the problem of minimizing the distance between the leftmost…
Given a complete graph with $n$ vertices and non-negative edge weights, where $n$ is divisible by 3, the maximum weight 3-path packing problem is to find a set of $n/3$ vertex-disjoint 3-paths such that the total weight of the 3-paths in…
Consider $n$ independent, biased coins, each with a known probability of heads. Presented with an ordering of these coins, flip (i.e., toss) each coin once, in that order, until we have observed both a *head* and a *tail*, or flipped all…
In the past few years, linear codes with few weights and their weight analysis have been widely studied. In this paper, we further investigate a class of two-weight or three-weight linear codes from defining sets and determine their weight…
We consider several extensions of the fractional bin packing problem, a relaxation of the traditional bin packing problem where the objects may be split across multiple bins. In these extensions, we introduce load-balancing constraints…
Recently, linear codes constructed from defining sets have been investigated extensively and they have many applications. In this paper, for an odd prime $p$, we propose a class of $p$-ary linear codes by choosing a proper defining set.…
Have you ever taken a disputed decision by tossing a coin and checking its landing side? This ancestral "heads or tails" practice is still widely used when facing undecided alternatives since it relies on the intuitive fairness of…
We study the maximal number of triangulations that a planar set of $n$ points can have, and show that it is at most $30^n$. This new bound is achieved by a careful optimization of the charging scheme of Sharir and Welzl (2006), which has…