Saturday, November 30, 2013

Poisoned Wine

So there's this king. Someone breaks into his wine cellar where he stores 1000 bottles of wine. This person proceeds to poison one of the 1000 bottles, but gets away too quickly for the king's guard to see which one he poisoned or to catch him.
The king needs the remaining 999 safe bottles for his party in 30 days. The king has 10 servants who he considers disposable. The poison takes 30 days to take effect (right before the party), and any amount of it will kill whoever drinks it. How can he figure out which bottle was poisoned in time for the party?