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The Indecisive
Gamekeeper
A
duke loved to invite his friends to hunt pheasant on his estate. His
gamekeeper was responsible for stocking the woods with plump birds.
He kept one hundred pheasants each locked in its own cage to protect
against poachers. The cages were numbered from 1 to 100. Each cage had
a lock that opened when the key was turned once, and locked again when
when it was turned a second time.
The gamekeeper began feeling sorry for his charges. One night, while
the birds slept, he quietly unlocked all 100 cages. At once he began
worrying that the duke would be furious and immediately went back and
turned the locks again on every second lock (2, 4, 6, ...), thereby
locking them.
Thinking that he had still freed too many birds, he gave every third
lock a turn (3, 6, 9, ...), then every fourth lock, then every fifth
lock, sixth lock, and so on, all the way to the "every 100th"
lock. He finished just in time, as dawn was breaking, and the birds
were beginning to waken.
Your task is to find:
- Which cages will be left open? Can you figure out why?
- How many locks, and which ones, will be turned exactly twice?
Extra: Which cages(s) was (were) switched the most times? |