lesson four

Math as Mental Weightlifting

and a King’s Dilemma

A teacher of mine once said, “Reading is mental weightlifting.”

I completely disagree. Reading is mental cardio.

Mathematics, my friend, is mental weightlifting.

Reading is mental cardio. Once you learn how to, you find you get places very quickly. You skim articles and cruse through books. Reading will keep you in great shape, but math will make you strong.

Unfortunately, most people approach math like it’s cardio.

They’re trying to get somewhere quickly. They forget each new topic is like developing a new muscle. A bit of pain is good and building strength takes focused attention, patience and repetition.

Mathematicians realize this early on. There is no shame in taking a long time on a problem. Math simply cannot be rushed.

Success in math depends on your approach

Running laps in a weight room isn’t a good idea and neither is expecting to blast through a math textbook. Instead focus on good form, be patient with yourself and keep at it!

I know that sitting down with a math problem and struggling for hours is both intimidating and painful. But trust me, letting go of the expectation that answers will come quickly and allowing yourself time to fiddle with a problem will make you a better mathematician.

To practice this I have a riddle for you!

This riddle was given to me a few weeks ago and I loved it! It definitely takes some critical thinking though. Enjoy!

A King’s Dilemma

The King of a small country invites 1000 senators to his annual party. As a tradition, each senator brings the King a bottle of wine. Soon after, the Queen discovers that one of the senators is trying to assassinate the King by giving him a bottle of poisoned wine. Unfortunately, they do not know which senator, nor which bottle of wine is poisoned, and the poison is completely indiscernible. However, the King has 10 prisoners he plans to execute. He decides to use them as taste testers to determine which bottle of wine contains the poison. The poison when taken has no effect on the prisoner until exactly 24 hours later when the infected prisoner suddenly dies. The King needs to determine which bottle of wine is poisoned by tomorrow so that the festivities can continue as planned. Hence he only has time for one round of testing. How can the King administer the wine to the prisoners to ensure that 24 hours from now he is guaranteed to have found the poisoned wine bottle?

Grab some paper, sketch out some ideas, sleep on it and come back later once you’re thoroughly worn out for the solution in the next post.

Need a hint?

Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Next Lesson: A King, 1000 Bottles of Wine, 10 Prisoners and a Drop of Poison

Thanks for reading!

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Hint: The solution to this problem uses a binary representation.