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by MichaelCrawford 4066 days ago
I've been trying to solve this problem since 1975. I just glanced at the linked page, yes it is indeed the same problem, but I don't want to know the answer, I want to solve it myself.

I'm pretty sure I know how it's done now, but I haven't had the headspace to deal with it yet.

1 comments

Oh my blog isn't giving an analytical solution, if that is what you want to do, it is simulating the problem to find a solution.

(The video does do an analytical solution though).

Here is a related problem. I think it's related anyway:

WITHOUT USING A CALCULATOR!

How many chocolate chips must one mix into the dough used to bake one hundred thousand chocolate chip cookies, such that ninety-eight percent of the cookies contain at least two chips?

I don't recall the precise numerical answer but I do know how it's done; I solved that problem in a final exam at Caltech in less than fifteen minutes.