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counting and probability senior
Problem
Bela and Jenn play the following game on the closed interval of the real number line, where is a fixed integer greater than . They take turns playing, with Bela going first. At his first turn, Bela chooses any real number in the interval . Thereafter, the player whose turn it is chooses a real number that is more than one unit away from all numbers previously chosen by either player. A player unable to choose such a number loses. Using optimal strategy, which player will win the game?
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
Solution
If Bela selects the middle number in the range and then mirror whatever number Jenn selects, then if Jenn can select a number within the range, so can Bela. Jenn will always be the first person to run out of a number to choose, so the answer is
Final answer
A