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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Alex Bellos

Can you solve it? Prisoners and boxes

Piper in the Netflix TV series Orange is the New Black.
Piper (Taylor Schilling) in Netflix’s Orange is the New Black. Photograph: Lionsgate Television/Sportsphoto/Allstar

Today’s puzzle involves two prisoners. Let’s call them Piper and Alex. You will be asked to find a strategy that wins them their freedom.

Puzzles about prison escape strategies are a relatively new genre of mathematical challenge, only a few decades old. They emerged from computer science. A prison – a place where access to information is limited – is a perfect venue for puzzles about the efficient communication of information.

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