杏吧原创

Annie and Beth are about to play 鈥淕oblin鈥�. Like snakes and ladders, it is a game played on a 10 x 10 grid of squares numbered from one to 100. Players start with their counter off the board (next to square one) and take it in turns to roll a single die, aiming to be the first to get to square 100.

However, instead of snakes or ladders, there is just one hazard: a goblin. Each player gets one goblin and is allowed to place it on any square they want (apart from square 100) before the game starts.

If you land on your opponent鈥檚 goblin, you lose, and the same goes for your opponent. If a player lands on their own goblin, they are safe. If neither player lands on a goblin, the first to get to 100 wins (an exact final roll isn鈥檛 required, just getting to the 100 square is enough).

Annie, who has never played before, decides to place her goblin on square 31, because that is her lucky number. Where should Beth place her goblin to have the maximum chance of winning?

Answer next week

 
 

Quick Quiz #26

1 鈥淪ymmetries give rise to conservation laws鈥�. Which German mathematician鈥檚 name is associated with this profound physical statement?

2 What name is given to the phenomenon of light splitting into a rainbow of colours as it passes through a prism?

3 What chemical element accounts for about 65 per cent of an average human鈥檚 weight?

4 Zygodactyly describes what arrangement of toes, found in chameleons and many tree-climbing birds, including parrots and woodpeckers?

5 A PET scan, used to observe the body鈥檚 metabolic processes, depends on a radioactive nuclide emitting what strangely scarce form of matter?

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