Round Table Coin Game
Logic puzzles require you to think. You will have to be logical in your reasoning.
You die and the devil says he'll let you go to heaven if you beat him in a game. The devil sits you down at a perfectly round table. He gives himself and you an infinite pile of quarters. He says, "OK, we'll take turns putting one quarter down, no overlapping allowed, and the quarters must rest flat on the table surface. The first guy who can't put a quarter down loses." You guys are about to start playing, and the devil says that he'll go first. However, at this point you immediately interject, and ask if you can go first instead. You make this interjection because you are very smart and can place quarters perfectly, and you know that if you go first, you can guarantee victory. Explain how you can guarantee victory.
Answer
You place a quarter right in the center of the table. After that, whenever the devil places a quarter on the table, mimic his placement on the opposite side of the table. If he has a place to place a quarter, so will you. The devil will run out of places to put a quarter before you do.
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Comments
(user deleted)
Sep 01, 2004
| excellent strategy  |
Jimbo   
Sep 19, 2004
| Nice! |
Poker
Oct 01, 2004
| I doubt he'll allow you to go first, though, if he knew what you knew... |
TheGermanGemini
Oct 01, 2004
| Now what did YOU DO! Why do you have to save your eternity by playing the Devils game!?   Hope it was worth it! LOL Great Teaser by the way! |
dairycow7
Oct 01, 2004
| I thought it was guaranteed depending on the size of the table. I was off mark, but I was impressed by the answer. |
henritku
Oct 01, 2004
| this one was awesome!!  |
sakirski
Oct 06, 2004
| Great Teaser! Good Logic! |
Rowsdower
Oct 16, 2004
| Sweet! This is like a 'get out of jail free' card in monopoly, lol.  |
peanut 
Dec 06, 2004
| Pretty smart but only if you're not allowed to shift up the quarters already placed..!  |
something
Jan 26, 2005
| awesome. I'll have to use that one the next time the devil asks me to play a game of "put the quarters on the table".  |
adoontourious
Feb 27, 2005
| I thought the table was only as big as a quarter |
iblondhaha
Jun 13, 2005
| wow, that's confusing . . . what if the devil didn't let you got first, is there any way to still win??? I guess you could always just spend eternity playing 'games' with the devil - sounds like fun |
redraptor50
Oct 01, 2005
| Wow, outwitted the devil, great one,although I didn't figure it out  |
Chakoteya
Oct 01, 2005
| Obvious answer, but nice riddle nontheless. |
OldChinaHand
Oct 01, 2005
| Well played...nice work. I'll have to remember this one. |
OldChinaHand
Oct 01, 2005
| Well played...nice work. I'll have to remember this one. |
Aarghonauts
Oct 01, 2005
| May I play the devil's advocate??  What if the table was only big enough to hold four quarters (or 8 or 16 and so on). Then, whoever went second would win Just wondering.... |
jessjspieks
Oct 01, 2005
| Good job |
Araldite
Oct 01, 2005
| The second person automatically looses because he can't put a quarter down until you do and is therefore the first one who can't. How's that for convoluted logic? |
jimmyb
Oct 01, 2005
| Since you're so smart, you can play with your hind quarters.
On your move, you stand up as if to place a quarter on the far side of the table.
You latch onto your chair and swing it overhead bringing it down on the head of your devil friend. Your chair has been shattered and the devil is on the floor in a daze.
Like musical chairs, you take his chair and sit down.
There are no other chairs.
Isn't it great when you change the rules? |
lazy-boy
Oct 01, 2005
| VERY SMART GOOD ONE |
jbray
Oct 01, 2005
| Awesome Teaser I thought the table was excatally the size of the quarter. So I was wrong  But it made me think.... |
riddlelover
Oct 01, 2005
| Clever-very good riddle! I didn't think of it! |
riddlelover
Oct 01, 2005
| Clever-very good riddle! I didn't think of the answer! (Not that that makes a difference!) |
mekaboo27
Oct 01, 2005
| That was a cute one. I could not figure it out, I would rather play that game with a friend and not the devil. I am a good girl and I would hope that I would play a game like that with St. Peter or God when it is my time to go. |
waternymph
Oct 01, 2005
| Em how can anyone win if you have an infinite amount of quaters? You just keep placing them down.  |
redneck_woman
Oct 01, 2005
| I managed to figure it out by thinking "odds and evens" ie; the first or "middle" quarter being an odd number (1) and circling it with quarters you always had a matching move to the devil's move (evens). My twisted logic anyhooo...
Jimmy B you crack me up with your answer! |
thimblenoggin
Oct 01, 2005
| Something in my brain told me the answer. Isn't it nice when that happens?
Waternymph- There's an infinite amount of quarters, but not an infinite amount of table. u can't place quarters on top of each other. |
foreverfree
Oct 01, 2005
| great teaser! i didnt get it but... waternymph, you cant keep putting quarters down cause it said no overlapping and the table is only so big
made me think! although, i think it depends on exactly how big the table is whether you can put an odd number or even number. so i think you could lose even if you go first... i dunno... who cares??? it's just a riddle |
thimblenoggin
Oct 01, 2005
| Besides... when you die you are dead. That's it. Don't get your hopes up. |
lindquist_25
Oct 01, 2005
| Pretty good |
paintballa944
Oct 01, 2005
| W@W!!!!!!!
very creative!!!!!!!! |
Master_Yoda
Oct 01, 2005
| Hey but what if you accidentally misplace a quarter ever so slighty. It never said u wouldn't make a mistake. |
centerofme
Oct 01, 2005
| maybe the table is infinity sized,how would u do it then?? |
POPS
Oct 01, 2005
| Just GRRRRRREAT,Loved it Good logic. |
Winner4600
Oct 01, 2005
| If the table only held an even number, you wouldn't be able to put quarter in the exact center and still have an even number
oo o
ooo oo
oo o
ODD # EVEN # |
Winner4600
Oct 01, 2005
| Sorry, my diagram came out wrong... |
ceeyaaa
Oct 01, 2005
| Good thinking |
likeaboss92
Oct 01, 2005
| It was a smart one. Great. |
(user deleted)
Oct 01, 2005
| I'm sorry, but there is absolutely no way that can be figured out without knowing the size of the table. It's no coincidence that NOBODY was able to figure out the answer. And if they say they did, they lied. That was a horrible riddle! |
(user deleted)
Oct 01, 2005
| I retract my last comment and reread the riddle. Maybe it does make sense after all. |
blitzblits
Oct 01, 2005
| quote: V3ry n1c3!
(very nice)
I thought that the devil would cheat..... that rascal...  |
(user deleted)
Oct 03, 2005
| Question -- what if the circumference of the table is only large enough to place an odd number of quarters edge to edge around the perimeter? |
FulanitoGM
Oct 04, 2005
| Whatever happened to good ol' fiddle-playing competitions? "The Devil went down to Georgia... He was lookin' for a soul to steal..." |
precious1026
Oct 05, 2005
| :roll Anything that exercise the thought process is great as far as I am concern. I love you people. |
smittysgirl
Oct 05, 2005
| Nice riddle |
Haylie1506
Oct 10, 2005
| That was a good teaser! It was kinda hard... |
(user deleted)
Oct 23, 2005
| Nice puzzle and although I got it immediately, it was without completely thinking it through.
Couldn't the devil cleverly leave a vacant ring that only held an odd number of quarters? When the two of you had filled the rest of the table, he would be first to put a quarter in the empty ring.
I'm still trying to picture two infinite piles of quarters.
2 x infinity is a lot! |
xpitxbullx
Oct 29, 2005
| Once a quarter is placed in the middle, no matter the size of the table, if the devil can put one down, there is a spot exactly opposite the center quarter that a quarter can be placed. |
ztodd
Dec 02, 2007
| sounds like hell, HA! |
emu77alu02
Nov 25, 2008
| Good One! Good thing getting into heaven doesn't have to be this complicated, though! |
builder
Nov 25, 2008
| although the game is logically completed, the devil doesn't get a say in my eternity. |
104archer
Nov 25, 2008
| The Knights were the first to play against the devil. |
crazy10man
Nov 25, 2008
| I like story teasers like this. My first thought was to turn the table on its edge, then, being the one who places the first quarter, I wouldn't be able to place it on a vertical surface, and I would win . . . no matter the size of the table or odds or even. Is that too sneaky? |
Gilles
Nov 25, 2008
| Too difficult for me  |
bradon182001
Nov 25, 2008
| Hmmm. Have to agree with you Gilles. Guess I'm just not logical.Thanks for posting, though. |
auntiesis
Nov 25, 2008
| Hope I'm never in that position, because I'll never remember how to win over that ol' devil. Just too hard for me. |
FatHead
Nov 25, 2008
| For Go and for Dots-and-Boxes, this strategy works perfectly against a lesser player, or sometimes a stronger player who gives you a handicap in points, unless they know how to overcome it - which some do.
Good teaser. |
adam213
Nov 25, 2008
| I'm not so sure about this teaser... |
(user deleted)
Nov 25, 2008
| the devil isn't a "guy", so you automatically lose....OR you have to put down your infinite number of quarters until you run out of table space......OR you put one down and then pick it back up, over and over!!!! (for infinity...ugh!)
i'm surprised no one said that yet! |
cwjakesteel
Nov 25, 2008
| I see your logic... but why the devil? |
Elios
Nov 25, 2008
| Interesting! I'm still not convinced that this'll work.. gonna have to find a round table and a LOT of quarters! Still, when the devil shows up at my door, at least I'll have something to try. |
UptheHill
Nov 25, 2008
| NICE TOO!!! |
plokolplok
Nov 25, 2008
| VERY NICE... |
leroy_h
Nov 26, 2008
| NO OFFENSE MEANT BUT THIS MADE NO SENSE TO ME |
avonma
Nov 27, 2008
| I'm not sure of the writer's logic; but it sounds interesting... |
builder
Nov 25, 2011
| cute riddle, simple. BTW, the devil isn't the One who decides if you go to heaven - just saying. |
Mandy7
Nov 26, 2011
| haha nice one, even if i dont believe in the devil and heven and stuf |
gearingUp
May 04, 2012
| I think this does not always hold as sometimes the symmetric position does not exist:
For instance, consider the case when the whole table is filled up with coins except for an annulus one coin wide on the outer diameter (OD) of the table. If the devil keeps placing coins spaced such that only an odd number of coins fit on the OD, a symmetric condition does not exist. In this case, a draw is guaranteed. So, throughout the game, the devil will place coins so as to prevent symmetry and he will not lose. Anybody disagree? |
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