Challenge 4: 2 Piles of stones
There are two piles of stones: one with 8 stones, one with 15 stones, At each turn, a player can choose one of the piles and divide it into two smaller piles. The loser is the player who cannot make a move. Who will win, and how?
What students worked out3
Student 3
first one
its like 23 stones already divided by first move in to 8 and 15 stones
hence moves will get reversed. first person gets second moveso i can say first person will win
Student 1
there are total 23 stones and 23 is an odd number aslo there are 22 turns but it has already been cut to to 8 and 15 so there are 21 turns so 1’st person will win
Student 4
the second player will win since there are 23 stones in total. one turn has already been made in splitting the stones into 8 and 15. So that leaves an even number of turns. So the second player will win