Problem 271. N-Cards Problem
You have a deck of N cards numbered in order from 1 to N. You discard the top card (card 1) and place the next card (card 2) at the bottom of the deck. Then you discard the top card of the remaining deck (card 3), and place the next card (card 4) at the bottom of the deck. We repeat the procedure: discarding the top card and placing the next card at the bottom of the deck. Eventually, you will have one card left. What is the number of that card?
Example
nCardsProblem(5)
deck = [ 1 2 3 4 5 ] deck = [ 2 3 4 5 ] deck = [ 3 4 5 2 ] deck = [ 4 5 2 ] deck = [ 5 2 4 ] deck = [ 2 4 ] deck = [ 4 2 ] deck = [ 2 ]
Solution Stats
Problem Comments
-
1 Comment
What an interesting pattern!
Solution Comments
Show commentsProblem Recent Solvers154
Suggested Problems
-
Create a function handle that reverses the input arguments of another function handle
152 Solvers
-
Set the array elements whose value is 13 to 0
1381 Solvers
-
Create matrix of replicated elements
383 Solvers
-
524 Solvers
-
477 Solvers
More from this Author56
Problem Tags
Community Treasure Hunt
Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!
Start Hunting!