Friday, September 21, 2007

The three way pistol duel puzzle

You're a cowboy, and get involved in a three way pistol duel with two other cowboys. You are a poor shot, with an accuracy of only 33%. The other two cowboys shoot with accuracies of 50% and 100%, respectively. The rules of the duel are one shot per cowboy per round. The shooting order is from worst shooter to best shooter, so you get to shoot first, the 50% guy goes second, and the 100% guy goes third, then repeat. If a cowboy is shot he's out for good, and his turn is skipped. Where or who should you shoot first?
I really like this puzzle, which can be solved with pure probablity crunching, but is more elegantly solved by simple logical reasoning. (Puzzle adapted from one of a big collection here)

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