The Josephus Survivor
100 people stand in a circle, numbered 1 to 100. Starting the count at person 1, every second person is eliminated (so person 2 goes first), around and around until only one remains. What number survives?
Related problems & prerequisites
Worth solving first
- The Round Table 4.0/10
- The Handshake Count 3.0/10
Source: The Josephus problem, named for the account in Flavius Josephus; standard treatment in Graham, Knuth and Patashnik, 'Concrete Mathematics' (1989). Statement written for AxiomIQ.