Question: 5. (Entropy as an amount of uncertainty; the King's poisoned wine.) Joffrey Baratheon has 1000 barrels of excellent wine that he wishes to serve

5. (Entropy as an amount of uncertainty; the King's poisoned wine.) Joffrey 

5. (Entropy as an amount of uncertainty; the King's poisoned wine.) Joffrey Baratheon has 1000 barrels of excellent wine that he wishes to serve at the annual feast in one week, but an informant warns him that one of them is poisoned: any person who drinks even a drop of the wine will die 5 days later. Since Joffrey is the worst, he decides to force his prisoners to test the wine for him. If he had 1000 prisoners, this would be simple; however, he has only 10. (a) Explain why it is possible for Joffrey to solve his problem in time for the feast by calculating the entropy of the random variable W which represents the identity of the poisoned barrel and interpreting the meaning of this quantity. (b) (Bonus) Find a strategy that will allow Joffrey to determine which barrel holds the poisoned wine.

Step by Step Solution

3.47 Rating (163 Votes )

There are 3 Steps involved in it

1 Expert Approved Answer
Step: 1 Unlock

5 a The entropy of a random variable measures the amount of uncertainty associated with it In this case W represents the identity of the poisoned barr... View full answer

blur-text-image
Question Has Been Solved by an Expert!

Get step-by-step solutions from verified subject matter experts

Step: 2 Unlock
Step: 3 Unlock

Students Have Also Explored These Related Economics Questions!