Around King Arthurs Table

Alma Wolf
10.16.17

Problem Statement
King Arthur is a benevolent dictator; he enjoys giving his knights various gifts. Additionally, he
loves fun and games. When he wants to give a gift to one of his knights, he plays a game to
determine who will receive the gift. He numbers the chairs, starting with one, and going around
the circle until all chairs are assigned a sequential number. The number of chairs may change,
as some days not all his knights are present at the table. He then starts the game at Chair 1. He
tells that knight that hes in. Then he goes to Chair 2. He tells that knight that hes out. Then he
goes to Chair 3, and that knight is in. He goes all the way around the table once, and then goes
around again and again until there is only one knight remaining, who is the winner. Now, you
are a cunning knight and realize that there is a way to determine which chair will win, just from
knowing how many chairs are at the table. How do you do it?

Visual Representation
The figure below is a visual representation of the game for a table with eight chairs. The
innermost circle shows the results for each chair after the first time King Arthur went around the
table, the second concentric circle shows the results for the second time he went around, and
the third concentric circle shows the final results. In this case, the knight in Chair 1 was the
winner.
Process
In order to solve this problem, I started simply by playing the game for all the tables that had
one through 12 chairs. I recorded the winning chair each time, and I also recorded some
patterns that I noticed. For example, I saw that Chair 1 can never win if there are an odd
number of chairs (unless theres only 1 chair total). I also noticed that there are certain intervals
(like between 8 chairs and 11 chairs) where the number of the winning chair increases by two
for every time the number of chairs increases by one. I talked to a few of my classmates, Acacia
and Andy, and they suggested that I continue playing the game up until there are 31 chairs
around the table, and then take a look at the tables that have an even number of chairs. I did
this, and I continued to notice the same patterns. However, the first few rounds didnt seem to
follow any pattern, and they were puzzling. When I was thinking about possible patterns that the
first eight chairs could follow, I noticed that Chair 1 was the winner for tables that had one chair,
two chairs, four chairs, and eight chairs. I quickly realized that these were all powers of two:
20 = 1, 21 = 2, 22 = 4, 23 = 8 , etc. I checked with the rest of the rounds that I had drawn out, and
what I realized held true. The winning chair, for any table where the total number of chairs is a
power of two, is always the first chair. Every time you increase the number of chairs by one, the
number of the winning chair increases by two.

Solution
Through my process, I knew that the winning chair, at all tables that had a total number of chairs
equal to a power of two, was Chair 1. I came up with an equation that allows you to find the
winning chair when there are any total number of chairs, using this principle. This is my
equation: z = 2(x y ) + 1 , where x is the total number of chairs, y is the closest power of two,
and z is the number of the winning chair. In order for it to work, x y . I am sure that this works
because I tested it on a number of scenarios that I had previously drawn out. For example, this
is the process if the total number of chairs is 9:
x = 9, y = 8 (23 )
z = 2 (9 8) + 1
z = 2 (1) + 1
z=3
If you draw this scenario, you will see that my equation works--the winning chair for a table with
nine chairs is Chair 3.

Evaluation
I think that I had a good approach to this problem, and I enjoyed working on it. It was a little
easy--you could brute force it by drawing out the scenarios--but it was fun to think about
because I knew that I would be able to find the solution, rather than feeling lost and not even
wanting to try it. I liked the pattern that came out at the end, the relation to powers of two. That
was especially cool. I sort of put the problem off for a while, and I didnt actually solve it until a
few days before it was due. I wish I wouldve used better time management because it definitely
took some time to figure out. Other than that, I liked this POW and it made me think.
Self-Assessment
I think I deserve an A on this POW, because I completed the task presented in the POW: I
found a solution and I created an equation that tells you the winning chair for a table with any
number of chairs. Also, I worked hard to keep my work neat, which included creating a
spreadsheet of the results for easier analysis.