Does Bob have a uniquely best gladiator ordering
Question
Alice owns four gladiators of strengths ; Bob owns four of strengths . Fights are one-on-one: in each round Alice first nominates one of her surviving gladiators, then Bob nominates one of his survivors to face it. A bout between strengths and is won by the strength- fighter with probability (no draws), the loser dies, and the winner keeps the same strength for future bouts. Whoever still has a gladiator when the other side runs out wins. Is there a strategy for Bob that gives him a strictly higher chance of winning than every other strategy? Answer for yes, for no.
Short answer
(no). Model each gladiator of strength as a bulb with an exponential lifetime of mean that only burns while fighting; memorylessness reproduces the rule and constant strength. Bob wins exactly when his total burn time outlasts Alice's, which does not depend on the order of matchups, so every strategy gives the same probability.
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Open the worked solutionLessons behind this question
- Optimisation Problems
- Constrained Optimisation and Lagrange Multipliers
- Sample Spaces, Events, and the Probability Axioms
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