Problem

Source:

Tags: combinatorics, game strategy



The King decided to reduce his Council consisting of thousand wizards. He placed them in a line and placed hats with numbers from $1$ to $1001$ on their heads not necessarily in this order (one hat was hidden). Each wizard can see the numbers on the hats of all those before him but not on himself or on anyone who stayed behind him. By King's command, starting from the end of the line each wizard calls one integer from $1$ to $1001$ so that every wizard in the line can hear it. No number can be repeated twice. In the end each wizard who fails to call the number on his hat is removed from the Council. The wizards knew the conditions of testing and could work out their strategy prior to it. (a) Can the wizards work out a strategy which guarantees that more than $500$ of them remain in the Council? (b) Can the wizards work out a strategy which guarantees that at least $999$ of them remain in the Council?