circle problem

[Brian L. Galebach]

Perhaps I am missing something, but this seems fairly straightforward to me.

Start with 30 Ms.  Count forward past 8 Ms and change the 9th to W.
Continue the process, wrapping back to the start of the string when
necessary, until 15 Ms have been changed to Ws.

I get MMMMWWWWWMMWMMMWMWWMMWWWMWWMMW.

-Brian Galebach

-----Original Message-----
From: murthy amarnath [mailto:amarnath_murthy at yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, November 16, 2002 8:14 AM
To: seqfan at ext.jussieu.fr
Subject:


 To all,
Can some one solve this problem.

There are 15 males and 15 females. They are to be
arranged in a circle choosing a predecided starting
point. Go on choosing every 9'th person and take
him/her out of the circle instantly. Continue doing so
till 15 persons are out of the circle.
The question is how to arrange them so that only
(all)females are out.


Generalize.
Let there be p  black  balls , q blue balls and  r
red balls. How to arrange so that   all black balls
are removed if one goes on removing every  k'th ball
as  above.
thanks
regards
amarnath

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