3 ms·
The wording of the problem is "anything sent through the mail will be stolen unless it is enclosed in a padlocked box".
by mcherm 10y ago
The wording of the problem is "anything sent through the mail will be stolen unless it is enclosed in a padlocked box".
- logfromblammo 10y agoJan constructs an enormous box around the entire country of Kleptopia, and places his own padlock on it from the inside. Then he mails the ring with no additional security measures. The problem is fatally flawed by not explicitly stating that boxes locked with padlocks are also not stolen, despite not being enclosed in a padlocked box.
- mikeash 10y agoJan takes a normal box and locks it. He declares the space enclosed by the box to be the "outside," and the world to be "inside."
- logfromblammo 10y agoUnfortunately, the mail thieves declare "outside" to be the volume in conformal space on the side of the boundary definition that contains the point at infinity, and "inside" to be the volume that does not, and thus steal the ring.
- mikeash 10y agoThose jerks, they're always one step ahead.
- OscarCunningham 10y agoOf course the point at infinity had been stolen some time ago, and its whereabouts are currently unknown.
- ajnin 10y ago> anything sent through the mail will be stolen unless it is enclosed in a padlocked box If someone stole the padlocked box then they would necessarily also steal whatever's inside. Therefore (non-empty) padlocked boxes are safe to mail.
- logfromblammo 10y agoAha! Then you put a tiny corundum crystal inside a tiny padlocked box, and permanently affix it to the ring. (Or perhaps the ring has a lockable box portion.) Now the ring cannot be stolen without also stealing an object that is inside a padlocked box. Safe to mail.