Comments by "EebstertheGreat" (@EebstertheGreat) on "The Riddle That Seems Impossible Even If You Know The Answer" video.

  1. That depends on the warden. If you think the warden has been malicious (but isn't listening to you strategize), then you should renumber in some way you don't think he would predict. If you think the warden has not been malicious, perhaps even generous in his odd way, you might think that he has deliberately set the numbers up to make escape possible with a good plan. In that case, you certainly shouldn't renumber the boxes. And if you think the warden is listening to your conversation and can rearrange numbers before you go in, then you're screwed either way.
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  2.  @ibrahim-sj2cr  No it is not. Let's do the +5 example. So if my number is 10, instead of starting on box 10, I start on box 15. Let's say I open it and find number 6. So now I go to box 11 and open that. Maybe that contains a 73, which sends me to 78, and so on. Eventually I'm guaranteed to open a box with a 10 in it, which would send me back to box 15, where I started. This will take 50 or fewer tries unless there is a loop of length >50. This will work for any renumbering scheme, not just incrementing. Come up with some permutation of length 100, then use that to reassign all the boxes. Maybe slip 1 sends you to box 15, and slip 2 sends you to box 91, and slip 3 sends you to box 1, whatever, but it has to be a permutation (a bijection from {1,...,100} to itself). As long as every prisoner follows that same mapping, you get a solution isomorphic to the original solution, except because the labels have changed, the warden might not know how to thwart it.
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  3.  @renedekker9806  You just renumber the cases, not the slips inside. You are still picking the case which, under the new numbering, corresponds to your number. Thus, the slip which leads to this case must be the slip with your number on it.
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  4. A malicious guard can still easily stop you. For the relabeling strategy to work, all the prisoners have to agree beforehand how to label the boxes. The malicious guard can hear this and just move the boxes and/or slips around so as to counter any such relabeling. Is there any way to improve your odds at all against a malicious guard beyond random chance?
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  5.  @WastelandSoldier0885  In most logic puzzles, the "malicious guard" variant assumes that the guard can hear your strategy.
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