The 100 Prisoners Puzzle

What if 100 of our favorite YouTube channels faced sudden, total demonetization of their channels -- and the only way to save them was to play a game of chance that required all 100 YouTubers to win what amounts to a coin flip?

If that sounds hopeless, that’s because it pretty much is. Sorry to MaxMoeFoe, CallMeCarson, Danny Gonzalez, and all the rest. It's just math.

The odds against 100 successful rounds are astronomical, but that’s the scenario in our version of a computer science problem with roots going back to 2004. Exploring the possibilities of combinatorics and the context of permutations allows us to vastly improve the odds of our 100 YouTubers’ overall success without improving their individual chances. By recognizing that the game actually contains a series of chains within each permutation, I develop a strategy for our 100 YouTube heroes that will vault their chances of keeping their channels from being demonetized all the way from impossible to… surprisingly good.

All 100 YouTubers
  / 100-youtubers-list  

** SOURCES **

“The Cell Probe Complexity of Succinct Data Structures,” Anna Gál and Peter Bro Miltersen: :http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/...

DataGenetics, “100 Prisoners Escape Puzzle”: http://datagenetics.com/blog/december...

Richard P. Stanley, “Algebraic Combinatorics: Walks, Trees, Tableaux, and More”: https://www.amazon.com/Algebraic-Comb...

** LINKS **

Vsauce2 Links
Twitter:   / vsaucetwo  
Facebook:   / vsaucetwo  

Hosted and Produced by Kevin Lieber
Instagram:   / kevlieber  
Twitter:   / kevinlieber  
Podcast:    / thecreateunknown  

Research And Writing by Matthew Tabor
  / tabortcu  

Editing by Aspect Science
   / @tommocarroll  

Huge Thanks To Paula Lieber
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Craftality

Get Vsauce's favorite science and math toys delivered to your door!
https://www.curiositybox.com/

Select Music By Jake Chudnow:    / jakechudnow  

Montage Song:    • Synthetic Life  

#education #vsauce2