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A Candy Game

A number of students sit in a circle while their teacher gives them candy. Each student initially has an even number of pieces of candy. When the teacher blows a whistle, each student simultaneously gives half of his or her own candy to the neighbor on the right. Any student who ends up with an odd number of pieces of candy gets one more piece from the teacher. Show that no matter how many pieces of candy each student has at the beginning, after a finite number of iterations of this transformation all students have the same number of pieces of candy.



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(Number of candies can be set either randomly or by modifying each of the circled entries. To modify a number, click a little to the right or left of its centerline. In the symmetric variant, each fellow shares equally between his/her two neighbors.)

Explanation


Copyright © 1996-2008 Alexander Bogomolny

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