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A long game – Racing random walkers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2016

T. G. Dankel and
J. L. Brown
T. G. Dankel
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 601 S College Road, Wilmington, NC 28403 emails: dankel@uncwil.edu brownj@uncwil.edu
J. L. Brown
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 601 S College Road, Wilmington, NC 28403 emails: dankel@uncwil.edu brownj@uncwil.edu
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Extract

In this paper we analyse a game that was published in the 1996 Burger King Kid’s Club calendar. This calendar included an activity for each month, and for the month of September the activity was called the Mountain Bike Rally. To begin the game, each player places a marker on day 1. A turn consists of each player flipping a fair coin. Each player whose coin comes up heads moves his marker forward one day. If a player’s coin shows tails, then he moves his marker back one day, unless his marker is on day 1, in which case it stays there. The object is to be the first player to reach square 31. We never played the game because it was clear that it would take a long time to complete.

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Articles
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The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 88 , Issue 511 , March 2004, pp. 57 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 2004

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