I think they need to chose one lead prisoner as the person to keep the switch OFF. Anyone who comes in after, if it’s their first time, they flip the switch to ON. Then, they leave. Whoever comes after them, if it’s NOT the lead prisoner, has to leave the light ON. Only the lead can come in to turn it off. Once it’s OFF, if anyone was in there before who switched the light ON, that person CANNOT switch it on. They have to leave it OFF or AS IS (ie. ON - however they found it). Only the person who has not switched it on yet, can flip it back to ON. Then, whoever comes after, cannot switch it OFF unless they are the lead prisoner. So, the key is the lead prisoner. Sorry to explain it so badly. - Fatima
It is asking how many can there be for it to be a good idea for them to accept the challenge. So you have to solve it for an arbitrary number of prisoners - but you can start with 2,3,4,… to try out ideas
I think they need to chose one lead prisoner as the person to keep the switch OFF. Anyone who comes in after, if it’s their first time, they flip the switch to ON. Then, they leave. Whoever comes after them, if it’s NOT the lead prisoner, has to leave the light ON. Only the lead can come in to turn it off. Once it’s OFF, if anyone was in there before who switched the light ON, that person CANNOT switch it on. They have to leave it OFF or AS IS (ie. ON - however they found it). Only the person who has not switched it on yet, can flip it back to ON. Then, whoever comes after, cannot switch it OFF unless they are the lead prisoner. So, the key is the lead prisoner. Sorry to explain it so badly. - Fatima
That’s right
Do we need to know how many prisoners there are for question 2?
The answer depends on the number of prisoners
It is asking how many can there be for it to be a good idea for them to accept the challenge. So you have to solve it for an arbitrary number of prisoners - but you can start with 2,3,4,… to try out ideas
We will be posting the general solution soon so don’t read it till You try to solve it on your own