Puzzle #17: Poisoning Zombies
Zombies have taken over the world, and you preside over a stronghold with a group of humans trying to build a normal life. You have 1,000 barrels of water to hydrate your people, but your chief scientist comes to you one morning with some disturbing news: there’s been a contamination of the water supply, and one of the 1,000 barrels is now poisonous, but he lost track of which one.
The poisoned water looks and tastes like all of the others, but if anyone drinks even a drop, then they will suddenly fall dead that midnight. You don’t want to risk lives, but since Hollywood has universally agreed that zombies have no moral worth, you are willing to capture and poison them to discover the bad barrel.
Snaring zombies is hard work. What is the fewest number of zombies you’ll need to identify the poisoned barrel by tomorrow?
Find the solution at the bottom of this page.
