Interestingly, the problem can also be interpreted in terms of communication between computers operating in parallel. In fact, this is the situation in which our problem originally arose. Copyright 1996 by Ivars Peterson. Fan, C. Kenneth, Bjorn Poonen, and George Poonen. How to spread rumors fast.
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Please send messages to Ivars Peterson at . He is the author of The Mathematical Tourist, Islands of Truth, Newton's Clock, and Fatal Defect.