Pionocchio and Geppetto play a liar's game with polynomial values
Source: Francophone 2024, Senior P1
April 4, 2024
algebrapolynomialalgebra proposedgame
Problem Statement
Let and be two fixed positive integers. Pinocchio and Geppetto know the values of and and play the following game: In the beginning, Pinocchio chooses a polynomial of degree at most with integer coefficients. Then Geppetto asks him questions of the following form "What is the value of ?'' for . Pinocchio usually says the truth, but he can lie up to times. What is, as a function of and , the minimal number of questions that Geppetto needs to ask to be sure to determine , no matter how Pinocchio chooses to reply?