The following query has been mentioned right here however not one of the solutions is appropriate. Even Celtschk’s reply is inaccurate when j=2 and three and 6 are the jokers. More than that, I could not clearly perceive the logic behind his reply.

I’m on the lookout for somebody to clarify to me, Celtschk’s logic or to offer a brand new reply through which not solely the tactic, but in addition the thought course of/the logic behind the reply is clearly talked about.

I’ve spent near 4 hours in first making an attempt to resolve it myself after which in making an attempt to grasp Celtschk’s logic however failed in each the circumstances. I’ve additionally been commenting on the varied posts of the unique thread since August 2022, searching for additional clarification, however no one has replied within the affirmative.

Anyway, right here is the query:

You are misplaced on the town and are available throughout a line of $j$ jokers and $okay$ knights. You do not know who’s who, however all of them know the identities of one another. A knight all the time tells the reality to a yes-no query, whereas a joker can say both sure or no (and can say one of many two). Your objective is to determine one knight by asking one yes-no query to every of the primary $j$ folks within the line. (Note the primary $j$ folks within the line is a unknown mixture of knights and jokers.)

As you may guess, it’s simpler to determine a knight if there are extra knights; so your job is less complicated for bigger values of $okay$. For a given $j$, what’s the smallest worth of $okay$ that means that you can determine a knight?

(Make certain you do not ask a query that could be unimaginable for the individual to reply.)