On the Chances of Completing the Game of "Perpetual Motion"

2009/07/11 by Matthew C. Clarke, Clarke, Matthew C.
Computer Science · #Computer Science and Game Theory (cs.GT) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #I.6.8 #cs.GT

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0907.1955

3 pages, 3 figures

arxiv created 2009/07/11 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01

Abstract

This brief paper describes the single-player card game called "Perpetual Motion" and reports on a computational analysis of the game's outcome. The analysis follows a Monte Carlo methodology based on a sample of 10,000 randomly generated games. The key result is that 54.55% +/- 0.89% of games can be completed (by a patient player!) but that the remaining 45.45% result in non-terminating cycles. The lengths of these non-terminating cycles leave some outstanding questions.

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