joel@decwrl.UUCP (Joel McCormack) (03/06/85)
Guessing "wrong" answers in Mastermind can indeed get you to the answer
sooner than guessing only right answers.
If you have all colors/positions perfect but one, guessing only right answers
will let you test out one color at a time. Deliberately guessing a wrong
answer allows you to test two colors - by the answer you know if none, the
one in the known position, or the one in the known position is correct.
This situation appears in real life most frequently when colors are allowed
to be duplicated, and when there are a lot of colors (like bagels, which is 3
positions of 10 "colors" (digits)).
--
- Joel McCormack {ihnp4 decvax ucbvax allegra}!decwrl!joel
joel@decwrl.arpa