Four persons , , , and are playing a game of cyclic transfer. goes first, and gives of what he has to . Next, gives of his new amount to . Next, gives of his new amount to player , and finally, gives of his new amount to player . At the end of all this, the four players check the amounts they have. Player finds that he has lost of what he had initially. Players and ended up with the same amounts they started with. What was the percentage of the gain that player made compared to his initial amount?
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Let the amounts the four players have initially and after the game be a 0 , b 0 , c 0 , and d 0 ; and a 1 , b 1 , c 1 , and d 1 respectively. Then
⎩ ⎪ ⎪ ⎪ ⎨ ⎪ ⎪ ⎪ ⎧ b 1 c 1 d 1 a 1 = 0 . 8 ( 0 . 2 a 0 + b 0 ) = 0 . 8 ( 0 . 0 4 a 0 + 0 . 2 b 0 + c 0 ) = 0 . 8 ( 0 . 0 0 8 a 0 + 0 . 0 4 b 0 + 0 . 2 c 0 + d 0 ) = 0 . 8 a 0 + 0 . 2 ( 0 . 0 0 8 a 0 + 0 . 0 4 b 0 + 0 . 2 c 0 + d 0 )
Since
a 1 = 0 . 9 a 0 b 1 = b 0 c 1 = c 0 ⟹ − 0 . 0 9 8 4 a 0 + 0 . 0 0 8 b 0 + 0 . 0 4 c 0 − 0 . 8 d 0 = 0 ⟹ 0 . 1 6 a 0 − 0 . 2 b 0 = 0 ⟹ 0 . 0 3 2 a 0 + 0 . 1 6 b 0 − 0 . 2 c 0 = 0 . . . ( 1 ) . . . ( 2 ) . . . ( 3 )
( 2 ) : ( 3 ) : ( 1 ) : b 0 = 0 . 2 0 . 1 6 a 0 c 0 = 0 . 2 ( 0 . 0 3 2 + 0 . 8 × 0 . 1 6 ) a 0 d 0 = 0 . 8 ( − 0 . 0 9 8 4 + 0 . 8 ( 0 . 0 0 8 + 0 . 0 4 ) ) a 0 ⟹ b 0 = 0 . 8 a 0 ⟹ c 0 = 0 . 8 a 0 ⟹ d 0 = 0 . 3 a 0
Then
d 1 = 0 . 8 ( 0 . 0 0 8 a 0 + 0 . 0 4 b 0 + 0 . 2 c 0 + d 0 ) = ( 0 . 0 0 6 4 + 0 . 0 2 5 6 + 0 . 1 2 8 + 0 . 2 4 ) a 0 = 0 . 4 a 0
Therefore d 0 d 1 − d 0 = 0 . 3 a 0 0 . 4 a 0 − 0 . 3 a 0 = 3 1 ≈ 3 3 . 3 % .