Combinatorics – Solving a Problem with Kids and Candies

combinatorics

my question

A, B, C, D, E and F are six children. These children are distributed n candies, n a natural number, so that: each gets at least one candy, A gets less than B, B less than C, C less than D, and D less than E. All children know these rules, they know value of n and, of course, they know how many candies they have received but themselves. They have no other information. What is the smallest value for which the n candies can be distributed so that none of the six children can know how the candies were distributed?

my idea

I tried solving this problem trying more and more combinations of numbers, until i found the right one.

For $n$ to be minimum, $F$
MUST be 1

Also,
$A<B<C<D<E$

The answer i got is when $n=23$ and the number of candies each kid got is $1,1,3,5,6,7$, this after trying all the variants

My question is if my idea and answer is right. Also, how can i demonstrate this answer without tries?

Thank you! Hope one of you can help me!

Best Answer

I'm going to write a solution which proves that the smallest value of $n$ is $19$.

First of all, $n$ has to satisfy $$n\gt 1+2+3+4+5+1=16$$ So, we have to have $n\ge 17$.

Here, let us write all the possibilities of $A+B+C+D+E\le 17$.

There are only four cases.

$$1+2+3+4+5=\color{blue}{15}$$ $$1+2+3+4+6=\color{blue}{16}$$ $$1+2+3+4+\color{red}7=17$$ $$1+2+3+\color{red}5+6=17$$

For $n=17$, $F$ can know how the candies were distributed because each of $A+B+C+D+E=15,16$ has only one possibility.

So, $n\not=17$.

For $n=18$, if $F=2$ or $3$, then $F$ can know how the candies were distributed because each of $A+B+C+D+E=15,16$ has only one possibility.

For $n=18$, if $E=7$, then $E$ can know how the candies were distributed because $E=7$ has only one possibility.

For $n=18$, if $D=5$, then $D$ can know how the candies were distributed because $D=5$ has only one possibility.

So, $n\not=18$.

Now, for $(A,B,C,D,E,F)=(1,2,3,5,6,2)$ where $n=19$, each child has at least two possibilities.

Therefore, the smallest value of $n$ is $\color{red}{19}$.