Multiple choice general knowledge math & puzzles

A tennis championship is played on a knock-out basis, i.e., a player is out of the tournament when he loses a match.How many players participate in the tournament if 63 matches are totally played?

  1. 64

  2. 63

  3. 65

  4. 62

Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
A Correct answer
Explanation

In a knockout tournament, each match eliminates exactly one player. With 63 matches played, 63 players are eliminated. To determine the winner, we need one player remaining, so total players = 63 + 1 = 64. This is a fundamental principle of single-elimination tournaments - the total number of players is always one more than the number of matches.

AI explanation

To determine the number of players participating in the tennis tournament, we need to find the maximum number of matches that can be played.

In a knock-out tournament, each match eliminates one player. So, for every match played, one player is out of the tournament.

Let's assume the number of players participating in the tournament is 'n'.

In the first round, there are 'n/2' matches played, where 'n/2' is the total number of players divided by 2. After these matches, half of the players are eliminated.

In the second round, there are 'n/4' matches played, as half of the remaining players are eliminated again.

This pattern continues until there is only one match remaining, which is the final match.

So, the total number of matches played can be calculated using the formula:

Total Matches = (n/2) + (n/4) + (n/8) + ... + 1

We are given that the total number of matches is 63.

Hence, (n/2) + (n/4) + (n/8) + ... + 1 = 63

To simplify this equation, we can multiply both sides by 2:

n + (n/2) + (n/4) + ... + 2 = 126

Now, we can see that this is a geometric progression with a common ratio of 1/2.

Using the formula for the sum of a geometric progression, we have:

Sum = a(1 - r^n) / (1 - r)

where 'a' is the first term, 'r' is the common ratio, and 'n' is the number of terms.

In this case, a = n, r = 1/2, and the sum is 126.

Plugging in these values, we get:

n(1 - (1/2)^n) / (1 - 1/2) = 126

2n - 2^n = 126

To solve this equation, we can observe that when n = 64, the equation holds true:

2(64) - 2^64 = 128 - 1 = 127

So, the number of players participating in the tournament is 64.

Therefore, the correct answer is option A) 64.