But isn't it rather convenient that 2^10=1024? With 2000 bottles of wine and 10 rats, you'd be in a little pickle. Granted this is a very clever solution but I feel like the problem was written such that it was designed for such a solution.
If the killer got to one bottle, they could have gotten to all of them.
The whole batch is compromised, and no amount of mathematical wizardry changes the fact that all of them should be disposed of.
You don't need that many bottles of wine to have a party. 10 rats will give 9 bottles of non poisoned wine at least, which is good enough for a 10-25 person dinner party.
Some animals can metabolize certain poisons more easily than others. But rats are commonly used to test poisons, and the ld/50 I listed was specifically for arsenic to rats.
Divide the bottles in 10 groups of 100. Mix small amounts together from each group of 100 to make 10 seperate wine mixtures (one would have poison ) and make the rats drink it. Which ever group of 100 that made the rat die should not be served to this ridiculously big party.
Well i doubt you are even gonna need 1,000 bottles of wine unless you invited everyone within 5 miles of you (depending on where you live) sooo i think it would be fine. Also, since poison changes the stuff around it (rattlesnake venom post for example) and people being super picky about previously opened bottles i think you would be fine.
Yes i know that but wine is flammable. A lot of poison burns. That would mean (depending on the poison) that the moment you open the bottle the wine would start on fire. Also i was just using the rattlesnake venom as an example. I never said it would be exactly like that.
Just because poison reacts with certain substances doesn't mean that it'll react with the alcohol and set it on fire. I don't know too many poisons that will do that, other than some substances which are too volatile to be feasibly used as poison. Cyanide or arsenic are good enough to poison wine.
The whole batch is compromised, and no amount of mathematical wizardry changes the fact that all of them should be disposed of.