Math 2.0

Concept

Cayley's mousetrap

Summary

Mousetrap is the name of a game introduced by the English mathematician Arthur Cayley. In the game, cards numbered 11 through nn ("say thirteen" in Cayley's original article) are shuffled to place them in some random permutation and are arranged in a circle with their faces up. Then, starting with the first card, the player begins counting 1,2,3,...1, 2, 3, ... and moving to the next card as the count is incremented. If at any point the player's current count matches the number on the card currently being pointed to, that card is removed from the circle and the player starts all over at 11 on the next card. If the player ever removes all of the cards from the permutation in this manner, then the player wins. If the player reaches the count n+1n+1 and cards still remain, then the game is lost.

Further reading

  1. Wikipedia, page 9380313, revision 1258129802, Cayley's mousetrap. adopted
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Aliasescayley-mousetrap
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Changed4 November 2026

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