Help to solve. I need script of course.

Question

You have 25 horses, what is the minimum number of races you can find the top 3. In one race you can race 5 horses, and you don't have a timer.

Answer 1

answer from@ace and@zapata is not correct

here my approach
after 5 race between 25 horses
here is summary
in race A , all are lined up as 12345 winner is A1
in race B , all are lined up as 12345 , winner is B1
similarly from all cases
we got 5 top racer from 5 races , who are A1 B1 C1 D1 E1

ABCDE
11111
22222
33333
44444
55555

in race A player named as A1 A2......
in race B player named as B1 B2....
.
.
in race E player named as E1 E2 ....

then run a race among the winners(between A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 ) , you will get your no. 1racer ( let you got C1) , total races = 6

then race between A1 B1 C2 D1 E1 , you will get your no. 2 racer (let be C2), total races = 7

[ .... and now here you are wrong @ACE

you simply can't judge the position of 2nd & 3rd racer from 7th race because
let suppose in my 7th race winner is C2 and runner up is A1

so according to you , your top 3 racer are C1 C2 and A1

and what if C3 has better timing than A1 , as we don't know cuz C3 has don't even participate in race 7th race ..... ]

then race between A1 B1 C3 D1 E1 , you will get your no. 3 racer ( let be D1) , total races = 8

HENCE MINIMUM REQUIRED RACES IS. 8

@ 4 rotender , buddy I'm completely from different field , so sorry i can't suggest you programming algorithm for this
hope I'm right, and you get your answer

nice reasoning 😍😍

Answer 2

@ace

I'm also bit sure I'm right

consider this

I'm gonna use a timer here

5 races named A B C D E are here
*() any amount of time , it doesn't matter

6th races in between a1 b1 c1 d1 e1
7th races ib between a1 b1 c2 d1 e1
8th races in between. a1 b1 c3 d1 e1

A. B. C. D. E.
a1(7.1s) b1(4.1s). c1(3s) d1(4s). e1(5s)
a2(6s). b2(7s). c2(3.2s) d2(9s) e2(10s)
a3(11s) b3(12s). c3(3.3s) d3(14) e3(15s)
a4(). b4(). c4(). d4(). e4()
a5(). b5(). c5(). d5(). e5()

so according to this
top 3 must be c1 , c2 , c3

and if I'm not wrong
according to you , using your algorithm
top 3 are c1, c2 , d1

why are answer coming different

correct me if I'm wrong 😮😮😫😫??

Answer 3

I'm not gonna further argue but
sorry to say
explanation you provide on web also wrong

aarshi out....... .

Answer 4

I'm not sure about this but, if I guess the horses have the same time result in all the races.
I have the 15 faster horses in 5 races.
Then I have the 9 faster horses in 3 races.
Then I have 6 faster horses in 2 races.
(Then I put 5 in a race and the (sixth? I don't know how it is written xD) will pass by default.)
I'll have the 4 more faster horses in one race. Then I'll do the last race with the 4 horses.
The sum gave me 12 races