Here the promised proof.

An algorithm A was shown to calculate the min_max of a set of 100 sortable elements in a set C in o(A,C) = 148 comparisons. It was maintained that this solution is optimal.

I'm shying away from a full formal proof, because of

A sketch should be sufficient, feel free to ask if something is unclear

<Reveal this spoiler or all in this thread>

Cheers Rolf
(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
see Wikisyntax for the Monastery

In reply to Re: 1. Go compare! Guardian's algortithm riddle and mathematical proof (PROOF) by LanX
in thread 1. Go compare! Guardian's algortithm riddle and mathematical proof by LanX

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