Monday, December 25, 2006

How many conversations?

We have a network of 6 computers that have some pre-loaded software on them that help in conversing with other computers. A conversation means exchange of information between the 2 computers and thus a single conversation helps in both computers knowing what information is present on each of their disks. If at some point of time all the computers have something new to share with the others, then at the most how many conversations should occur between the computers until all of them have all the information? By conjecture how many such conversations should occur at the most for a 'n' connected computer network? Do not assume any relation to an actual computer network problem, hence don't apply your network protocol skills here. Its a pure combinatorics problem!

Difficulty: Medium