The Poisoned Wine Bottles
Numbering and Binary: Number the wine bottles from 1 to 1000. Then, convert each bottle number into its binary equivalent. For example:
Bottle 1: 0000000001
Bottle 5: 0000000101
Bottle 1000: 1111101000
Assignment: Assign each of the ten rats a digit position in the binary numbers. e.g the 1st rat to the 1st position, the 2nd rat to the 2nd position and so on...
Wine Sampling: For each bottle of medicine labeled X, all the rats in the positions corresponding to the number 1 in the binary representation of X will be given a sample to drink from that bottle.
Waiting and Observation: After one hour, observe which rats have died. The binary number formed by their assigned digit positions (1 for dead, 0 for alive) will be the decimal number of the poisoned bottle.
Example:
Let's say bottle number 742 is poisoned. In binary, 742 is 1011100110.
Rat 1: Drinks (1)
Rat 2: Doesn't drink (0)
Rat 3: Drinks (1)
Rat 4: Drinks (1)
Rat 5: Drinks (1)
Rat 6: Doesn't drinks (0)
Rat 7: Doesn't drinks (0)
Rat 8: Drinks (1)
Rat 9: Drinks (1)
Rat 10: Doesn't drinks (0)
After an hour, rats 1, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 die. This forms the binary number 1011100110, which converts back to 742 in decimal.