Fix positive integers k and n with $k \leq n$ . Numbers $x_0, x_1, x_2, \ldots , x_{n - 1}$ , each equal to $\pm {1}$ , are cyclically arranged (so that $x_0$ follows $x_{n - 1}$ ) in that order. The problem is to find the product $P = x_0x_1 \cdots x_{n - 1}$ of all n numbers by asking the smallest number of questions of the type $Q_i$ : what is $x_ix_{i + 1}x_{i + 2} \cdots x_{i+ k -1}$ ? (where all the subscripts are read modulo n). This paper studies the problem and some of its generalisations.

中文翻译：

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提出问题以确定循环排列数字的乘积

修复正整数ķ和n和$k \leq n$. 数字$x_0, x_1, x_2, \ldots , x_{n - 1}$, 每个等于$\pm {1}$, 是循环排列的（所以$x_0$跟随$x_{n - 1}$） 以该顺序。问题是找到产品$P = x_0x_1 \cdots x_{n - 1}$其中n通过询问该类型问题的最少数量来获得数字$Q_i$： 什么是$x_ix_{i + 1}x_{i + 2} \cdots x_{i+ k -1}$? （所有下标都是取模读取的n）。本文研究了这个问题及其一些概括。