text: this is a very tough math question! i need help!? heres the question my math teacher gave me:  this is a game for 2 people: taking alternate turns, choose a whole number from 1 to 8. keep a running total. (for example, if you pick 2 and your opponent picks 6, the total is now 8. then maybe you pick 5, so now the total is 13, and so on.) the object of the game is to make the score exactly 64 on your turn. (if it were your turn and the running total at that point was 62, you would say 2, making the score 64, and you are the winner.) you are going to choose the first number.  what number should you pick to gaurantee a win for yourself, and what strategy should you follow? sunil gives a very good explanation of what is going on, though that last step was a little vague to understand.  here's what i would do:  pick 1 (1) opponent picks 1-8 (2-9) pick however many are needed to get the total to 10 (10) opponent picks 1-8 (11-18) pick however many are needed to get the total to 19 (19) opponent picks 1-8 (20-27) pick however many are needed to get the total to 28 (28) opponent picks 1-8 (29-36) pick however many are needed to get the total to 37 (37) opponent picks 1-8 (38-45) pick however many are needed to get the total to 46 (46) opponent picks 1-8 (47-54) pick however many are needed to get the total to 55 (55) opponent picks 1-8 (56-63) pick however many are needed to get the total to 64 (64)  you win!!  again, this is essentially the same strategy as sunil provided, except this gives you a step by step breakdown of the entire game.