Least number of comparisons to identify 6 numbers with values from 1 to 6 (without repetition) Variabled $x_1, \dots, x_6$ have hidden, distinct integer values from [$1,\dots,6$]. How to identify each variable's value with minimum number of comparison operations?
According to Wikipedia, the minimum number of comparisons needed to sort 6 numbers is 10. The lower bound follows from the usual decision tree argument.