A question from Kallend...

[speedy 0]

to which I never received an answer

So I'll pose it again

  Quote

8 pirates and a monkey are marooned on an island. The pirates collect coconuts and agree to divide them up in the morning.

During the night a pirate wakes up and thinks his colleagues will steal his share, so he takes and hides 1/8 of the coconutrs, throws a coconut to the monkey, and returns to sleep. Shortly after another pirate wakes up, takes 1/8 of the remaining coconuts and hides them, throws one of the remainder to the monkey, and goes back to sleep.

Then another pirate awakes and does the exact same thing. And then the next, and then the next, etc. until each pirate has done it.

In the morning they share the remaining coconuts equally, and finding a remainder of one, they give it to the monkey.

What is the smallest number of coconuts they could have started with?
...

original post here

Dave

Fallschirmsport Marl

[lawrocket 3]

I'm having a hard time here. Do all of the pirates take exactly 1/8, and is the 1/8 always a whole number?

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[kelel01 1]

Because if it doesn't have to be a whole number, couldn't they theoretically start out with 1/100000th of a cococnut? It would never technically reduce down to 0.

[justinb138 0]

  Quote

I'm having a hard time here. Do all of the pirates take exactly 1/8, and is the 1/8 always a whole number?

That's what it sounds like.

I googled it, but could only find the answer for the same puzzle with 5 pirates...

[kelel01 1]

What was that answer? Was it 8 coconuts and 5 pirates?

[captainbb7 0]

I guess 134,217,721


(stupid minus signs...)

[DJL 235]

The answer is roasted monkey stuffed with coconut.

"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

[MWGemini 0]

Silly Skyblade, coconuts are for monkeys.

[JustChuteMeNow 0]

Kallend I think the answer is that those pirates of yours started with 34 coconuts. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

After all the stealing, there will be 9 coconuts left. Each pirate will get one in the morning as will the monkey. The monkey actually turns out to be the best pirate because in the end he ends up with the lions share of the coconuts. In other words he made a monkey out of the pirates the devious little bastard.

Think of how stupid the average person is and realize that statistically half of them are stupider than that.

[wmw999 2,556]

Spend all damn night counting. The first would still be awake counting when the next woke up. The second would attack the first , all the s would wake up and fight, and kill each other. The s would eat the coconuts and live happily ever after.

the end

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[lawrocket 3]

Ah. But 1/8 of the 34 cocounts is 4.25 after 1 pirate. That's not an integer.

If you round that to 4, then 1/8 of 30 is 3.75. So that would be 26 after two pirates.

1/8 of that is 3.25, so you've now got 23 cocounts after three pirates.

1/8 of 23 is 2.875. leaving 20 after 4 pirates.

1/8 of 20 is 2.5, leaving 17 after 5 pirates.

1/8 of 17 is 2.125, leaving sixteen ater 6 pirates.

1/8 of 16 is two, leaving 14 after 7 pirates.

1/8 of 14 is 1.75, leaving 12 coconuts remaining after 8 pirates have hit the stack of 34.

Thus, it ain't 9. It's 12. If you rounded up all the coconuts, there'd be 8 remaining, leaving none for the monkey instead of one.

One of the problems is that after the first pirate took 1/8 of the 34, the next pirate would take 1/8 of the 29 remaining, and on and on as the dwindling number of cocunuts (or percentage thereof) gradually and assymptotally approaches zero.

I do not agree with your solution of 34 coconuts. When you go through the math it doesn't add up.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[justinb138 0]

This may help...


http://www.puzzle.dse.nl/teasers/coconut_chaos_us.html

[lawrocket 3]

I can calculate one third.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[JustChuteMeNow 0]

Now come on law rocket I wouldn't steer this forum wrong. Remember that the question says that every time the monkey gets a coconut.

Starting with 34 coconuts

34x1/8 = 4.2 34-4-1 for the monkey = 29
29x1/8 = 3.6 29-3-1 for the monkey = 25
25x1/8 = 3.1 25-3-1 for the monkey = 21
21x1/8 = 2.6 21-2-1 for the monkey = 18
18x1/8 = 2.2 18-2-1 for the monkey = 15
15x1/8 = 1.8 15-1-1 for the monkey = 13
13x1/8 = 1.6 13-1-1 for the monkey = 11
and now for the last pirate
11x1/8 = 1.3 11-1-1 for the monkey = 9

They wake up in the morning and they each get one and one for the monkey.

Think of how stupid the average person is and realize that statistically half of them are stupider than that.

[moodyskydiver 0]

ahhh!! too much friggin math in this thread! give all the damn coconuts to the pirates and give beer to the monkey!

"...just an earthbound misfit, I."

[nanook 1]

134217721

_____________________________

"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

[justinb138 0]

134,217,721.



Edit: Keyed in the wrong #.

Edit again: Damnit...I didn't realize someone else had got it....