There are 5 pirates on a ship - the captain, 1st mate, navigator, cook and cabin boy, in order of descending rank. These pirates are all motivated by the same things, in order:
- Self preservation trumps all.
- Greed. They would do anything to get one extra piece of gold, short of giving up their lives.
- Bloodlust. They enjoy seeing other people die, and if it doesn't cost them anything, they'd just as soon see their own comrades snuff it.
- The lowest ranked pirate (the cabin boy) will make a proposal of how to split the gold.
- The pirates will vote on the plan
- If the plan wins by a clear majority (no ties!) the plan will be implemented.
- If the plan fails to gain a clear majority, the person who proposed it will walk the plank, and they return to step 1 with the next ranking pirate.
After the proposal and voting - who is still alive, and how much money do they have?
I won't post the solution... just yet... :)
(Hattip - Sruli Shaffren who introduced me to this riddle)
2 comments:
Shall I post a solution? :-)
I've got lots more puzzles...
My blog has become a de-facto recipe repository.
Sruli gave me some more links:
On Wikipedia is a more formal statement and solution of this puzzle.
And here is a more formal analysis of this puzzle from Scientific American.
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