Linked Questions
12 questions linked to/from A camel transporting bananas
3
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Sell the fuel and become a Millionaire [duplicate]
You are living in the 22nd century. The fuel prices are unimaginably high and it is very rare to get, so the Government has introduced some new laws to control fuel smuggling.
Rule 1: One cannot ...
- 14.5k
2
votes
1
answer
221
views
Crossing desert with smallest amount of water [duplicate]
A man who lives in a desert sends his servant out to collect the flag which is 4 miles away from the man's home. To survive the servant must drink 1 litre of water on every mile he walks (so the ...
- 29
0
votes
0
answers
146
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Riddle: how many bottles? [duplicate]
A guy is called upon by the king.
The king wants to throw a party, but he doesn't have any wine left.
The guy promises the king that he will deliver as many bottles as he can.
He will go on foot, for ...
24
votes
7
answers
4k
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What is the minimum number of helpers that an explorer need to cross the desert?
There is a desert which can be crossed only by walking and this takes six days. The explorers of the desert can carry at most four days' water and food. If they want, they can take helpers with them. ...
- 517
22
votes
7
answers
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How much water do you need to cross the desert?
This question is inspired by Terry Pratchett's "Small Gods," in which an army crosses a vast desert by making multiple trips and caching water along the way.
1. Provide an answer.
2. I doubt I'm the ...
- 533
27
votes
4
answers
9k
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How do you solve a word puzzle when you have no idea where to start?
When you're looking at a logical word puzzle, what sorts of clues should you try to look for to solve them? There have been quite a few puzzles posted to this site so far that I spent a few minutes ...
- 2,533
9
votes
4
answers
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Travellers across a desert
This is a problem I once found in a math textbook a tutor used with me.
A group of explorers is trying to get from their base camp to another camp which is eight days' walk through the desert.
...
user88
4
votes
2
answers
610
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Man selling sheep
A man with 90 sheep wants to sell them in a market 30km away from his farm. He went searching for trucks to load his sheep and he found out that every truck can carry 30 sheep at a time, but he will ...
- 63
19
votes
1
answer
767
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Spot that puzzle
This diagram solves an occasionally seen member
of a well-known family of optimization puzzles.
Spots ● generalize a component
that is represented variously in different statements of these puzzles.
...
- 22k
3
votes
2
answers
475
views
What's the minimum number of airplanes needed for one to make a round-the-world trip?
Inspired by this puzzle.
You have many airplanes starting at the same airport. Each plane has a fuel tank that holds just enough fuel to allow the plane to travel $\frac{1}{10}$ the distance around ...
- 6,976
4
votes
2
answers
516
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Variation of Jeep problem, don't know how to minimize the fuel? [duplicate]
You have a car that has a tank that can store $1$ unit of fuel. You need to get to a destination $1.5$ units of distance away. The car travels $1$ unit of distance on $1$ unit of fuel. You can deposit ...
- 319
2
votes
1
answer
225
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How many toy cars can you get to Matchbox town? [closed]
You have the task of transporting 5000 toy cars to the kids in Matchbox town.
However, your semi can only hold 2500 toy cars, and you have to give up one toy car every two miles to a kid on the way ...
- 133