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A change from jokes (and vigilantes' BS posts): an Enigma

PostPosted: Tue May 17, 2005 7:08 pm
by magikthrill
Ok heres a riddle for you guys:

A donkey needs to transport 1000 apples to a village 1000km away.

If the donkey eats 1 apple for every 1km what is the maximum amount of apples he can bring to the village for the farmer to sell?

(Hint: He can drop off apples on his way and they will not be stolen or rotten)

PS this was the only problem i got right from my first 5 hw assigments in my senior design class :)

PostPosted: Tue May 17, 2005 7:29 pm
by magikthrill
dont you know BUMP it up youve got to BUMP it up

ignore the dumba$$ and start scratchin your heads :)

PostPosted: Tue May 17, 2005 9:45 pm
by Marinella
When you going to post the answer?

I'm tempted to say there won't be any apples left, but I know it's a trick question so that's got to be wrong.

How many apples? :?

PostPosted: Tue May 17, 2005 11:06 pm
by Piratis
Don't you also have to tell us how many apples the donkey can carry?

Can it do the route more than once?

PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2005 1:38 am
by magikthrill
ooooops

piratis is a clever man.

yes the donkey can carry up to 1000 apples at a time.

he can make as many routes as he wants that will lead to the most apples in the end.

as long as he has an apple for every kilometer he walks he will be fine.

no answer posting until someone comes up with something!

PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2005 2:34 am
by metecyp
We need more explanation here. You said the donkey can make as many routes as he wants as long as he has 1 apple per 1 km, correct? And then you said he can carry up to 1000 apples a time. So there has to be a place where the donkey has to reload apples if he's making multiple routes and he runs out of apples, right? Where does this reloading happen? Anywhere?

PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2005 3:39 am
by Saint Jimmy
The farmer can take to the village 334 apples to sell. In the meantime, ultimately selling these 334 apples will have cost him 1666 apples.

My thinking is based on the hint MK gave us.
If the farmer throws one apple on the roadside per kilometer while the donkey walks, then the first batch of 1000 apples can take him up to 333 km along the way, before the donkey has to return because the apples will have run out. So, the donkey eats 333 apples on the way to the village, 333 on the way back, and 334 are left on the roadside.
Route 2: the donkey eats the apples on the road, until the 334th km has been covered, and then it starts eating from the batch it's carrying. That means it'll need another 666 apples to go all the way, and the farmer can sell the 334 remaining ones.

But then, how does the donkey go back to the first village? Oh, I know: the farmer sells the donkey at the village, too, dumps his wife and spends all the money at the local whorehouse! :P

PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2005 7:22 am
by magikthrill
jimmy thats it. of course you also noticed the fact that i meant 2000 apples instead of 1000!

sorry about that guys :oops:

so the answer to your question metecyp is that you have to determine where these apples get dropped off since thats the trick to this riddle

:)

PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2005 7:41 am
by Saint Jimmy
ΟΚ, so here's one from me:

You got two pieces of rope that are of unequal length and uneven thickness. Each rope's thickness is not uniform across its length.
All you know about these ropes is that each burns in exactly one hour.

The task is, using the two ropes and a matchbox, establishing a time period of exactly 90 minutes.

PostPosted: Wed May 18, 2005 8:42 am
by Christie
You burn one rope, then you burn the second from both ends?..