Camel and Bananas

[Ghost Post]

A camel has to get as many bananas from town A to town B.
Distance between A and B is 1000km. The camel eats 1 banana for every 1km travelled. There are 10000 bananas at town A but the camel can't hold more than 1000 bananas at once.
What is the maximum number of bananas which can be transported to town B.

Dazza

[mathgrant]

None, because all the bananas are in the wrong forum.

[Quailman]

Hey, you're only the second Icelander we've seen in the Grey Labyrinth! Welcome! Hvernig gengur?


Oh, and don't mind mathgrant. Just tell him "Éttu skít og þegiðu!"

This puzzle would be more appripriate in the "Visitor Submitted Puzzles" forum.

[Marvin]

If he sets off from GLP with 1000 bananas and the distance to VSP is 1000km, he'll just be polishing off the last one and throwing away the skin by the time he gets there, no?

[Quailman]

But, he could take 1,000, go 333 km, drop off 334, and return. Do this 10 times, but don't return the last time and you'd have (334 x 10) + 333, or 3,673 bananas 667 short of your goal. This, or a variant, was an official GL puzzle a while back.

[Ghost Post]

oops, yes I got the wrong forum. Apologies all.
I will try again in the right one.
Thanks for the Icelandic welcome. Ertu Íslenskur?

Dazza

[Ghost Post]

Quailman, you are on the right track. It is just a case of finding the optimum distance to travel each leg. You will find that if you travel a shorter distance you will have more bananas to show for your effort. For instance, travelling 200km dropping off 600 bananas 9 times and 800 the last time, will give you 6200 bananas at the 200km mark whereas if you go 100km first and then another 100km you can get 6300 bananas at the 200km mark(and that was with leaving 100 bananas at the 100km mark.

Dazza

[Sofis]

Quailman's not Icelandic - he's simply got a bizarre fascination with online translators .

[Ghost Post]

Using jen Aside's reasoning for an answer to the same question with only 3000 bananas at the beginning I get 1145 bananas.

Dazza

[mith]

question: i am wondering if this is a bit different from the "hole-in-sack" version. since hte camel is eating the bananas, are we required to have bananas for the camel to eat at all times?

[Jen Aside]

I thought both were pretty fatuous puzzle setups. The most "realistic" setting I could concoct related to this was a gasoline truck (truck needs gas to drive) that got one mile to the gallon (yikes!), and it needs to transport gas to a filling station 1000 miles away, with gas stations every relevant mile to pick up or drop off... but it's still pretty farfetched.

[Ghost Post]

Mith, yes you are supposed to have bananas for the camel to eat at all times - the camel is not allowed to eat 10 bananas in one go and in advance for the following 10 km for instance.

Jen aside, are you not getting too involved?! you don't need to make it realistic - it's just a bizarre set up for the sake of a mathematical problem.

What do you reckon on my answer?

dazza

[Ghost Post]

I meant, what do you reckon on my answer to the problem -1145 bananas. Can it be beaten?

Dazza

[Jen Aside]

But what is the purpose of a puzzle without application? What possible use is there for "It is greater than God, worse than the Devil..." except as an annoying chestnut?

[Sofis]

The purpose of a puzzle with no real world application is to contort our minds into new and interesting shapes, of course . That's why we don't like chestnuts - those shapes are no longer new, and many of them weren't even interesting to begin with.

[This message has been edited by Sofis (edited 12-15-2001).]

[Ghost Post]

'if a puzzle wasnt there to be solved, why would it need to exist?'
good old einstein eh...

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leave me alone you terrible people, YOU SUCK

[This message has been edited by johnny4444 (edited 12-15-2001).]