Once upon a time, a gang of five pirates sailed the ocean. They were
numbered from 1 to 5, according to their rank. They all had four
important qualities:

They were very greedy
Bloodthirsty
Extremely smart (at least for a pirate)
They liked life
One day they captured the treasure of their life: a big bag with 1000
diamonds. All diamonds were exactly the same.

The moment they got this treasure, they also got a problem: how to
divide it? They came up with the following procedu

Starting with pirate #5, they each made a proposal for the division of
the diamonds.
After each proposal all the pirates voted.
If the majority of the pirates accepted the proposal, they divided the
diamonds as proposed.
If the proposal was not accepted, the proposing pirate was thrown of
the ship (as the lunch of the local shark family) and the next pirate
could make his proposal.

What was the proposal of pirate #5?

Joe wrote:
Starting with pirate #5, they each made a proposal for the division of
the diamonds.
After each proposal all the pirates voted.
If the majority of the pirates accepted the proposal, they divided the
diamonds as proposed.
If the proposal was not accepted, the proposing pirate was thrown of
the ship (as the lunch of the local shark family) and the next pirate
could make his proposal.

What was the proposal of pirate #5?


Throw Pirates #1 & #2 to the sharks & divvy up the diamonds
300 to #5 and 350 each to #3 and #4.

This maximises the gain of the 3 surviving pirates with a
bonus to #3 & 4 to get them to vote for this proposal.

Of course, Pirate #2 was no fool and had a six-shooter under
the table. He missed twice but still got the dirty *******s
who voted to throw him to the sharks. Unfortunately he got a
virulent strain of STD from the wench he gave some of the
diamonds to.

DSK

You are not greedy or bloodthirsty enough to be a pirate Doug.

ye failed miserably!


Joe

Look it up on the web:

http://www.cs.vu.nl/~mathijs/brainte..._solution.html

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
Once upon a time, a gang of five pirates sailed the ocean. They were
numbered from 1 to 5, according to their rank. They all had four
important qualities:

They were very greedy
Bloodthirsty
Extremely smart (at least for a pirate)
They liked life
One day they captured the treasure of their life: a big bag with 1000
diamonds. All diamonds were exactly the same.

The moment they got this treasure, they also got a problem: how to
divide it? They came up with the following procedu

Starting with pirate #5, they each made a proposal for the division of
the diamonds.
After each proposal all the pirates voted.
If the majority of the pirates accepted the proposal, they divided the
diamonds as proposed.
If the proposal was not accepted, the proposing pirate was thrown of
the ship (as the lunch of the local shark family) and the next pirate
could make his proposal.

What was the proposal of pirate #5?

U sumbich.... thats cheating....

Capt. JG wrote:

Look it up on the web:

http://www.cs.vu.nl/~mathijs/brainte..._solution.html



But that's wrong.

They approach the vote backwards which means that the
proposal which should be first is actually last. That's why
my proposal was to eliminate #1 and #2.

The problem can be solved by approaching the vote in the
right order: Perhaps #3 and #4 might want a larger cut to
vote in favor, but then #4 faces the prospect of his
proposal getting deadlocked, which means he's shark food.

Then #3 gets to propose the same deal as I did for #5,
namely a bigger cut to #2 to get him to go along with voting
against #1.

So with all due respect to Mathijs den Burger, his solution
is wrong. Why would Pirate #2 and #3 vote for his proposal
which gives them little or nothing? By voting no & waiting,
they satisfy both bloodthirstiness & greed.

DSK

Not really... I've heard it before..

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
U sumbich.... thats cheating....

You are truly bloodthirsty. :-)

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"DSK" wrote in message
...
Capt. JG wrote:

Look it up on the web:

http://www.cs.vu.nl/~mathijs/brainte..._solution.html



But that's wrong.

They approach the vote backwards which means that the proposal which
should be first is actually last. That's why my proposal was to eliminate
#1 and #2.

The problem can be solved by approaching the vote in the right order:
Perhaps #3 and #4 might want a larger cut to vote in favor, but then #4
faces the prospect of his proposal getting deadlocked, which means he's
shark food.

Then #3 gets to propose the same deal as I did for #5, namely a bigger cut
to #2 to get him to go along with voting against #1.

So with all due respect to Mathijs den Burger, his solution is wrong. Why
would Pirate #2 and #3 vote for his proposal which gives them little or
nothing? By voting no & waiting, they satisfy both bloodthirstiness &
greed.

DSK