[frookenhauer]

What he says to ben and charles is that if he has to eat a poison apricot then daniel and edward will get the majority vote and make sure ben and charles eat the apricot too. So he proposes that they take 15 each while he takes 20. Its only fair.

[Sir Thursday]

@Frook: Nope, he can get more than 20. I did say they weren't allowed to make alliances, but even then, I don't see why Ben would accept the deal. As I've said, he can cut Angus out of it and propose his own method of splitting the money. Put it this way - if Angus can get a certain amount of the loot, then it follows that Ben should be able to get at least that much for himself.

@Baudin: Where are you getting that the last two will only vote for Angus if he gives them more than 25? You've got to remember - the pirates are completely rational and selfish. They have no concept of fairness - they don't care how much the other get, as long as they maximise their share. Don't think about splitting things evenly, that has nothing to do with how they think.

And a general hint for everyone: start from the other end. Let's assume everyone votes no unless they're voting for their own method? What happens? And given that outcome, how do people change their votes to improve their share?


Sir Thursday

[Giles]

Yeah im worj=king from the over en giving the people numbers 5-1 starting from A being 5 to 1, a being 5 and e being 1. start with with ech person having a maximum possible chance of player/nnumber. thats where i got that the last to would only really vote no whatever Angus said

[Sir Thursday]

Hmm...see I don't think that's quite true. Remember that you only need 1/2 the votes for a majority if there are an even number of people left. /hint

[Giles]

ahhh, so Angus cant possibly get anyhting, as the maximum B and C would want is 25. so for Angus to live it would have to be 0,25,25?

This post has been edited by baudin: 19 February 2009 - 12:32 PM

[dktorode]

This one is...tricky.
Is there any way to be sure?

[Hinter]

Off topic but....DKT! Your avatar! Its.....not....right! Is nothing sacred any more?

This post has been edited by Hinter: 19 February 2009 - 03:13 PM

[dktorode]

Hinter, on Feb 19 2009, 05:12 PM, said:

Off topic but....DKT! Your avatar! Its.....not....right! Is nothing sacred any more?

he clearly stole the mask

[Sir Thursday]

baudin, on Feb 19 2009, 12:32 PM, said:

ahhh, so Angus cant possibly get anyhting, as the maximum B and C would want is 25. so for Angus to live it would have to be 0,25,25?

Nope. Angus can get gold - as I've said, he can get more than 20.

You say that that maximum B and C would want is 25 - why do you make this assertion? You're still hung up on distributing the coins evenly. That is not what the pirates want - they want as much gold as possible. Fair distribution does not come into it. If an even split is proposed, then there will be those who vote no because they feel they can get more. On the other hand, they will take what they can get - if it seems like they might get nothing, they'll accept any better offer that comes along. And that's what you have to exploit to find the solution to the puzzle.


Sir Thursday

[Giles]

Yes but if Ben and Charlie vote no to Angus, he dies and then if B proposes that he and C get 25 each and they both agree then thats what happens, so theres no way B or C will except less than 25 from Angus by my reckoning

[Sir Thursday]

baudin, on Feb 19 2009, 03:26 PM, said:

Yes but if Ben and Charlie vote no to Angus, he dies and then if B proposes that he and C get 25 each and they both agree then thats what happens, so theres no way B or C will except less than 25 from Angus by my reckoning

If A dies, B has no reason to propose an even split - he could get more than 25. In fact, he won't necessarily give C any - he could just as easily propose a method that splits with D or E. So C is not necessarily going to vote no if he gets less than 25, nor is B necessarily going to vote yes if he gets more than 25.


Sir Thursday

This post has been edited by Sir Thursday: 19 February 2009 - 03:30 PM

[Tira]

D and E get one gold each and A takes the rest because if they vote A off, B and C would share the gold between each other?

Edited for size...

This post has been edited by Tira: 19 February 2009 - 04:55 PM

[Giles]

oooh clever

[Slow Ben]

Wouldnt D vote no to everything since if it gets down to him he's last and he gets ALL the money.

[Giles]

no i think Tira has a point, B and C could split it between themsleves easily once A is gone so it wont get down to D

[Tira]

Feel free to post a new riddle if this turns out to be right (somehow I doubt it...), I'll be away this evening.

[frookenhauer]

*throws his hands up in despair*

"Wibble!"

While we are waiting to finally work out infectious diseases riddle here is a quick intellingence test. Read the following passage once and only once and then tell me how many F's you found

Spoiler

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE-
SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIF-
IC STUDY COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.

Spoilerise your answers so you don't spoil it for others

[Slow Ben]

Spoiler

3

Wanted to re-read but resisted the temptation

This post has been edited by Slow Ben: 19 February 2009 - 07:33 PM

[Giles]

Spoiler

3 , after rereading i know this is wrong, so i can see why your only allowed to read it once

I assume theres probably something that i missed

This post has been edited by baudin: 19 February 2009 - 07:36 PM

[frookenhauer]

if it makes you feel any better I did the same thing and got the same answer.

I felt really dumb after I had a 'thorough' read through

Have another look Ben, you'll be really surprised