Saturday, January 2, 2010

The Monkey and the Coconuts

Five men and a monkey were shipwrecked on a desert island, and they spent the first day gathering coconuts for food. They piled them all together and went to sleep for the night.

One awakened and, wanting to avoid a fuss in the morning, decided to take his share. So he divided the coconuts into five piles. Having one coconut too many to make five equal piles, he gave the extra coconut to the monkey. After hiding his share, he made a single pile of the remaining coconuts and went back to sleep. (smart monkey - he also hid his coconut)

Each of the other four men did the same procedure, as the first man, at different times during the night. Each hid his share, gave one to the monkey to even the shares, and went back to sleep.

In the morning, each man awakened to find a much smaller pile of coconuts. No one commented on the reduced quantity, because each knew he was guilty.

How many coconuts were in the original pile? ( smallest quantity to satisfy the conditions)

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7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Answer: 3121

Cam

January 2, 2010 9:29 PM  
Anonymous Zaux said...

Cam ... you obviously knew this one

January 2, 2010 9:42 PM  
Anonymous Knightmare said...

i would have got the answer too,but the monkey i was using for this keep on biting me,thus making me spank it.

bad monkey.

January 2, 2010 9:53 PM  
Anonymous Knightmare said...

Hi Zaux

you have been posting like 18 ToMs a day.thanks.keep it up:]

January 2, 2010 9:57 PM  
Anonymous Karl Sharman said...

Yup, 3121 coconuts.

But what happens next? They share they final 1,025 equally - 205 each, with NONE for Knightmare's chastisted monkey

As an interesting aside, the percentage coconuts each takes less than the predecessor is (to 2 dp)
A got 624Coconuts 79.97%
B got 499Coconuts 79.96%
C got 399Coconuts 79.95%
D got 319Coconuts 79.94%
E got 255Coconuts

or rounding to a whole number - 80%

January 3, 2010 5:58 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Keep posting stuff like this i really like it

January 8, 2010 8:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I certain hope Knightmare washed his hands after Spanking the Monkey before touching my coconuts.

January 10, 2010 8:41 AM  

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